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70 years since the UK’s first TV ad: what’s changed—and how smart brands spend now
On 22 September 1955, at 8:12pm, Britain watched its very first TV advert: a cool, crystalline spot for Gibbs SR toothpaste during the opening night of ITV. It’s a slice of advertising history that still sparks joy for media geeks—have a look at the original clip here on YouTube. Seventy years on, TV remains a powerful channel. But the way people watch—and the way marketers invest—has transformed beyond recognition.
TV still matters—but it’s part of a bigger plan now
Let’s start with the numbers. UK ad spend hit a record £42.6bn in 2024, up 10.4% year-on-year, driven largely by digital growth. AA/WARC via IAB UK and the Advertising Association). Within that total, TV advertising grew to around £5.27bn in 2024 with Marketing Week citing TV £5.27bn and VOD £1.33bn in 2024 here.
At the same time, the digital ad market reached £35.53bn in 2024, up 13%, with online video one of the fastest-growing formats. The takeaway? TV is still big—but the bigger story is the expansion of video and attention across platforms for Social Media.
Audiences have shifted to streaming and mobile
Viewing behaviour explains the budget shift. People in the UK spent 4% less time with broadcast TV in 2024 versus the previous year, averaging 2 hours 24 minutes a day on TV sets; among 16–24s it was just 17 minutes of live TV per day, with platforms like YouTube doing the heavy lifting for video time (Ofcom, 2025 “Tuning into YouTube”). Ofcom’s broader Media Nations 2024 also shows overall video viewing rising, driven by online platforms—video-sharing sites and broadcaster streaming like iPlayer and ITVX—even as broadcast TV reach declines.
For marketers, that means the old “TV first, everything else second” playbook doesn’t match where audiences actually are. The winning approach is multi-platform video: TV + BVOD + YouTube, plus Meta and TikTok—planned together for reach, frequency, and incremental attention.
Why budgets are following the eyeballs
- Scale with precision. Digital video and social now deliver broadcast-level reach and granular controls. On YouTube, advertisers can build audiences by demographics, interests, in-market intent, and life events
- Search + social signals. Google Ads offers demographic layers like age, gender, parental status, and household income (where available) to refine who sees your ads.
- Meta precision. Meta Ads lets you define audiences and apply brand-safety/audience controls to ensure your message lands with the right people.
When you combine these controls with creative that’s tailored to each platform, you reduce waste and increase the odds your budget is spent on the people most likely to act.
So… is TV “over”? Not at all—it’s evolving
A fun 70th-birthday fact: even after a wobble in 2023, UK TV ad investment grew again in 2024 to c. £5.27bn. Brands are still using TV (especially BVOD) for rapid reach and trust building—but they’re activating the rest of the funnel on digital, where targeting, attribution and creative testing are faster and cheaper.
That’s the big difference between 1955 and 2025: we don’t have to choose between TV and digital. We can blend them. For many growth-minded SMEs, the right answer is often digital-first video (YouTube, Meta, TikTok) with the option to layer in BVOD once unit economics prove out.
What this means for your next campaign
- Plan video as one system. Treat TV, BVOD, YouTube, Meta and TikTok as a single reach system with different strengths.
- Build audiences, not just buys. Use demographic and interest layers to shape who sees what (see Google Ads targeting basics here and YouTube audience methods here).
- Test creative fast. Use skippable YouTube and short-form social placements to identify winning hooks and messages before you scale.
- Measure incrementality. Look at how each channel adds unique reach and conversions—not just last-click results.
- Start small, scale smart. With today’s tools, you can prove ROI on modest budgets and then expand with confidence.
Celebrate the past—win in the present
As we toast 70 years since the UK’s first TV ad (Business Insider), we’re operating in a richer, more measurable media world than those early pioneers could imagine. TV still builds brands. But today, streaming, social and mobile let you reach bigger audiences and target more precisely—based on content signals, preferences and age brackets—than any time in history (Ofcom Media Nations 2024; YouTube targeting; Google Ads demographics; Meta audience controls).
Ready to reach the right people on a small scale budget?
We’re a results-driven, affordable agency that plans multi-platform campaigns across YouTube, Meta, TikTok and BVOD—so your spend finds the most valuable audience, not just the biggest one. If you want targeted growth without TV-sized price tags, let’s map a plan you can scale.
Book a free consult today → tell us your goal, audience and budget, and we’ll show you what’s possible.
