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TV Commercials
TVC Costs

tv-advertising-video-production-tvc-costs
Overview
Production process
Testing & Measurement
Creative Considerations
Media buying
TVC Costs
Online advertising

Let’s talk all things numbers, facts figures & the cost!

So, before we jump into the nitty-gritty of costs and budgets, let's first explore some key stats about TV viewership.

The average UK viewer watches total of 3 hours, 3 minutes of TV a day, 16-24s watch over twice as much TV on other devices. 76% of video advertising consumption in the UK is through TV!
‍The Global TV Group, 2020

The Cumulative Effect

TV advertising has a cumulative effect on brand reach, resulting in an average ROI of £4.20 after three years. Despite TV commanding only 54% of the average advertising budget, it delivers a whopping 71% of total advertising-generated profit over three years, Thinkbox Profit Ability study, 2021.

TV together with online advertising

TV advertising can be even more effective when combined with other online advertising. The synergy between TV and online channels will amplify your brand's impact. Running concurrent social media campaigns that complement your TV adverts will encourage viewers to engage with your brand online increasing web traffic, engagement and conversions.

By harnessing the combined power of TV and online video advertising, you can reach your audience across multiple touchpoints, reinforcing your brand message and driving results. A multi-channel approach allows you to maximize the benefits of both traditional and digital advertising methods for a more comprehensive and effective marketing strategy.

Examples of our client TVC's

Brita

Pukka Tea

Nationwide

A guide to the costs of TV advertising  

Put simply getting your brand onto TV consists of two main components: media buying and placement and the production costs for creating the TV advert.
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Buying advertising spots
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Production costs
Buying advertising spots varies based on the channel and the time slot. For instance, smaller digital channels can cost around £70 to £180 for daytime and £160 to £330 for peak time. Meanwhile, premium slots during shows like Good Morning Britain or Lorraine can range between £3,500 and £4,300.
Production costs for TV adverts can vary widely, from £25,000 for a straightforward animated commercial or DRTV approach to £250,000+ for high quality productions with significant talent, sets, props, locations and music.

The Importance of Media Planning

Effective media planning is essential for the success of your TV advertising campaign. It involves selecting TV channels that align with your brand's demographic to optimise your TV advertising costs. Whether you're new to TV media planning or do this regularly, getting some specialist support can be beneficial.

Media Planning Guideline Figures

ITV has a family of channels that help campaigns hit tighter demographics with shows from drama, sitcom, soaps to reality-based output and/or CITV show kids programming. Picking one of the smaller ITV channels can help make the cost of TV advertising more compelling for smaller brands. Whatever your market, there’s probably an ITV channel for you.

Channel 4 also have any array of top-rated shows. Running a channel 4 advert will place your brand alongside shows like Celebrity Hunted, which in 2023 had 1.9m viewers/ 12.1% share (with 25-34's performance up +50%/+231% vs slot average)

Here are average prices for a 30-second TV advert on UK TV networks, although pricing may vary seasonally:
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ITV
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Channel 4
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Channel 5
Advertisements for programmes like “Good Morning Britain” or “Lorraine” range in price from £3,000 to £4,000. Prices climb throughout the day from £3,500 to £4,500peak time advertisementso £33,000.
A 30-second slot on channel 4 daytime TV can cost between £1,100 to £2,200 to peak rates for shows such as Hollyoaks and Catastrophe from £10,000 to £20,000.
Channel 5 offers cost-effective slots, with daytime slots between £800 to £1,600 and peak time ad breaks available for £2,500 to £4,500.

TV advertising is accessible

A study from Thinkbox in 2020 indicated that over 900 advertisers spent less than £50,000 buying TV media. Getting in front of TV audiences is no longer exclusively the domain of well-known brands with large budgets. Advertising your company and products alongside big brands in a TV advert break helps build trust in new to market and growing companies. TV Advertising is a great way to create mass appeal and awareness, crossing the chasm from niche to mainstream.
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Advertising on TV is becoming more accessible and affordable. The lack of platform choice in PPC advertising is driving costs upward, and a single click can now cost over £20.

Bringing it all together

From the numbers, you can see a TV advert campaign running for as little as a few £000's to £30,000. If you want to target a wider audience, you can spend upwards of £200,000 advertising on ITV.

Budgets can go up; if you absolutely must get in front of a vast "I’m A Celebrity" audience, you could be looking at spending millions on media.

A media buyer handles the process of buying advert slots on TV channels. Aspect has close links with many buyers who we use to manage our media buying process. The average cost of getting one person to see your advert in the UK is around 0.6p.

Brita
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221%

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increase in jug sales
...more
Nationwide
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3.1 m

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campaign views online
...more

Advertising with Sky

With smaller viewing figures the cost of advertising on TV with Sky's Adsmart platform is lower with daytime slots costing around £150 to £250, increasing during the peak time from £650 to £1,150. Sky Adsmart allows precise demographic targeting down to individual street level.

TV costs compared to online video

Spot TV advertising (linear and BVOD) averages £7.78 per thousand exposures. YouTube is up to £11.63.  The challenge for other online video is that even though the CPM starting point is low, ad avoidance is easy and is very high (for example, the average in-view time for TikTok is about 3 seconds). As a result the equivalent cost for 30 seconds of viewing time goes through the roof to around £129.

Source: 2022, Thinkbox estimates using AA/WARC, Barb, ViewersLogic, IPA TouchPoints 2022

Tracking your ad’s effectiveness

One of the greatest revolutions in TV advertising has been the innovation in tracking the viewing of TV adverts. Previously the only way to directly measure an ad’s effectiveness was to use an offer code on the endframe, to attribute sales to TV advertising. Advert tracking has now progressed to online software that can determine how well a media plan performs.

It is possible to track the effectiveness of a TV ad campaign and make adjustments to the placements of ads. Tracking software can correlate a TV ad running with hits on a website or an increased sales spike in an E-commerce platform. Making changes to the media plan in the weeks after launch helps get the best ROI.

Bringing it all together

Exploring TV advertising reveals an array of ingredients and strategies for brands to engage their audience effectively. The detailed insights into viewership patterns and advertising costs across UK networks illuminate the path for strategic media planning, catering to a range of budgets and targeting needs. With innovative solutions like Sky AdSmart, TV advertising becomes accessible, allowing for precise targeting without the hefty price tags of traditional methods.

This guide highlights the cumulative effect between TV and digital channels to amplify brand reach and impact. As TV advertising evolves, integrating these diverse platforms offers lots of opportunities for brands to connect with their audience, blending traditional appeal with digital precision for optimal engagement and ROI.

Testing and Measurement

Let's unpack cost measurement and common tv testing techniques, critical factors that ensure your advertising £££'s deliver ROI

Creative
Considerations

From gorillas banging drums to horses thundering over waves, we all have TV adverts that live deep in our memories. That’s because, when done with a flair, TV ads can create pure magic.

Online
Advertising

Learn more about online video advertising which is highly efficient with precision targeting options and data-driven analytics

I got lucky

Said no gold medallist ever.