TV Is More Accessible Than You Think - What We Learned from Sky Media

21 hours ago
5 min read

There's a persistent myth among scaling founders that TV advertising is the preserve of big brands with even bigger budgets. Nike. Pepsi. The kind of names that splash millions on a single campaign and don't flinch.

We recently brought together a group of ambitious founders and marketing leads for a private breakfast with the team at Sky Media to challenge exactly that assumption. What followed was one of the most practical, myth-busting conversations we've had about growth channels - and the honest takeaways are worth sharing.

TV Is Now a Data-Driven, Measurable Channel

One of the biggest misconceptions in the room was that TV can't be measured with the same rigour as digital. The reality has moved on significantly.

Sky works with third-party attribution partners who track the moment a spot airs and then measure the journey from exposure to website visit to sale. You can see which day parts, which creative lengths, and which audience segments are performing, and optimise your spend accordingly.

Sky is also developing a forecasting tool called Project Norman - drawing on over 2,500 aggregated campaign studies - that can benchmark expected response rates for your category before you've spent a penny. For any founder trying to get TV spend signed off internally, this kind of pre-campaign evidence is exactly what changes the conversation.

Addressable TV Gives You Digital-Style Targeting

Broad reach is one thing. But what if you want to target homeowners in specific postcodes? Or target based on age, family status ie young families vs empty nesters and income bands. Or identify households with specific buying habits. Sky's addressable TV product makes this possible.

Because Sky holds rich subscriber data (and partners with third parties like Nectar, Dunnhumby, and Mastercard etc) you can combine your own first-party data with Sky household profiles to serve your ad only to the households most likely to convert. For brands with a specific audience profile, it removes one of the main objections to TV: that you're paying to reach people who will never buy from you.

Hear It From Someone Who's Done It: Tiger Sheds

Sam Jenkinson, Head of Marketing at Woodlands Home and Garden Group (parent company of Tiger Sheds), shared what it actually looked like to bring a scaling brand to TV for the first time.

The decision came from a real business problem: a commoditised, congested market, rising timber costs post-Covid, and digital channels getting increasingly expensive and crowded. TV wasn't a vanity play - it was a strategic move to create differentiation that performance marketing couldn't.

The results were immediate. Web traffic and sales spiked. The halo effect lasted months after the campaign ended. And beyond the consumer impact, being on TV opened doors the team hadn't anticipated: supplier conversations became easier, franchise recruitment improved, and the brand gained a credibility that no amount of PPC could manufacture.

His advice to founders considering it:

"If you're going to do it, commit. Get your measurement in place before you go live. Brief your digital agency on your spot times so they can see the correlation. And make sure you can handle the demand - there's nothing worse than generating awareness for a product you can't supply."

Creative: Invest Once, Use Everywhere

The creative production cost is often what stops founders in their tracks - and it's true that TV creative requires a meaningful upfront investment. But the smartest brands treat it as an asset, not an expense.

Tiger Sheds shot enough footage in their original production for multiple ad lengths, two creative variants, sponsorship idents, and social content. That TV creative is still their most-watched social video today. The production cost, amortised over years of use across every channel, becomes a fraction of what it seemed on day one.

A few practical principles from the discussion:

Think in formats from the start: Shoot for 60s, 30s, and 10s. Budget for sponsorship idents if that's part of your plan. Invest in strong audio and a distinctive sonic identity - a significant portion of TV viewers are listening, not watching. And don't underestimate how much your TV creative can cross-pollinate onto YouTube, social, and even radio.

AI is also beginning to change the economics of creative production, and Sky's own assessment is that the quality has improved enough to be genuinely usable for some brands.

TV Builds Trust in Ways Digital Can't

Several founders at the table - in supplements, food, fashion, financial services and home goods - raised the same underlying question: how do you build genuine consumer trust at scale?

The answer that came back was consistent: TV is the most trusted advertising medium because it signals commitment. Being on television tells a consumer that you're real, regulated, invested, and here for the long term. It's a tacit endorsement that no amount of Instagram spend can replicate.

One founder put it plainly: "If we really want to create brands that people love, we have to do something like TV." For products where trust is load-bearing, that credibility premium is material.

You Can Come Direct (At Least to Start)

One founder asked whether they needed a media agency to work with Sky. The honest answer: not necessarily, at least not initially.

For a first test, Sky can work with you directly - helping you interpret the data, understand which audience segments and day parts performed, and plan what to do next. As campaigns get more complex and the media mix expands, a specialist agency adds more value. But the barrier to entry is lower than most founders assume.

You Can Test TV from £50k

The first question someone asked - "What is small, like, how small?" - got straight to the point. For a meaningful month-long test, enough to understand what TV is driving for your business in terms of web traffic and sales, campaigns through Sky Media can start from around £50k. Brands like Starling, Monzo, and Peloton started at this kind of level. They're now doing full brand partnerships.

The message isn't ‘spend big or don't bother’. It's ‘start smart, test properly, and scale from there’.

The Honest Challenges

The conversation didn't shy away from the friction either.

Getting founder buy-in is genuinely hard, particularly when the business has been built on the measurable certainty of Facebook and Instagram ads. The forecasting tools are improving, but won't have your specific brand in the database yet. And TV rewards commitment. A single campaign rarely shows the full picture. The brands that get the most out of it treat it as a multi-year brand-building programme, not a one-off test.

As Sam summed it up:

"It's like buying a house rather than renting. It's a bigger commitment, but eventually it's yours - and it compounds."

What to Take Away

For scaling founders who've maxed out on paid social and are looking for their next meaningful growth channel, TV is worth a serious look. The measurement capabilities are far more sophisticated than the conventional wisdom suggests. The targeting is closer to digital than you'd expect. And the brand-building impact - the halo on recruitment, supplier relationships, retail conversations, and consumer trust - goes well beyond what shows up in last-click attribution.

If you want to explore it, brief Sky directly with your business objectives and ask to see what the Norman forecasting tool surfaces for your category. You might be surprised.

This event is part of our ongoing programme of private breakfasts with Sky Media, designed to give scaling founders access to honest, practical conversations about alternative marketing channels to drive meaningful growth.

TFN Members can find out more about their opportunities through this dedicated site.

A full recording of our session with Sky Media will be available to watch soon.

Check out more of our upcoming events.