In a world of scrolling feeds, six-second videos, personalised algorithms and audiences moving constantly between screens, it is easy to ask whether the traditional television commercial still has a role to play.
According to Penquin, the answer is a resounding yes. While the way audiences consume video has changed dramatically, television continues to offer something that is increasingly difficult to manufacture in a fragmented digital environment: scale, attention and a sense of occasion.
“It’s easy to think of television as yesterday’s medium when so much of the conversation around marketing is focused on algorithms, digital targeting and performance metrics,” says Marnelle Van Der Merwe, Traditional Media Director at Penquin. “But the reality is that audiences haven’t stopped watching television. They are simply watching differently. The opportunity for brands is no longer about choosing between TV and digital; it’s about understanding what each does best and using them together.”
Global viewing trends reinforce that shift. Nielsen’s 2025 analysis found that streaming has grown substantially, while traditional television continues to draw significant audiences, particularly around live sport, popular programming and news.
In South Africa, where television remains an important mass-reach medium, that ability to bring large audiences together remains particularly valuable. The challenge for marketers, however, is not simply getting an audience to see a commercial. It is creating something they remember.
The TVC as the big idea
For Van Der Merwe, the enduring value of the TVC lies in its ability to provide a brand with a powerful creative foundation. “A great TVC gives you a canvas to tell a story, create emotion and establish a memorable brand identity,” she says. “It becomes the big idea from which the rest of the campaign can grow.”
This is particularly relevant for major product launches, where brands need to establish a strong identity quickly and consistently across multiple touchpoints.
The recently produced Suzuki Across campaign by Penquin provides an example of this approach. Built around the campaign line “Across – Move Between Worlds,”the commercial uses the vehicle’s ability to move seamlessly between different environments and lifestyles as a metaphor for navigating an increasingly connected world.
Rather than treating the TV commercial as an isolated piece of advertising, the campaign was developed as a central creative asset capable of extending across the wider media ecosystem.
“Digital is clever, targeted and wonderfully measurable, but it can sometimes feel like shouting through a keyhole,” says Justin Beachcroft-Shaw, Video Production Specialist at Penquin. “Television still gives a brand space, scale and a sense of occasion. It allows an idea to breathe and gives a product the kind of presence that can be difficult to achieve in a fragmented feed.”
The screen may have changed, but the power of storytelling hasn’t
The rise of digital has not made television irrelevant. It has changed the definition of television itself.
Audiences increasingly move between linear broadcast, streaming services, connected TVs, social platforms and online video. Rather than competing for the same audience in isolation, these platforms can work together to create a more connected campaign journey.
Research from Nielsen similarly points to an increasingly cross-platform viewing environment, with audiences choosing where, when and how they consume video rather than adhering to a single format.
That makes the role of the TVC less about being the campaign and more about being the creative anchor. “Today’s strongest campaigns aren’t built around television versus digital,” says Van Der Merwe. “They are built around understanding the role each channel plays. Television can establish emotion, stature and broad awareness, while digital can extend the story, personalise it, encourage interaction and deliver measurable responses.”
The distinction is important. A television commercial can create the initial emotional connection, while shorter edits, social content, digital video, influencer activity, search and other campaign elements can build on that idea in ways tailored to different audiences and platforms.
Making advertising worth watching
There is, however, a caveat: simply putting a campaign on television does not make it effective.
As audiences become more accustomed to scrolling, skipping and switching between content, the creative standard has to rise. Kantar research has previously highlighted the challenge of cut-through in television advertising, with the effectiveness of TV advertising varying significantly by category, brand and target audience.
For Beachcroft-Shaw, that makes the craft behind the commercial as important as the medium itself. “The TVC has to earn its place on the screen,” he says. “It needs to be polished enough to feel premium, clear enough to communicate the message and engaging enough to make people want to keep watching. Advertising can still be something people enjoy watching rather than something they instinctively want to skip.”
That requires a strong idea, considered storytelling and production quality that matches the ambition of the brand.
For the Suzuki Across, this meant creating a commercial that could communicate the vehicle’s versatility while also building an emotional world around the idea of moving between different experiences.
TV and digital work better together
The argument for TV in 2026 is therefore not an argument against digital. In fact, the opposite is true.
A successful campaign increasingly needs to recognise that consumers do not experience media in neat categories. Someone may encounter a brand on television, search for it on their phone, watch a longer video online, see it again on social media and ultimately make a purchase elsewhere.
The role of the agency is to ensure that these encounters feel connected rather than fragmented.”Technology will continue to change the way people consume content, and marketers need to keep adapting with it,” says Van Der Merwe. “But the fundamentals of effective brand building haven’t changed. People remember stories that make them feel something. Great TVCs still have the ability to do that at scale.”
For Penquin, the future of television advertising is therefore not about protecting an old medium. It is about recognising what remains uniquely powerful about it while allowing technology and digital media to extend its impact.
“TV is no longer the only screen that matters,” adds Beachcroft-Shaw. “But when the idea is strong, the craft is sharp and the product deserves presence, it remains the screen that can make everything feel bigger.”
So, in a media landscape where brands are competing not only for attention, but for memory, that may be more relevant than ever.