Thinkbox
Being a TV planner is a role which carries enormous responsibility for a brand’s success, demanding creativity, curiosity and collaboration, in addition to the rigorous craft skills that TV planning has always required.
Now in its sixth year, our Young TV Planner of the Year category is for recognising future industry stars that are leading the way and flying the flag for TV. Here we chat to our super seven finalists.
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words.
Adele: Escape, unwind, amuse
Amitesh: Indulgent, informative and regular
Anthony: “Just one more”
Joe: Varied, frequent, live
Lauren: Streaming, relaxing and binge-worthy
Molly: Spikes in June (Love Island!)
Talitha: Cosy comedies/crimes
What TV show has got the office talking in the past year/6 months?
Adele: I think it would probably be Adolescence. It seems like almost everyone watched it and thought it was incredible, unnerving but an important message. Definitely made an impact, particularly among the parents of the office like myself!
Amitesh: Reality TV always makes its way into the topics discussed at work: the recent rendition of Celebrity Big Brother on ITV was gripping! And, the conversation eventually leads to the question of: “How would you be if you were in the Big Brother house?”
Anthony: The Last of Us (S2) is the show that’s had the office talking this year – it seems we’ve all immersed ourselves in a post-apocalyptic world on Monday evenings. Discussions around survival tactics has certainly fuelled debates … and given me clarity on the best office allies to have in the event of a zombie-like apocalypse!
Joe: This is VERY hard to just pick one here, watching the BAFTAs recently made me realise how many good and talked about TV shows have been made over the past year. I’ll go for Rivals on Disney+. Come on, how can there be a story set around the world of commercial television in the 1980s, and that not get people working in TV talking? Also, Danny Dyer as Freddie Jones must be one of the best castings of the year! I also seem to have lost my Rivals cushion that Disney+ had sent into our office, so if anyone from Disney+ is reading this, any spares going still please?
Lauren: Adolescence - a raw, thought-provoking, and uncomfortable portrayal of societal & systemic issues and its impact on young people
Molly: Definitely The Traitors which sparked a few debates on how many episodes behind can you be to complain about spoilers, I think with a show like Traitors you’ve got to watch it live!
Talitha: Celebrity Big Brother
If I wasn’t a TV planner I’d be a …
Adele: In all honesty if I wasn’t a TV planner I think I would (/would love to) do some sort of animal conservation – whether that’d be across the UK or further afield I’m not sure. The idea of helping protect endangered species, working in rewilding projects or just being somewhere in nature for work would be amazing. I have definitely been inspired by the countless David Attenborough documentaries I've watched over the years!
Amitesh: A video game designer – since I’m already mapping out audience journey’s through the TV landscape, might as well start doing it for characters in an imaginary world!
Anthony: With such a strong passion for TV strategy and planning, it’s difficult to picture myself working in a role outside of AV. Though if I had to pick an alternative career path, I would probably choose to be a data analyst. After all, sifting through data to find insights to make informed, data-driven decisions doesn’t seem too far removed from TV planning.
Joe: Maybe a chef. I am still bitter about the time I participated in the Havering and Brentwood Schools’ Young Chef of the Year I think in 2011, possibly 2012? I’ve had to repress the whole thing for my wellbeing. I made it to the quarter finals, only to severely burn the skin of the piece of salmon I was cooking which led to me being knocked out. So, it’s probably for the best I didn’t become a chef, but hopefully this award goes a bit better for me.
Lauren: A professional dodgeball player (I can dream 😉)
Molly: I asked chat GBT this one with my fave school subjects, my hometown and a desire to still be in and around TV and it said this …. "Local Legend / Essex’s Alan Partridge. You’ve got the drama, the music vibes, and the gift of the gab. Let’s be real — you’re one Facebook Live away from hosting “Chat with Molly”, featuring your mates, your mum’s mate Sharon, and a bloke who once sold dodgy AirPods at the market. Prizes? Leftover scratch cards and warm Fanta."
Talitha: Furniture Restorer, reducing fast-fashion/fast-tech one questionable wardrobe at a time.
Describe the role of the TV planner for someone new to the industry.
Adele: TV Planners will take briefs from clients and investigate which platforms/stations are the best to reach the target audience. A TV planner will then pull together a proposal based on a variety of factors, including location, budget and overall audience.
Amitesh: TV planning begins with curiosity: what does this brand stand for, and who will care? We explore viewing data to uncover where that audience is — what they watch, when, and why — then guide brands to show up on the right channels, in the right moments, to truly connect.
Anthony: Using data and tools, TV planners select specific channels and programmes to best reach an advertiser's target audience. Since there are many ways to reach consumers, TV planners also coordinate TV plans with other media channel activations to create a cohesive and effective overall campaign.
Joe: A fun, challenging, and rewarding role where no two days are the same. We’re responsible for strategically planning and executing advertising campaigns across both traditional television and various on-demand video platforms. We understand audience behaviours across these mediums to determine the most effective ways to reach a target audience for a brand.
Lauren: TV planners play an integral role in shaping a brand's communication strategy. Advertisers lean on us as experts in our field and we're responsible for significant monthly/annual budgets; pinpointing platforms, channels, and programmes to effectively engage an identified target audience. All whilst recommending cracking TV content to our colleagues!
Molly: TV planners are responsible for making sure brand’s video assets/adverts are viewed by the right people at the right time. What TV means is a more complex question but essentially it’s premium video content – regardless of environment, device or platform.
Talitha: TV planners take the insights about who a brand wants to engage with and applies it to the TV world. They answer the ‘what, when, where and why’ of an individual’s video consumption to align the best shows on TV with the perfect brands.
Tell us about a TV campaign you worked on that you’re most proud of and why.
Adele: Completely new to TV, Grape Tree put a lot of trust in us to use TV to increase brand awareness and footfall. Employing a variety of linear stations helped highlight TV’s unrivalled reach. Adding targeted VOD and close proximity to store Adsmart campaigns further enhanced TV’s precision and effectiveness.
Amitesh: It was amazing to work on TUI’s 2024 Christmas campaign — building on its award-winning festive campaign launched in 2023. As one of few travel brands with a 60” festive creative, we helped reinforce brand warmth using TV and strengthened TUI’s positioning; all during the most joyful time for TV advertising.
Anthony: I’m most proud to have worked on the Keep Britain Tidy national launch campaign, which had a goal of reducing cigarette butt litter across the country. Driving impactful cost-efficient reach amongst smokers enabled the charity brand to successfully alter smokers’ butt littering behaviour, resulting in their ambitious targets being met.
Joe: I’m proud of the work we’ve been doing across Go.Compare recently, especially around their ‘Feel The Tache’ campaign. Traditionally, Go. Compare has solely relied on linear TV, but we’ve done lots of work to be taking a more unified approach to our video activity, ensuring we align with shifts in viewing habits. We now plan linear TV, BVOD, SVOD, AVOD and YouTube holistically, ensuring we deliver optimum reach and impact across all platforms. In a noisy and competitive category, we’ve seen positive shifts in both brand awareness and preference, as well as running cross platform measurement leading to on average an 11% cost-per-reach point saving. The ‘BVOD Almighty: Reach and Return’ research from Thinkbox has been a great resource as we’ve looked to diversify our video mix.
Lauren: An HSL partnership with ITV/Loose Women for Deaf Awareness Week. Their 30" ad (fully subtitled) featured in a one off special, during a silent ad break to raise awareness for the deaf community. It was incredibly rewarding to see the ad play-out and fast-forward such a vital conversation around inclusivity.
Molly: This HAS to be the Just Eat snoop dog campaign! The investment was huge, and the planning took months and spanned across so many teams but it was a stand-out TV moment and it’s my favourite one to tell even non-media peeps about as it was iconic! (this is always followed by ‘if I made it though!’)
Talitha: Dyson Dec23 because it is an example of how a strong base of TV can be utilised at different areas of the media plan. Predicted programming had been shared with paid search which meant an unplanned TV shoutout had both a spot in the next break and enhanced online activity.
Describe TV advertising in 3 words.
Adele: Make an impact
Amitesh: Emotional, effective, resilient
Anthony: Trustworthy, memorable, effective
Joe: Engaging, wide-reaching, influential
Lauren: Impactful, innovative, inclusive
Molly: Timeless, trusted, effective
Talitha: Exciting, memorable, established
What is TV’s superpower?
Adele: It’s a bit of a chameleon – it’s able to adapt to the changing landscape and respond to the changing market / audience demands in it's own way. From originally only being a couple of channels reaching the mass market, TV now has various outlets. With new offerings through VOD/CTV/Adsmart and programmatic targeting we’re able to run in smaller more precise locations and reach specific audiences. This evolution of TV is helping to bridge the gap from ‘traditional’ to ‘digital’ TV in an ever-growing digital world. TV’s far from being over, it will just learn and adapt.
Amitesh: I cannot think of another medium that most people truly trust – as the online world gets more fragmented and cluttered (and fake news-ey), TV tends to be the medium that people will gather around, believe and resonate most with. Jack Thorne, co-creator of Adolescence, referred to TV as an “empathy box” in the living room – and I couldn’t agree more.
Anthony: As with many superheroes, TV has a range of superpowers which makes the medium appeal to all audiences, with advertising opportunities fit for brands across all sectors and of all sizes. Though, the superpower I appreciate most is TV’s ability to bring viewers together – whether it’s to watch a rom-com with your partner, the Champion’s League final with some mates or an animated film with your family. As we know from Thinkbox’s Power of Shared Viewing research, brands also benefit from TV’s co-viewing moments, with ad recall increasing by 23% when watching with others … likely helped by viewers being 2x more likely to repeat/mimic ads (vs. watching alone)!
Joe: It’s the OG influencer and continues to be effective, even in a world where so many people think TV has died and brands should be solely piling in on digital & social media platforms. It remains the primary platform for audiences to experience the same content at the same time, shape cultural norms and trends, create shared experiences and conversations (the recent Gavin & Stacey and Traitors finales are great examples!), as well as drive consumer behaviour and action. While the landscape of influence has drastically changed with the rise of digital platforms and individual creators, TV laid the groundwork for many of the influencer marketing and cultural shaping tactics we see today. It was the first medium to consistently and widely broadcast lifestyles, ideas, and products, making it the original and arguably the most impactful early influencer.
Lauren: TV has a unique ability to build a meaningful, trusted and scalable connection with its audience through engaging and immersive content.
Molly: I think this is best answered with Thinkbox’s ProfitAbility 2: The new business case for advertising. It drives long-term and short-term ROI better than all other media channels.
Talitha: It is a shared experience, and it leans into this connection. When a new show comes out it feels like the whole world is watching and wants to discuss what they have just seen. Whether you’re next to someone on the sofa or across from them in the office, TV has created that shared moment.