What The Collective's First TV Ad Teaches Us About Campaign Sequencing

What happened

Marketing Week reported this week on why The Collective is investing in TV to “shake up” the yogurt category, as the brand aims to become the leading kids' yogurt option and go head-to-head with the major dairy incumbents. The campaign itself — a month-long national push called “The Dairy Shaker-Uppers”, created by Bountiful Cow — launched at the start of September, as reported by Decision Marketing and LBBonline. Spend is concentrated exclusively on Channel 4, across linear and VOD, rather than spread across broadcasters, extended through Meta, YouTube and cinema, and timed around back-to-school to push the brand beyond its London base.

The sequencing lesson

This is the question I get from founders more than almost any other: “are we ready for TV?” My honest answer is usually that readiness isn't really the question — sequencing is. The Collective didn't start with TV. The campaign follows an earlier run of out-of-home, social and cinema activity this year, and only reached for broadcast once it had a specific commercial ambition to back it: category leadership against bigger, better-funded rivals. TV followed strategy; it didn't replace it.

Here’s the bit I’d want every founder to sit with: TV is not a graduation prize for brands that have “made it”. It’s one channel in an integrated plan, not the plan itself — because TV has a reach efficiency curve. Push enough frequency into a flight and you hit the point where you’re paying to reach the same people again rather than new ones. That’s exactly where an integrated approach earns its keep: channels like YouTube, BVOD and Digital Advertising don’t compete with TV, they pick up where its curve flattens, multiplying reach across your audience for the rest of the flight. If you don’t know where that ceiling sits, more TV spend won’t fix it — better channel integration will.

What this means if you're running a leaner media mix

You don't need a TV budget, or Channel 4's concentration play, to take the lesson. The useful bit is the sequencing logic itself: know what you've already proven in cheaper channels, know exactly what broader reach is meant to unlock, and only then decide which channel does that job — TV, out-of-home, or a bigger push on the channels you're already in. Need advice on your next campaign - drop me a line!