How are brands combining TV commercials with social media branding?

Today’s viewers will watch a TV commercial, and then look for its making or behind-the-scenes content on social media. Roughly, internet users spend 10% of their daily time on social media, and nearly the same amount watching TV. In short, both social media and TV channels are equally vital for the successful advertising of your brand. Many production companies in NYC, therefore, have found that their clients get better returns on their advertising money if they have a comprehensive strategy.

In this blog, let us explore how different brands are combining the two, and how you can do the same.

Marvel cleverly positions its social media ads with TV commercials

After the Harry Potter movies, movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are the highest-grossing films in the world. The movie trailers act as TV Commercials for these movies, but the MCU creates sneak-peek YouTube shorts, clips from cast interviews, character introduction clips, etc for its social media channels. There are dedicated fan pages for specific characters such as Captain America Facebook/Instagram Page where fans get to interact with the MCU content regularly. MCU takes repurposing its movie trailers to a whole new level by creating timely memes and localizing its trailer clips from time to time to keep release dates fresh in the minds of the people. In recent years the franchise has dialed back certain traditional TV buys in favor of digital momentum, yet the core repurposing playbook still drives results.

TAKEAWAY: Clip your TV Commercial into short form content such as Instagram reels, Twitter memes, time-relevant social content and re-purpose them from time to time throughout the year on social media channels instead of creating fresh ads.

KitKat uses social buzz around AI to create a TV Commercial

Chocolate brand KitKat created an exceptional TV Commercial that was based on the social media interactions around how AI was killing jobs. With the launch of generative AI tools, millions of impressions were created on social media about content related to AI capabilities. KitKat used a generative AI tool to create a very basic TV commercial to convey the message that their team was taking a break and having a KitKat, so they asked AI to create their ads. They quickly re-purposed the same ads on all the social media channels to join the conversation. The ad showcased the brief given to the AI tool: Create an ad for Gen-Z. The result was comically bad content to send across the message: AI is not replacing jobs anytime soon. The 2023-2024 “Have AI Break” campaign proved the tactic still lands when paired with sharp timing.

TAKEAWAY: Flip the coin and create TV Commercial content around social media interactions. That saves time for ideation, and you can quickly roll out TV ads while joining social media conversations, and leverage the buzz.

Dunkin uses pop culture references to woo buyers

Dunkin Donuts roped in Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in its 2024 Super Bowl TV Commercial that showcased Affleck running a Dunkin Donut truck and taking orders. The ad was shot in real-time with real people driving through Affleck’s truck and getting shocked at seeing him. The ad reaches its pivotal point when Lopez too turns up in her car for the donut. Leveraging the pair’s constant newsworthiness in popular culture, the donut brand also used Affleck cleverly in all its social media platforms to keep reminding people to buy donuts with its slogan – America runs on Dunkin. The ad was cut in short reels and posted on various platforms for a shorter period followed by Affleck’s short videos in different scenarios.

TAKEAWAY: Use popular culture references and data analytics to get the pulse of your buyers, and serve them what they like but packaged in a form they are least expecting. Positioning your brand or service within a pop culture reference, and then further leveraging social media to generate more interactions, will double the reach of your ad, giving you the ROI, you were looking for.

Rise of Short-Form Video and Platform-Specific Repurposing

Social platforms have evolved with short-form video dominance since the article was published, requiring updated tactics for clipping TV content. Brands increasingly adapt long-form TV spots into platform-native short clips for higher engagement. Examples include real-time meme creation and localization as noted in MCU strategies. Production companies in NYC now build dedicated vertical cutdowns and caption packs at the shoot stage so the same 30-second spot can live on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts without extra location days.

AI Tools in Ad Creation and Optimization

The KitKat example highlights AI use, but generative tools have advanced significantly, enabling faster ideation and personalization across TV and social. KitKat's 2023-2024 campaign demonstrated AI for rapid, humorous content creation. Current tools allow brands to scale repurposing while maintaining brand voice. Production teams can now feed a finished TV spot into AI platforms that auto-generate localized voiceovers, meme overlays, and thumbnail variants, keeping the message consistent while matching each feed’s tone.

Integrated Measurement and Attribution Across Channels

The existing 'Measure and learn' step is high-level; modern cross-channel analytics provide more precise ROI insights for combined campaigns. Production companies increasingly use combined balance sheets with digital attribution tools. Influencer and creator spend growth highlights need for performance tracking. U.S. creator ad spend is projected to hit $37 billion in 2025, growing 26 percent year-over-year, which means every TV spot now carries an attached data layer that tracks how social lift translates into sales lift.

Sustainability and Purpose-Driven Messaging in Hybrid Campaigns

Recent campaigns tie social causes or sustainability into TV-social strategies for deeper audience connection. Many 2025-2026 campaigns blend entertainment with purpose to boost engagement and trust. Production companies in NYC report that clients now request carbon-neutral shoots and on-screen credits for local charities, then amplify those details across social to extend the story past the 30-second runtime.

Benefits of combining TV Commercials with social media

Wider reach. One of the reasons why companies are now repurposing TV commercials for social media is because they can reach a wider audience with one concept. You have the option of creating social media impressions before the TV commercial is aired and after it, so that pretty much doubles the kind of reach you were aiming at.

Saving time and money. As we saw in the Dunkin commercial, when they hired Affleck and Lopez, they used their time to shoot both the main commercial as well as behind-the-scenes shots of them to be used later for social media channels. Having a two-way strategy saves both time and money.

Meeting people where they are. A lot of production value goes into the making of a TV Commercial along with the cost of ad placements on various channels. And yet, in today’s world, success will largely depend upon whether you can meet people where they are. Internet users worldwide spend 141 minutes per day on social media [Statista]. That means your TV Commercial or its reference should be posted on your social channels in order to tap viewers everywhere.

Brownie points out that using influencers. A clever factor in combining TV commercial advertising with that of social media is that you can hire a local influencer with a wide range of social media followers as models for your TV commercials. That way, you can use a storytelling concept to tell your brand idea and then get a social media influencer to model that story, so it becomes relevant for the social media channels as well. This also builds more trust and credibility of your brand due to the influencer’s reach and life story. U.S. creator ad spend reached $37B projected for 2025 with strong ROI metrics, making the tactic even more measurable.

How to combine a TV Commercial with social media branding?

Step # 1: Set clear and combined goals. Create combined goals from the drawing board itself. The joint objectives should be spelled out clearly and the concepts should be discussed at length. This also includes choosing a TV commercial production company that can give you a comprehensive ad production solution, combined budget, and plans for placements.

Step # 2: Use data analytics. Businesses cannot afford to create a TV Commercial out of a good concept without considering what their buyers are discussing online. It is important to leverage data analytics to find out about top social interactions, trending topics, pop culture trends etc to learn better about your buyers’ preferences before conceptualizing ad content.

Step # 3: Develop a cohesive strategy. After finalizing ad content, the next step is to create a cohesive strategy that would consider all the aspects of the ad’s use and re-purposing. This is the stage to decide which TV channels, social media channels are more relevant to your buyers, the type of short or long-form content to use, ad clips or short reels, etc.

Step # 3 (A): Consider influencers. This step is part of the above step because social media influencers should be considered as part of the cohesive strategy. Influencers who are relevant to the brand such as travel influencers for hiking shoes etc will add consistency to your messaging. You can also leverage the social following of the model and celebrity that you are using and negotiate a barter to post your ad on their respective social pages.

Step # 4: Produce and launch. First create social media buzz around your TV commercial mentioning the date it is going to drop, content teaser, celebrity teaser, etc. After the commercial airs, make sure to post the social version of the commercial to social channels, along with posting its shorter or longer versions from time to time.

Step # 5: Measure and learn. Many competent New York City production companies have a consistent habit of measuring their results from both TV commercials and social postings and creating a combined balance sheet to compare results. This practice gives you an overall picture of the success of your ad, the ROI, and things to focus on in the future.

If you are looking for an NYC production company, you should give us a call. We have a solution that’s just right for you.