There was a lot debate these days in regards to the imminent ‘dying’ of social media, sparked by latest Ofcom information exhibiting that persons are posting lower than ever. It reveals simply 49% of grownup social media customers now actively submit, share or remark, down from 61% in 2024. Predictably, the LinkedIn obituaries flooded in, as positive as night time follows day.
We’ve been right here earlier than. As former Thinkbox chair Tess Alps as soon as put it, “TV isn’t dying, it’s having infants.” And social media is not any completely different. It’s merely advanced into one thing else completely, converging into new codecs that always transcend conventional definitions on the media plan.
Social
The ‘media’ a part of social has overtaken the ‘social’ half. Posting is down, and watching is up. Time spent with the channel stays stubbornly excessive, with UK adults averaging round 4 and a half hours a day, based on Ofcom’s 2025 On-line nations report.
What we’re seeing isn’t a decline in utilization, however a shift in behaviour. Folks aren’t logging off, they’re leaning again. And what they’re leaning into, is leisure.
Social platforms mixture consideration, prioritise passive consumption and reward content material that earns time. Creators have change into extra influential than mates, and essentially the most profitable content material appears to be like much less like dialog and extra like programming.
This shouldn’t actually come as a shock, as social media is entertainment-first. The ‘TikTokification’ of social media was the logical consequence of platforms pivoting to video and optimising relentlessly for consideration.
For manufacturers, it’s not sufficient to point out up on social platforms and throw spend in with some in style creators, hoping proximity alone will translate into impression.
Simon Harwood, Billion Greenback Boy
We have now spent years standing in entrance of essentially the most subtle leisure machine ever constructed, loudly insisting it was a neighborhood noticeboard. Now it appears the penny has dropped.
What we at the moment are seeing is a type of re-aggregation. Not within the previous, linear sense, however by means of codecs and moments that draw massive audiences collectively. Thousands and thousands of persons are watching the identical content material, following the identical creators and fascinating with the identical developments.
You possibly can see this within the rise of acquainted, repeatable leisure codecs. Micro-drama sequence on TikTok now characteristic recurring characters, evolving plotlines and cliffhangers, and types like Argos are creating ownable leisure IP, designed to drive repeat viewing over days and weeks. Content material is turning into episodic, structured and intentionally paced from one episode to the subsequent.
This all sounds acquainted, doesn’t it?
Social and TV, not social versus TV
Creator-led codecs are more and more crossing over into mainstream leisure. Reveals resembling Scorching Ones from First We Feast and tasks from The Sidemen have been commissioned by main streaming platforms, whereas creators like MrBeast have launched large-scale productions for international audiences.
Influencer Alix Earle touchdown a serious streaming cope with Netflix, following her life, is solely the newest instance of expertise flowing from the smallest display screen to the (greater) small display screen.
Saturday Night time Reside UK is one other fascinating social and TV mashup. The TV viewers is bringing youthful viewers to Sky, though the numbers might look comparatively modest. Seven day viewing figures with repeats for the programme on Sky present a ranking of 784,000 for episode one, whereas episode 4, hosted by Jack Whitehall, fell by greater than a 3rd to 503,000.
But, on-line it’s a completely completely different story, with over 86 million views throughout YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X, and clips routinely going viral. Probably the most-watched moments aren’t the complete episodes, however the sharpest, most shareable segments, resembling chilly opens, standout sketches and celeb cameos.
On the identical time, the platforms themselves are shifting in the wrong way. For instance, Instagram has begun experimenting with TV-based viewing experiences on Amazon Fireplace TV gadgets.
Alongside this, extra folks watch YouTube on their tv units than on their telephones. Final 12 months, Ofcom discovered that 20% of Gen Alpha (aged 4 to fifteen) head straight to the YouTube app as quickly as they flip the TV on. Over-55s have been additionally discovered to be watching twice the quantity of YouTube content material on their TVs than the 12 months prior, whereas 16- to 24-year-olds have been discovered to observe eight minutes of YouTube per day on TV.
The platform continues to place itself as a main vacation spot for premium, long-form content material, having lately introduced it will likely be solely streaming the Oscars ceremony from 2029, ending an almost 50-year lengthy partnership with ABC.
That is not a case of social versus TV. It’s one converging ecosystem of screen-based leisure.
Model-building by means of leisure
All this convergence is nice information for entrepreneurs adapting to construct manufacturers in a fragmented media panorama, wherein creating long-term shared that means is an ongoing problem.
The IPA Influencer Databank reveals that influencer advertising and marketing drives a major proportion of its results over the long run, with a long-term multiplier ratio virtually equivalent to TV.
Identical to TV, social media can ship these long-term results as a result of it’s rooted in leisure. Analysis from System1 and TikTok reveals that work constructed for ‘showmanship’ considerably outperforms ‘salesmanship’ in driving reminiscence results, with essentially the most entertaining advertisements driving a 39% reminiscence raise, two occasions model consciousness raise, and a 2.8 occasions model picture raise.
What we’re seeing isn’t a decline in utilization, however a shift in behaviour. Folks aren’t logging off, they’re leaning again. And what they’re leaning into, is leisure.
Simon Harwood, Billion Greenback Boy
The simplest promoting has all the time borrowed from the rules of leisure, utilizing sturdy characters, clear narratives and a way of place and development. Repeatable, distinctive and recognisable codecs are the supply mechanism for that leisure.
That is the place the trade has barely misinterpret the second.
For the previous few years, the main target has been on who to associate with, the best way to entry a creator’s viewers, and the best way to borrow their credibility. However as convergence accelerates, it’s creators’ instinctive capability to construct profitable long-term codecs that presents the actual alternative for manufacturers.
The ability of IP
Codecs are what journey throughout platforms. Codecs are what audiences return to. Codecs are what construct reminiscence constructions over time. And it’s codecs that ship scale – the thorniest drawback confronted by entrepreneurs orchestrating many voices talking for his or her model.
For manufacturers, it’s not sufficient to point out up on social platforms and throw spend in with some in style creators, hoping proximity alone will translate into impression. They need to cement associations with particular leisure IP that individuals recognise and wish to spend time with. The person creator nonetheless issues, but it surely’s the construction that gives consistency.
Simply as tv sponsorship permits manufacturers to construct associations with programmes, strands and genres, advertisers must spend money on the codecs that present the constructions inside which reminiscence results can compound.
What lingers in reminiscence isn’t the person submit or character. It’s the repeatable, slow-burn concept. The factor audiences recognise, return to, and construct a relationship with over time. Familiarity breeds content material.
As Sir John Hegarty as soon as put it, practices change, however rules stay.
Entertain. Be distinctive. Construct fame. That’s how TV concepts labored. It’s how social-first concepts work.
Creators are nonetheless essential. They instinctively know the best way to drive cultural relevance and are masters of experimenting with new codecs. However manufacturers additionally want to consider the what as a lot because the who. What format are you able to construct, borrow from, or belong to that cements what you stand for, many times?
Social media is the place your subsequent favorite leisure format is being made. And in a world that rewards time spent, consistency and affinity, that’s excellent news for manufacturers.
