2025: When digital became the default as TV watched from the sidelines

New Delhi: Television’s slide from the centre of media plans became harder to miss in 2025. Brands did not dump TV because it stopped delivering. They reduced it because consumer behaviour moved faster than TV planning cycles, and digital offered sharper tools for reach, targeting and measurement.

Marketers describe the change as a planned rebalancing rather than a sudden exit. The big shift was not in belief. It was in priorities. Digital became the default for growth, relevance and performance, while television increasingly turned into a selective, high-cost option.

Enamor: Performance marketing takes the bulk

Sandra Daniels, CMO at Enamor, said the brand’s spends are built around a digital-first approach. “About 10% of our total revenue goes into marketing. Nearly 75 to 80% of our marketing budget goes into digital performance marketing. Everything is digital-first, except some below-the-line activations and store visibility.”

She said the move away from TV was made years ago. “We moved completely from TV to digital about three or four years ago. The consumer is evolving, and we have to evolve with them. The consumer is the queen. Wherever the consumer is, that’s where we need to be.”

The Body Shop: Digital is the top funnel

At The Body Shop, the shift is tied to how it wants to stay close to Gen Z and millennials. Harmeet Singh, Chief Brand Officer, The Body Shop Asia South, said the brand has leaned sharply towards digital. “We have gravitated towards digital media quite a lot, and of course, it’s something which we did not shy away from.”

Singh said digital plays a clear role in the funnel for the brand. “For us, digital is definitely the top funnel,” she said, adding that “YouTube really helps us to reach a lot of consumers.” She did not share detailed numbers, only saying the spend is in “good double digit” terms, but the direction is clear: the brand wants to win attention where consumers spend time, and build discovery through content and creators.

Snitch: Offline growth, but not necessarily TV

For digital-native brands, television was never the starting point. It was a medium to test only when the business reached a certain scale.

At Snitch, the media mix has widened over time. Chetan Siyal, founding member and CMO, said the split is now 60 per cent digital and 40 per cent offline. “Initially, it was 100% digital. Today, it’s 60–40 and going forward, it will become 50–50.”

Offline, however, does not automatically mean television. Siyal pointed to stores, visibility and local presence as the bigger drivers. “With offline stores and visibility around those areas, we have a larger footprint. You’re able to do things that garner more attention instead of being restricted to a website,” he said.

Lavie Luxe: Instagram-led influence over mass reach

Ayush Tainwala, CEO of Bagzone Lifestyles, explained this through Lavie Luxe’s latest campaign. The brand is spending close to Rs 5 crore, but the bulk of the spend is going into digital channels, with Instagram at the centre. “A bulk of Lavie Luxe’s marketing spend is funnelled into digital channels, particularly Instagram,” he said.

Tainwala said the focus is not mass reach but contextual influence. “It’s largely focused on digital. We already get to a young, modern audience. It’s very organic, rather than media. It’s about the actual content that you create, quality, and the value that content adds back to consumers.”

He said the brand is prioritising where fashion is discovered and discussed. “We largely focus on Instagram across everything. Wherever fashion is seen, wherever fashion is placed, that’s where we are looking.” 

He added that creators and magazines are central to the storytelling. “You’ll see a lot of influencers and fashion magazines talking about how we can style this product appropriately, and not so much focused on television ads.”

Hindware: Younger homebuyers push the shift

At Hindware, the rethink is directly linked to the profile of buyers. CEO Nirupam Sahay said the company’s overall marketing spend this year will be Rs 100 crore plus, a step up from earlier cycles.

“Approximately 55–60% of this will be allocated to digital, nearly double the amount from earlier campaigns, where it was 25–30%,” he said.

Sahay said the shift is deliberate. “That’s a deliberate move because our consumers are there. The people buying homes are now younger, typically in their mid-20s instead of their mid-30s. They’re not watching conventional TV; they want on-demand content. Digital is the most relevant way to reach them.”

SUGAR: “So much to do” on digital

For beauty brands, the argument is even more straightforward. Digital is not just a channel. It is where the category’s communities and conversions are built.

Vineeta Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics, said digital sits at the centre of the strategy, including influencer-led marketing and on-platform visibility. 

“As of now, digital is at the front and centre of the entire strategy, which will be a mix of both digital marketing as well as influencer and some on-platform presence as well, the glamstream, as well as other assets on the Myntra platform,” she said during the launch of Molten.

Asked about traditional media, Singh’s response reflected a wider industry view in 2025. “At this point, the plans haven’t been shaped as much to think about TV and print, because there’s so much to do on digital.”

The quiet consensus of 2025

Without declaring television irrelevant, brands simply stopped treating it as the default first answer. 

Planning began with digital because that is where attention, formats and feedback loops now sit. Television entered the discussion later, as a choice to be weighed against cost, flexibility, targeting and the speed at which consumer moments are created and lost.

Whether TV regains share in 2026 will depend less on legacy strength and more on how it fits into this newer planning logic, where attention has to be earned repeatedly and quickly.