ITV has launched a major new campaign that aims to promote the brand itself rather than any particular programme, its most significant marketing push since the launch of ITVX in December 2022.
Created by the in-house agency, ITV Creative, the centrepiece of ‘There’s No Place Like ITV’ is a 60-second TV advert that positions ITV as a broadcaster that provides programming people bond over. It shows audiences watching Romeo and Juliet at The Globe in the 1500s and a pre-historic tribe watching shadow puppets in a fire-lit cave, before highlighting programmes such as Britain’s Got Talent and Mr Bates v The Post Office.
The advert, aimed primarily at 25 to 54-year-olds, will be supported by a nationwide campaign of over 50 out-of-home executions that spotlight a selection of shows such as Coronation Street, Love Island and even News at Ten. The billboards feature cut-out styled figures from each show, giving it a DIY aesthetic.
But the interesting thing about the campaign is not really the idea itself but why ITV feels now is the time to focus on building its brand identity.
Behind-the-scenes, ITV has been working for the last two years on its brand positioning, including a review and update of ITV’s distinctive brand assets. Paul Ridsdale, director of brand and marketing at ITV, said: ‘As part of that process we have also reviewed our “distinctive brand assets”, ensuring that ITV is consistent and immediately recognisable wherever we show up. We have also clarified both our internal and viewer facing brand positioning.’
Now was seen as the right time to focus on the ITV brand after years spent building awareness of its streaming service. Ridsdale explained: ‘ITVX has rightly been the focus of our marketing plans for the last few years, and will remain a key part of them going forward, but we also now see an opportunity to focus on the ITV masterbrand, which we believe can be a key lever in our next phase of growth.’
The ‘very competitive viewing landscape’, with audiences having an abundance of content to choose from, makes a brand push logical for ITV. ‘Over 60% of viewers still don’t have a particular show in mind when switching on the TV,’ Ridsdale said, ‘We believe that both physical, on-screen prominence (through our distribution strategy) and top of mind prominence (through a strong brand) are both crucial in capturing as much of that viewing as possible.’
But ‘other levers play a big part too’. ITV has to navigate the shift from its main role being as a channel that houses content to a company commissioning content increasingly displayed on other platforms.
Last year saw further moves in this area, with a partnership announced with Disney Plus — and YouTube now receiving full soap episodes at the same time as ITVX. In the digital era, ITV content isn’t always watched on ITV1, 2 or 3. That leaves a vacuum and naturally explains the strategy of asserting a more distinctive brand identity now.
All of these factors were present two years ago, but there is perhaps a greater urgency to asserting that identity now. January 2026 doesn’t find ITV in a happy place. Its stock price has plunged 27% in five years and the financial difficulties were punctuated in November by leading shareholder Liberty Global halving its stake. In the same month, the channel confirmed that it was in preliminary talks with Sky over a £1.6bn sale of its media and entertainment arm.
ITV is also coming off a rather underwhelming year in terms of content for the channel. Code of Silence was a popular drama but it was no Adolescence; I’m a Celeb still commanded strong ratings but Celebrity Traitors was unquestionably the king of 2025’s reality shows. It is revealing that the programme given the biggest showcase during the advert is Mr Bates – two years old at this point.
If the content is no longer selling itself, then the focus has to be on what the channel provides outside of that. The strength of ‘There’s No Place Like ITV’ is that it does that effectively without seeming desperate.
*Correction (08/01/26): A previous version of this article said ITV was a ‘production company’. This has been changed to a company that commissions content.
