"We need a TVC" is one of the most expensive sentences a marketing team can say, and one of the least understood. Some teams say it meaning a 30 second spot for prime time. Others mean a nice video for the website. The difference is a hundred thousand dollars and three months.
This article explains what a TVC actually is, how it is different from the other films a company might commission, how one is made in Singapore from brief to broadcast, and what to expect at each stage.
A TVC is a television commercial: a 15, 30 or 60 second film made to sell a product or brand in paid placements on broadcast, streaming and online video. In Singapore it is made in four stages: creative development and a director's treatment, pre-production (casting, locations, art department), a one to three day shoot with a full crew, and broadcast-grade post-production. Budgets typically run S$50,000 to S$250,000 and above, the whole job runs about eight to twelve weeks, and the shoot is usually the shortest part of the timeline.
This article is for marketing managers, brand leads and founders in Singapore considering their first commercial, or approving one and wanting to understand what the money buys.
It is especially useful if your agency has said "TVC" and your finance team has said "why not just a video?", because the answer to both is in here.
A TVC is built for a paid slot, which changes everything about how it is written, shot and cleared.
The length row is not a detail. A broadcaster sells a 30 second slot, and a 31 second film does not air. Every creative decision in a TVC is made against a clock that a corporate video never has to keep. The other formats and what each is for are compared in our guides to what makes a brand film work and to production house, agency or freelancer.
Four stages, and the shoot is the shortest. Most of a TVC's timeline is spent deciding what to shoot and finishing what was shot.
Stage 1 ends with the document that decides whether the TVC will be any good: the director's treatment, where the director explains how the script becomes a film before any money is committed to a shoot. Stage 2 is where the client does most of the approving, and where late changes are still cheap. Stage 3 is expensive per hour and almost impossible to change. Stage 4 is where the film is actually built, which is why a two-day shoot can still need five weeks of post.
End to end, a TVC in Singapore runs about eight to twelve weeks from brief to broadcast master. Anyone promising a full commercial in three weeks is describing a different product.
Because every second of a TVC is designed, and each part of the design has a specialist responsible for it.
A corporate interview shoot might have four people on set. A TVC shoot commonly has fifteen to thirty, and the buyer's first sight of the call sheet is usually a shock. The main groups:
Every one of these roles removes a way the day can go wrong. On a corporate shoot you can afford a wobble; on a TVC shoot the day costs more than most corporate videos, so the crew is the insurance. What professional crew and equipment look like in practice is in our production setup guide.
Canon Asia's Imagine Bigger Things shows a full-crew TVC, and its behind-the-scenes film shows the set itself, which is the honest answer to "why so many people?".
Two costs that are not in the shoot budget and regularly surprise first-time TVC buyers.
Talent usage. Professional actors in a TVC are paid a day rate for the shoot and a usage fee for where and how long the commercial runs: a period (often 12 months), a territory (Singapore, or the region), and a set of channels (broadcast, online, cinema, social). Run the spot beyond the licence and you owe another fee. Decide the media plan before casting, because it changes what the talent costs.
Music. A recognisable track licensed for broadcast can cost more than the shoot. Most TVCs use a composed original, a production-library track licensed for the media plan, or a licensed song where the budget allows. Again, the media plan decides the price.
Both belong in the brief and the quote from day one. The six cost drivers that move any production budget, usage included, are set out in our video production cost guide.
Almost never on television alone. A TVC today is the master for a set of placements, and the shoot should be planned to feed all of them.
Broadcast still sets the rules. Commercials on Singapore free-to-air and subscription television must comply with the Infocomm Media Development Authority's Television and Radio Advertising and Sponsorship Code, which requires advertising to be truthful and not misleading, and carries stricter rules for categories such as alcohol, health products and content aimed at children. The broadcaster checks the spot before it airs, so clearance time belongs in the schedule.
Online placements set their own clocks. YouTube's ad formats, per Google's own specification, include skippable ads that viewers can skip after 5 seconds, non-skippable ads of 15 or 20 seconds (30 seconds on TV screens only), and bumper ads of up to 6 seconds. That means the same campaign needs a 30, a 15, a 6 and often a vertical 9:16 for social, and a spot that only works at 30 seconds has wasted most of its media budget.
Scoot's Travel Deserves Better is the pattern: the main commercial and a gifting cut, two placements from one campaign shoot. Tiger Brokers' Trade Now, Settle Later and Ahead of the Game show a brand returning to the format for successive campaigns, and the Association of Banks in Singapore's EDP/EDP+ launch TVC is a broadcast spot for a public-interest message rather than a product. Which formats each platform needs from the same shoot is covered in our platform formats guide.
Typically S$50,000 to S$250,000 and above, and the range is wide because the idea sets the price.
A single-location spot with two actors and a small art department sits at the lower end. A multi-location, multi-day shoot with a large cast, set builds, visual effects and a licensed track sits at the top, before media. The drivers are the same six as any production, crew, shoot days, talent, locations, post-production and deliverables, with talent usage and music as the two TVC-specific additions above. The full Singapore ranges by video type are in our cost guide.
One rule of thumb keeps budgets honest: if the media plan is small, a TVC-scale production is the wrong tool. A brand film or a set of social spots may reach the same audience for a fraction of the cost. The production should be sized to the placement, not the other way around.
Before you brief an agency or production house, your team should:
Eight to twelve weeks from brief to broadcast master is normal in Singapore: two to four weeks of creative development, three to four weeks of pre-production, one to three shoot days, and three to five weeks of post-production, plus broadcaster clearance. Timelines compress when decisions are fast and scope is fixed early.
A TVC if you are buying paid placements and need a spot cut to their lengths. A brand film if the film will live on your own channels and needs to build what the brand means over a longer runtime. Many campaigns need both, and a well-planned shoot can produce the two from one production what makes a brand film work.
Yes, and most do, but only if it was planned for it. A 30 second horizontal spot with the product reveal at second 25 will lose most social viewers before the point. Plan the 15, the 6 and the vertical at the shoot, with the message early, and the same campaign works across paid social.
A short document, usually five to fifteen pages, in which the director explains how they will turn the script into a film: tone, visual style, casting, locations, music and pacing, with reference images. You approve it before the shoot is confirmed, which makes it the cheapest moment to change your mind.
For television, yes. Broadcasters check commercials against IMDA's advertising code before they air, and some categories carry extra rules. For online-only campaigns there is no broadcaster check, but the same truthfulness standards and the platform's own advertising policies still apply.
Agencies develop the idea; production houses make the film. Most TVCs involve both, with the agency briefing and the production house shooting. If you have no agency, a production house with concept development and a director roster can carry the whole job.
Send us the media plan and the message, and we will scope the idea, the crew and the deliverables to fit the placements you are actually buying. Get in touch with the team at hello@emergentfilms.com.
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