A survey conducted this year across fifteen European markets—compared with the United States and China—reveals a counterintuitive finding: while social media platforms are losing their ability to foster connections, it is in the living room, in front of a shared screen, that Europeans continue to place their trust. For fashion houses, the question is no longer just where to be seen, but where to be believed.
What Social Media Has Stopped Doing
The original promise of social media—to connect people—is eroding. When asked about their perceptions, European respondents overwhelmingly agree that these platforms have lost their ability to create strong social bonds. Figures released by the platforms themselves confirm this assessment from the inside: on Facebook, only 7% of time spent is on content posted by friends, and 17% on Instagram. The news feed has replaced conversation.
That void wasn’t filled elsewhere on an individual screen. It shifted to a room.
The sofa didn’t give way
Four out of five Europeans say that the living room remains the place where they most often watch video content, regardless of the platform. Live streaming, on-demand viewing, subscription services, and free, ad-supported platforms coexist there without being mutually exclusive: it’s less a choice of medium than a loyalty to the setting. And watching together changes the nature of the experience. People under thirty-five, in particular, associate group viewing with a real strengthening of social bonds—a paradox for a generation born into the digital age that seeks, in front of the screen, a form of presence that individual scrolling cannot provide.
The effect is not only social; it also involves memory. An advertisement viewed in a group is remembered better than one viewed alone: the measured difference in recall is 23 points. The living room is not just a space for viewing. It acts as an amplifier.
A hierarchy of trust that no one has decreed
The most striking finding of the survey does not concern viewership, but credibility. When encountering an unfamiliar brand for the first time, 61% of Europeans say they trust it if they discovered it on a live TV channel. That figure drops to 33% for brands discovered on social media. In between, on-demand streaming from national networks and free video platforms occupy intermediate positions, but the order remains consistent across European markets.
This ranking does not exist to the same extent in either the United States or China. It speaks to something specifically European: trust is tied less to the content itself than to the editorial framework that selected it. A curated screen—a schedule, a lineup, a clear editorial responsibility—inherits a level of credibility that an algorithm cannot convey.
Details. There is a 23-point difference between recall of an advertisement viewed alone and recall of an advertisement viewed with others—the difference in recall measured in a coviewing setting versus individual exposure, according to a British survey cited in the European study.
The dilemma that broadcasters didn’t choose
This hierarchy of trust places traditional broadcasters in a position of strength, which they navigate with caution. Several have entered into advanced partnerships with global platforms—one of the most successful agreements, signed this year in France, allows content from an established broadcaster to be available live and on demand on an international streaming platform. Others are opting for a limited presence on open video platforms, primarily for short clips, with the goal of winning back audiences rather than relinquishing control.
The equation remains unstable: every minute of content shared on an open platform also reinforces the narrative that this platform has itself become a legitimate venue for long-form television. Broadcasters are therefore moving toward these platforms—for reasons of reach and, increasingly, to combat misinformation among young audiences—while at the same time pushing back against the very logic that drives them there.
For a brand that chooses where to showcase a product, the lesson goes beyond the medium itself. In Europe, trust is not earned through exposure but through association with a platform that has already proven its curatorial expertise. It remains to be seen whether this hierarchy will hold when the generation that grew up without a TV schedule begins, in turn, to choose where it places its trust.
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