TikTok launches TikTok for Business, advises brands: “Dont make ads, make TikToks”
- Thursday, June 25th, 2020
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TikTok has launched TikTok for Business, describing it as “a new global brand and platform that is home to all current and future marketing solutions, giving brands opportunities for creative storytelling and ways to meaningfully engage the growing community.
In launching the platform, TikTok said it was inviting advertisers to flip traditional marketing on its head, and place their brand at the forefront of innovative storytelling and creative content for their audiences in new and surprising ways, summed up by the line: ‘Don’t Make Ads, Make TikToks’. TikTok is also testing a platform called Creator Marketplace, where brands can discover and partner with innovative content creators on paid brand campaigns, in select regions.
Stuart Flint, Head of Europe, Global Business Solutions at TikTok said: “Weve seen more and more brands embrace the unique and creative ways the TikTok community expresses themselves through video. The experience is real, light-hearted and fun, and as weve seen over the course of these dynamic times, users and brands have the ability to make a meaningful and positive impact on their communities. Were excited to officially introduce TikTok For Business and continue building products, services and resources for marketers to engage their communities in a new and innovative way, and show them how TikTok is a creative and valuable marketing platform.”
Ad formats available to advertisers will include TopView, which is the first ad that appears when the app is opened. Brand takeovers are 3-5-second ads featuring images or videos, while in-feed videos are video ads of up to 60 seconds in length. And Hashtag Challenges enable brands to invite TikTok users to create content around a subject of the brand’s choice. Finally, Branded Scan enables a brand to add a brand or product to the foreground or background of a video in augmented reality form.
“The magic of TikTok is not just the chance to create, but the chance to discover – and to be found,” said Katie Puris, Managing Director, Global Business Marketing at TikTok. “With TikTok For Business, our goal is to give marketers the tools to be discovered and connect with the broader communities around them.”
She added that TikTok for Business presents “an original opportunity for marketers to create work that becomes a part of our community. On TikTok, people can become so engaged and inspired by a marketing campaign, that theyll create their own version of it. Brands can actually experience the impact their campaigns have on people.”