TIKTOK LAUNCHES ADVERTISING PLATFORM

TikTok has launched a global marketing platform for brands as it seeks to capitalise on its surge in user growth with greater ad revenue and more clients.

The TikTok for Business platform advises brands: “Don’t make ads. Make TikToks.” It acts as a self-serve system that provides marketers tools to be “creative storytellers” and “meaningfully engage with the TikTok community”.

TikTok is also testing a platform called Creator Marketplace in select regions, including the UK, in which brands can discover and partner content creators on paid brand campaigns, with TikTok acting as an intermediary and providing administrative support if needed.

Campaign understands that creative agencies have been using the Creator Marketplace platform, although it is designed presently to be used by individual creators. TikTok does not currently have a partnership scheme in the style of Snapchat, which launched a Creative Partners Program with select agencies in 2018. However, there is on ongoing education initiative in which TikTok provides training to creative agencies on how to use tools on the platform.

The move follows the Ofcom Online Nation report, released yesterday (Wednesday), that showed interest in TikTok was continuing to surge in the UK even before this year’s coronavirus pandemic boosted social media usage generally. TikTok more than doubled its reach among adults in the UK between January and April (by 5.4 million to 12.9 million), Ofcom said, citing Comscore data.

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