LAS VEGAS — TikTok has transcended being just a hub for dance challenges and youthful exuberance; it’s now a cultural powerhouse with over 160 million monthly active users in the US alone.
Advertisers are taking note. TikTok is expected to take up to 2.6% of total digital ad spend worldwide in 2024, eMarketer forecasts.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Tim Natividad, US Head of Enterprise Sales, TikTok, explains how the company will get there.
TikTok’s Surge in Media Landscape
“Content moves at the speed of culture,” declares Tim Natividad, US Head of Enterprise Sales at TikTok, reflecting on the platform’s explosive growth and its evolving role in the digital media ecosystem.
According to Natividad, recent research indicates that “outside of streaming, when the average American has a free hour of spare time, they actually choose to use it on TikTok.” This shift is reshaping domestic life, with users sharing content as a form of communication. “My love language with my wife now is actually, ‘Have you seen the TikToks that I sent you?'”
The Viral Engine: Creators Driving Trends
The TikTok platform thrives on the creativity of over 2 million creators, turning it into a trendsetting arena. Natividad emphasizes the significance of creator-led marketing, which was once a “leap of faith” but is now a major force in brand engagement.
“The best ad experiences are built on top of great user experiences,” he explains, highlighting TikTok Pulse, an advertising product that allows brands to place their messages alongside the top 4% of trending content.
As the platform evolves, so does the approach to advertising. Brands are increasingly comfortable with creator-led marketing, which is now visible across various media channels, not just on TikTok. “Our platform wouldn’t be anything if it wasn’t for the creators on our platform,” Natividad acknowledges.
A Full-Funnel Marketing Machine
But TikTok isn’t just staying in the branded-content or influencer lanes. I is positioning itself as a tool for marketers across the entire sales funnel. From branding to shopping and performance, TikTok is not just confined to mobile phones. “We’ve announced our out of home partnership,” Natividad says, which extends brand reach to various physical spaces like billboards and movie theaters, embodying the “TikTok IRL” theme for the year.
With the “TikTok made me buy it” trend amassing over 86 billion views, TikTok is capitalizing on this by introducing its video shopping ad suite. Natividad shares that this allows for “a 2x return on ad spend performance” according to Nielsen. He believes in the power of inspiration in shopping, stating, “Discoverability shopping at the end of the day is a luxury event, a leisure event, something you do in your spare time, it is in another word entertainment.”
The interview was conducted by Mike Shields, CEO, Shields Strategic Consulting.
You’re watching “AI: Powering an Optimized Advertising Ecosystem,” presented by DoubleVerify. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
