Author: Jazmin Brooks

By Dani Benowitz, published by Shoot

NEW YORK – IPG Mediabrands and TikTok are joining forces to spearhead a creator and content accelerator initiative. IPG Mediabrands and TikTok will co-create a series of custom programs for IPG Mediabrands’ clients, helping them build an authentic presence on TikTok by tapping into the platform’s community of creators. The two companies will form a bespoke Creator Collective, bringing together a select group of forward-thinking and diverse creators who will provide hands-on guidance to IPG Mediabrands’ clients ensuring that their content is culturally connected, inclusive and resonates with the TikTok community. “Creator Camps,” a quarterly session where creators will provide IPG Mediabrands clients strategic counsel and feedback on their upcoming campaigns, will be the first program of the series.

The Creator Collective forms the central pillar of a three-year, global endeavor between IPG Mediabrands and TikTok that focuses on providing IPG Mediabrands’ agencies and clients with access to TikTok insight and training, first-to-market opportunities, resources and best practices, and research and media trial opportunities.

“IPG Mediabrands clients will now get unique access to the immense content and entertainment capabilities of TikTok,” said Daryl Lee, global CEO, IPG Mediabrands. “As the most improved platform from a media responsibility perspective based on our latest Media Responsibility Index, TikTok has earned this partnership through backing its words with action and integrity.”

“As audience reach declines in traditional formats, it is critical that client budgets fund new ways to connect with audiences,” added Dani Benowitz, president of IPG Mediabrands’ MAGNA. “This partnership will deliver incredible value to our clients and, as importantly, will help all of us learn the power of creating content communities at scale.”

“On TikTok, brands have the unique ability to become creators and storytellers by listening to the community and adopting an always-on approach to their content,” said Blake Chandlee, president of global business solutions, TikTok. “We’re delighted to partner with IPG Mediabrands and help their clients tap into trends, create a steady stream of content that resonates with our community, and embrace the creativity and culture that makes TikTok such an incredible platform.”

TikTok and IPG Mediabrands have also committed to identifying new ways to foster diversity, equity and inclusion on and off the platform. The two companies will collaborate to develop innovative, creative strategies to benefit nonprofit organizations and elevate underrepresented communities on the platform, and TikTok was a recent participant in the Equity Upfront, hosted by IPG Mediabrands’ MAGNA.
 

Read the article at Shoot

By Michelle Castillo, published by Cheddar
 
During the pandemic, TikTok experienced a meteoric rise in downloads and engagement as people turned towards the short-form, DIY video service for entertainment.
 
“TikTok has been able to build and grow a user base and kind of break through aside from just the concept of short-form video having music attached to it,” said Nick Cicero, Conviva vice president of strategy. “TikTok introduced a new voice into the social platforms.”
 
And big tech took notice.
 
More than just flattery, established platforms are learning that if they want to keep their audiences from trying something new they’ll have to add those features. Instagram debuted Remix on Reels last week, a play on TikTok’s famous Duets feature that lets users split-screen other clips and react to them. In mid-March, YouTube released YouTube Shorts, its own TikTok competitor. Earlier in November, Snapchat launched Spotlight. Rather than off-the-cuff daily moments, the tab highlights more meme-driven, hijinks-capturing content similar to what people would find on — you guessed it — TikTok.
 
With more similar services on the market, there are questions if TikTok can remain king especially as it chases after advertiser dollars. But, while most social media posts rely on massive follower counts to become popular, TikTok’s algorithm makes it easier for one-off creations to go viral from anyone. That’s something most platforms won’t find easy to replicate.
 
“Fundamentally TikTok is going to be a better place for brands,” Cicero said. “The main thing is because it’s more public…you combine the open nature and the ability for content to be shared quickly, it offers a really unique way for brands to connect with people that they haven’t in the past.”
 
While there may be concerns that people migrate away from TikTok to other services, it may only be a temporary blip rather than a death knell. Another oft-copied app, Snapchat, has also found continued success despite its main features being copied by Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, YouTube Stories, Pinterest Story Pins, and Twitter Fleets. The company said it is expecting 56 to 60 percent year-over-year revenue growth during its latest earnings report in February.
 
Data from Apptopia shows that while Instagram’s U.S. session times climbed 13.2 percent year-over-year from March 2020 to March 2021, TikTok’s session times also increased 7.4 percent during the same time frame showing both apps could grow at the same time. Another study of more than 20,000 Americans from Piplsay Research showed a little under one-third said they are active on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
 
Unlike Snapchat, which has always had a solid core youth base and sought to expand to more users, the pandemic piqued cross-generational interest for TikTok. These users will continue to evolve and grow with the platform rather than be drawn to other spaces, similar to what happened with Snapchat, Cicero pointed out.
 
And, interest from brands is there, meaning revenue is likely to follow. IPG Mediabrands and TikTok launched the Creator Collective on Tuesday. The new initiative will pair top TikTok creators with brands to help advise on strategy, as well as create quarterly Creator Camps to teach marketers the best way to utilize the platform for upcoming campaigns.
 
“TikTok gives them the ability to create some really unique content — and it’s wide open,” Cicero said.
 

Read the article at Cheddar

By Allison Weissbrot, published in Campaign

The platform will host creator camps for IPG Mediabrands agencies and clients to better understand how to connect with its audience.

 

If you’re not showing up on TikTok as an authentic member of the community, you’re not doing it right.

To help agencies and marketers better tap into the platform’s unique culture, TikTok has partnered with IPG Mediabrands on a three-year global creator program.

The first of its kind partnership includes a global Creator Collective, with creators hand-selected by TikTok that IPG Mediabrands clients can tap into for strategic advice, as well as quarterly intensive creator camps with bespoke curriculums.

While the partnership also includes the typical media-platform trade-offs, like discounts and first looks at new products, Mediabrands wanted to do something different that its clients couldn’t get anywhere else, said Dani Benowitz, president of IPG’s Magna US.

“We wanted to bring something special to our clients,” she said. “We thought content was the way to do it because of how important it is on these platforms. How do we get our clients really immersed in this revolution?”

The first creator camp will kick off in Q2 as a two-day virtual learning session that educates brands on TikTok’s culture, product features and the language used by its audience. Brands will walk away with a portfolio they can use for an upcoming campaign, as well as a toolkit for how to use TikTok in the future.

The program will start in North America, with ambitions to scale globally in every market where Mediabrands operates, and a goal to hold camps in-person when it’s safe to do so.

“We want to keep camps bespoke and specific, so we’re very intentional about building curriculum,” said Khartoon Weiss, head of global agency and accounts at TikTok. “We will look at creators who understand all of the opportunities to bring different verticals to life and are experts in those fields.”

The program aims to give brands that are still finding their way on TikTok a better understanding of how to show up natively and latch on to emerging trends, artists and cultural moments in order to drive sales. The best way to do that is to learn from the creators themselves, Benowitz said.

“As brands start to work with these creators, it’s going to have to be done organically,” she said. “It’s going to be less of a paid influencer relationship.”

Looking to the future

TikTok intends to iterate on camps as the program evolves to help brands take advantage of emerging trends. For example, TikTok plans to work with IPG Mediabrands commerce agency, Reprise, as creator commerce takes off on the platform.

“You’ve seen TikTok clear shelves,” Weiss said. “We want to do this with brands in the IPG Mediabrands portfolio. We will lean into the elements of their business and ours that are emerging and will continue to drive importance in the marketplace.”

Benowitz also sees opportunities to get in on the ground floor with TikTok as the company partners with media companies and builds out its own original programming. “You’ll see brands tap into that in a big way,” she said.

In addition to innovation, diversity, equity and inclusion will play a key role in the partnership. TikTok will select a diverse group of creators and will train brands on how to reach communities that live on the platform. After all, TikTok is the home of Gen Z, which is the most diverse generation in U.S. history.

Like most agencies, Mediabrands is making a concerted effort to be more diverse and inclusive, not just internally but also in how it spends its clients’ media dollars. The group recently hosted its first diversity, equity and inclusion upfront to help clients direct more spend to BIPOC-owned or targeted media companies.

“We recognize how important the audience is,” Benowitz said. “It’s being underserved in terms of media spend. Part of what we are doing with TikTok is figuring out better ways to speak to them.”

TikTok hits the mainstream

The IPG Mediabrands deal is the third major partnership TikTok has inked with a large agency group in the past year, a sign of maturity for the growing platform. TikTok signed its first U.S. agency partnership with Horizon Media in November, followed by a broad deal with WPP focused on brand safety and ad innovation in February.

“The fact we can develop this kind of initiative and globally scale it to meet the needs of a network like IPG Mediabrands marks a new milestone for TikTok,” Weiss said.

For Mediabrands, which launched a full-fledged content studio in November and has a few Cannes Lions under its belt, starting the partnership with a focus on content made sense.

“Media agencies don’t just buy and plan media anymore,” Benowitz said. “The whole experience is what we’re all about.”

Aside from Magna and Reprise, Mediabrands’ other constituent agencies include UM, Initiative, Orion and Rapport.

A few factors played into formalizing the partnership now. Media coverage and speculation around TikTok’s control by the Chinese government that was rampant in the fall has mostly subsided. TikTok also scored well on Mediabrands Media Responsibility Index, which grades platforms’ adherence to the group’s Media Responsibility Principles.

But FOMO, or fear of missing out, played a part as well, Benowitz said.

“As they’ve become more mainstream, and they have so quickly, and we see other [agencies] doing it, we start to say, ‘What can I do for my brands and how can they get involved?’” she said.

 

Read the article in Campaign