On Monday, June 20, TikTok hosted its first-ever company event at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Several leaders of the social media platform were on hand to discuss their vision for the company’s future and its challenges. Executives from TikTok discussed several topics. These included adding shopping functionality, safety challenges, the impact of iOS 14 privacy settings on social media advertising, and the influencer/creator economy.
TikTok Intends To Win More Advertisers Despite Privacy Limitations
Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s president of global operations solutions, revealed the platform currently has hundreds of thousands of advertisers — but is aiming for millions. It plans to achieve this by adding new tools to the platform and implementing a program developed in-house that will report on the quality of ads.
Like other social media sites, TikTok has been seeking new ways to target advertising in the wake of Apple providing users with the option to limit cross-platform tracking. According to Ray Cao, managing director and global head of monetization product, strategy, and operation, TikTok’s platform will include more contextual targeting. Additionally, the platform is taking steps to address quality controls and brand safety issues, which has caused some advertisers to be wary of TikTok in the past.
Francis Stones, TikTok’s head of European brand safety, said the platform’s review process now includes more than images. It also checks sounds, text, and emojis to ensure brands aren’t inadvertently associated with something potentially problematic.
In-Platform Shopping Will Be Expanded
TikTok is currently in the process of globally expanding its live shopping functionality, according to Sofia Hernandez, global head of business marketing. This new feature will allow brands to capitalize on the viral status they can gain from user-created content directly.
These changes should open new opportunities for digital marketers by allowing them to target an audience more accurately. Brands and content creators will be able to enhance their exposure with reduced concern about negative associations, while also gaining a means to make sales.
What Does All This Mean For Users?
Tik Tok wants to shift out of its trending video sharing niche into a more mainstream social media platform that is easier to monetize and generate the parent company more revenue. Tik Tok is trying to reshape its marketing funnel to add more value to advertisers in hopes that advertisers will choose the video sharing platform over the conventional social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Tik Tok has identified that influencers will have to be a large part of that effort and the future for Tik Tok influencers and marketers alike looks bright.
