SOCIAL
A Day of Learning at TikTok Creative Partner Day
TikTok-First Content Delivers
One of the biggest drivers of success on TikTok is creating TikTok-native content. This means content that is tailored specifically for TikTok, which typically is in vertical format, uses text, has sound on by default, grabs the viewer’s attention early on, and is creator-driven.
Content with these components also serves best as TikTok ads, which have an impact on viewers across the entire marketing funnel. TikTok-first ads lead to higher view-through and completion rates. They also drive purchase intent by 60%, with viewers intending to make a purchase between 3 to 6 months, depending on the types of products and services being displayed. TikTok-first content can also be used effectively as ads across other channels such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and even television.
Esteban Ribero, Global Research Leader – Marketing Science, recommends that brands take a “walk, run, and then fly” approach to get the most out of their TikTok creative. This involves starting by building performance on TikTok with TikTok-first creative and then eventually taking it off-platform for efficiency.
TikTok is looking to make it easier for brands to get content for ads with its TikTok Creative Exchange, a platform helping marketers connect with creative partners for creative asset production. After being around for a year and a half, the program is planned to expand globally and feature different pricing, packaging, and tiering to give advertisers more flexibility.
Takeaway: Creative is the key ingredient for successful TikTok ads. Videos that align with the TikTok experience will not only perform well on TikTok but can also be repurposed across other video experiences, allowing advertisers to not only drive impact but also benefit from efficiency, such as cost savings.
TikTok is Continuing to Invest in Sound
With 93% of TikTok users watching videos with sound on, audio is an integral part of the experience. Because of this, TikTok is continuing to expand the audio options that brands have through its Commercial Music Library, a collection of pre-cleared audio that can be used for organic and paid content on TikTok.
Along with expanding partnerships like Epidemic Sounds, William Gruger, who heads Global Music Programs, shared its Emerging Artist Program is an area of focus for the platform. With EAP, brands can access select popular and trend-adjacent songs to use in their advertising efforts. While these artists aren’t household names like Drake or Lizzo, they offer brands another avenue for incorporating music to make their content more engaging in a more cost-effective way. By partnering with these artists, brands also can grow with them, which can be quite beneficial in the long run, especially if they become bigger artists.
To drive the discovery of CML and partner artists, TikTok is also relying heavily on ongoing editorial support, such as bi-weekly playlists that are built around different themes and key moments in time.
Takeaway: Whether it’s leveraging the CML, tapping one of TikTok’s Sound partners for popular music licensing, or custom sound creation, brands of all sizes and budgets are getting more options for leveraging music in their content, which allows them to better drive towards their desired performance.
Brands Are Going All in on TikTok
Garland Hill, Head of Growth Business, led a client panel featuring Jenna Habayeb, Chief Marketing Officer at IPSY, Jason Eskin, VP of Digital Marketing at Disney Studios, and Erin Franzman, VP of Content Social Strategy at CBS. The panel highlighted how brands are embracing TikTok and some of the ways they are approaching the platform.
Habayeb explained how IPSY takes a tiered approach to producing TikTok content. It relies on a combination of its content studio, in-house TikTok creators on its social team, and paid and gifted TikTok native creators for sponsored content. Eskin revealed how his team categorizes content into two buckets — low contextual content and high contextual content. The former is focused on driving awareness and requires little knowledge for viewers to understand and enjoy, while the latter is focused on engaging with fans and requires some prior understanding. Lastly, Franzman discussed how CBS sees value in the comments left on videos. She often analyzes them to understand viewers’ behavior, including whether they are streaming shows or watching them in real-time, which then can be used to inform its strategy.
Although the panelists noted their current successes, they expressed a desire for more data across TikTok and other social media platforms to measure the impact of their efforts. Additionally, they would like a standardized method for measurement between the platforms. Hill said TikTok is continuing to work on initiatives related to data and measurement and cited post-campaign surveys as a potential solution.
Takeaway: Successful brands on TikTok are mindful of how they produce and share content and how they evaluate its performance. This involves sourcing content from in-house teams and external partners, defining a content strategy, and analyzing how the community responds to the content.
Creator Marketing is the Now and the Future
During the final session, the Head of Client Operations for TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions, Andrew Banis, discussed how TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM) is allowing brands to leverage the power and impact of creator marketing.
Acknowledging that creator marketing is much different than the marketing that brands have traditionally used, he sees this difference as an opportunity. In addition to driving results across various business objectives, ranging from awareness to conversion, creators help brands lean into “TikTok’s DNA.” As experts in trends, community stewards and talented producers, creators, and brand partnerships can go beyond just sponsored content. Creators can aid in consumer research and insights, creative strategy, product development, and much more.
With the value that creators bring, Banis says that creator marketing will become core to a brand’s success. Brands will learn to communicate with their customers better than ever, and agencies and technologies will evolve to support more creator collaborations.
Takeaway: TTCM has accelerated creator marketing across TikTok. A majority of brands are still leveraging the marketplace as a way to find creators to feature their products and services in videos. But, as brands increasingly recognize that creators can also have a place in corporate boardrooms, they will source and partner with creators in different aspects.
SOCIAL
X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’

X is making a push to win over advertisers in the holiday season, by promoting its opportunities in “Q5”, which covers the post-Christmas to mid-January period.
As explained by X:
“During [Q5], we see reduced CPMs and cost-per-conversion as consumers shop for post-holiday deals and products to support their New Year’s ambitions. Last year, X saw a 5% reduction in the average CPM and a 27% reduction in the average cost-per-conversion1.”
Which could present new opportunity to reach a larger audience with your promotions, if indeed they are engaging on X over the holiday period.
“Q5 is filled with a wide variety of tent-pole moments, ranging from the holidays to sports, entertainment and more. With a surge of engagement around these conversations, your brand can remain relevant to your audiences while driving maximum ROI.”
X says that, based on engagement data from last year, there are a lot of potential topics of interest for brands.
X also notes that sports video views are surging in the app, up almost 25% YoY over the past 6 months, while vertical video is also gaining momentum.
“Vertical video is the fastest growing surface on X. Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day. On many days, vertical video accounts for around 20% of all time spent on the platform.”
Though I would advise some caution in trusting these data points.
In recent months, various questions have been raised as to what X counts as a video “view” versus an impression, which is when a post is shown in-feed.
Technically, X counts video views like this:
“The main X video view metric is triggered when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and sees at least 50% of the video player in-view. This applies to View metrics for both uploaded videos and live broadcasts.”
But that’s different to the actual view count that’s displayed on posts:
“Anyone who is logged into X who views a post counts as a view, regardless of where they see the post (e.g. Home, Search, Profiles, etc.) or whether or not they follow the author. If you’re the author, looking at your own post also counts as a view.”
Even worse, X counts multiple views from the same person in that count:
“Multiple views may be counted if you view a post more than once, but not all views are unique. For example, you could look at a post on web and then on your phone, and that would count as two views.”
So you can see how the public view count on video posts can massively overstate how many people actually watched a clip, which could be why X is reporting such big spikes in engagement. It just depends on which “view” metric it’s referring to here, actual views or exposure in stream.
Which makes all of these numbers a little difficult to determine, while X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino have also continued to amplify misleading engagement stats via their own X profiles, muddying the waters as to what kind of actual reach and engagement you can expect.
And that’s before you consider the concerns that other advertisers have had with their promotions potentially being displayed alongside harmful or offensive content in the app.
But depending on how you feel about these aspects, and where your target audience is active, it could be worth considering X for your post-holiday promotions, as you look to maximize sales activity over the holiday period.
It’s also worth considering that with fewer big-name brands taking prime spots in the app, there may also be additional opportunity to reach people via X promotions.
There may be value, depending on your strategic thinking, though I would be keeping an eye on actual engagement
You can read more of X’s Q5 insights here.
SOCIAL
Gaza and Instagram make an explosive mix in Hollywood

Gal Gadot regularly posts demands for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Drew Angerer
Audrey Pilon-Topkara
Hollywood celebrities are paying the price for taking sides in the Gaza war — plastering their social media accounts with slogans such as “Free Palestine” or “I stand with Israel”.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for starring in “Wonder Woman”, has expressed unyielding support for her country since October 7, when Hamas fighters burst out of Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
“I stand with Israel, you should too,” she declared to her 109 million Instagram followers.
She has continued to regularly publish or share posts demanding that Hamas release the civilians it is holding — earning her both approval and criticism.
“While you’re at it, can you use your platform to share all the missing and killed innocent Palestinians too?” a user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote in response to one of her posts.
In reprisal for the October 7 attacks, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip and launched a ground invasion, killing more than 17,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas government.
The Instagram account of American model Gigi Hadid, who is of Palestinian descent and followed by 79 million, has spent less attention on fashion in recent weeks.
She cited the “systemic mistreatment of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel”.
“Stop spreading lies. You and your sisters are antisemitic,” said one comment, with many others expressing similar views.
Famous stars can generate equally strong admiration and repulsion from the public, especially if they comment on divisive issues.
Well before social media, boxer Muhammad Ali, the actor Jane Fonda and singer Bob Dylan were adored or hated over their opposition to the Vietnam War.
More recently the actors Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie and Sean Penn showed their support for Ukraine by visiting the country, in moves that were approved by most of their Western fans.
– Insults –
But the Israel-Palestinian issue is more divisive than most, exposing celebrities to even fiercer backlashes.
Kylie Jenner, the half-sister of socialite Kim Kardashian, shared a pro-Israeli post with her 399 million Instagram followers shortly after October 7, which according to US media she deleted an hour later after being hit with insults.
The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency in November for comments she made at a pro-Palestinian rally, for which she later apologised.
Melissa Barrera, star of the fifth and sixth instalments of the “Scream” franchise, was cut from the cast of the seventh by the producers, who said they had “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred”.
The Mexican had denounced what she called “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
Celebrities who take sides in the conflict have “a lot to lose and little to gain”, said Nicolas Vanderbiest, founder of the public relations firm Saper Vedere in Brussels.
Producers and sponsors have little appetite for mixing geopolitics and business, he said.
In this issue, two “extremely organised” communities are on the lookout, creating a “herd affect”, Vanderbiest added.
Tom Cruise prevented his own agent from losing her job after she had referred to “genocide” on her Instagram account, according to the cinema trade press.
Celebrities could just stay quiet, but with this conflict there is “pressure to pronounce” and no immunity from criticism, said Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia, a professor of information and communication at Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.
“Silence is seen as taking a position,” Dakhlia said. “So we are in a situation where you are forced to take sides, and not necessarily with much nuance.”
American singer and actor Selena Gomez, with 429 million Instagram followers, has been criticised for not taking a stronger stance on the issue.
Along with hundreds of others, including Hadid, singer Jennifer Lopez and actor Joaquin Phoenix, she took a middle road, signing a petition calling for a ceasefire and the safe release of hostages.
Earlier, hundreds of celebrities, including Gadot, had signed an open letter thanking US President Joe Biden for supporting “the Jewish people” and calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
Very few signed both.
SOCIAL
More than 10 million people have signed up for X in December, CEO says By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: ‘X’ logo is seen on the top of the headquarters of the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, California, U.S., July 30, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
(Reuters) – More than 10 million people have signed up for X in December, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a post on the social media platform on Thursday.
This comes as the company, formerly known as Twitter, risks losing as much $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as major brands pause their marketing campaigns on the platform, according to the New York Times.
X, which does not regularly release user data, could not immediately be reached for comment on how the December sign-ups compared to average or why Yaccarino disclosed the figure. Billionaire owner Elon Musk said in July the site had 540 million monthly users.
Several companies, including Apple (NASDAQ:), Disney, Warner Bros Discovery , Comcast (NASDAQ:), Lions Gate Entertainment , Paramount Global, and IBM (NYSE:) said in November they were pausing their advertisements on X.
Musk cursed advertisers that fled the platform after he agreed with a user who falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people.
A report from watchdog group Media Matters found ads from major companies next to X posts that supported Nazism. The platform filed a lawsuit in late November against Media Matters accusing it of defamation.
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Google Core Update Done Followed By Intense Search Volatility, New Structured Data, Google Ads Head Steps Down & 20 Years Covering Search
-
SEO7 days ago
GPT Store Set To Launch In 2024 After ‘Unexpected’ Delays
-
WORDPRESS2 days ago
8 Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Website
-
MARKETING7 days ago
The Complete Guide to Becoming an Authentic Thought Leader
-
PPC7 days ago
How to Get Clients for Your Agency (That You’ll Love Working With)
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived
-
MARKETING6 days ago
OpenAI’s Drama Should Teach Marketers These 2 Lessons
-
MARKETING5 days ago
How Does Success of Your Business Depend on Choosing Type of Native Advertising?