This year, social media will play perhaps the biggest role in consumer marketing and advertising of all time. To be successful, marketers need to have a clear understanding of how consumer behavior on social media has changed, which platforms they are now turning to, and be confident they have the tools and resources to remain agile, to meet the changing digital landscape and the emerging creator movement.
Facebook and TikTok recently shared similar announcements focused on new partnerships and product updates. Here, we break them down and explain how they’re helping brands compete in 2021 and beyond.
Paving a future of digital growth, brand safety and innovative campaigns
In TikTok’s official blog sharing the news, the latest partnership with WPP will offer the company’s customers “unique access and capabilities” on the platform. More specifically, the holding will get early access to advertising products that TikTok is developing, including API integrations and next-gen formats, including augmented reality offerings.
The news comes about a month after WPP announced its five-year growth plan, which highlights its commitment to continue expanding into “high-growth areas” of trade, experience and technology. Those areas currently make up 25% of its business, but WPP wants them to account for up to 40% by 2025. How does it plan to get there? At the time, WPP pointed to digital advertising as the key factor it would emphasize – as opposed to traditional advertising.
GroupM, WPP’s media buying arm, will play an important role in the partnership in terms of brand safety. The company will work closely with TikTok to establish a process to comply with the GARM Brand Safety and Suitability Framework, thoroughly evaluate integrations with third-party verification providers, and develop meaningful first-party inclusion and exclusion controls. More broadly, the companies will also conduct market-leading research to guide brands to best practices and arm them with data-driven strategies to drive audience engagement and innovation opportunities.
Deeper insights, diverse voices and early access
“More brands around the world are embracing the impact TikTok is having to create moments that not only shape culture but drive business value,” said Blake Chandlee, VP of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “We both share a common goal: to deliver great campaigns for our clients that resonate authentically, inspire creativity and bring joy to our growing audience,” he continued.
What steps are the two taking in the partnership to fulfill this mission?
First and foremost, TikTok outlines that it will work with the app’s “creator community” to bring exclusive opportunities to WPP’s customers. In addition, WPP’s teams “have access to bespoke training and certification programs delivered by the TikTok team to ensure they are delivering best-in-class strategies to clients.”
To encourage diversity and create exclusive collaboration opportunities with select advertisers, WPP will be the Lead Agency Development Partner for new creator-focused APIs “that will integrate WPP’s market-leading brand safety methodology while leveraging unique brand and marketer data signals .”
Controls to exclude advertiser topics in News Feed
While TikTok focuses on content development, other platforms focus on product developments that address privacy and security.
Facebook, for example, in a new push announced its trial of advanced topic exclusion controls for advertisers, which will allow companies to prevent their ads from appearing next to certain topics in the news feed based on their brand suitability preferences.
This type of process would help the platform to more accurately and effectively define the ad presented on the platform, especially in the newsfeed. “A children’s toy company might want to avoid content related to a new crime series so they can choose the theme ‘crime and tragedy,'” the announcement explained.
For those of you who want to stay on top of things, Facebook currently offers exclusions for “news,” “politics,” “games,” and “religious and spiritual” content for video campaigns. Given that the latest test relates to a much more specific set of categories and the variability and personalization of the newsfeed, it will likely take some time to get those efforts right. “This product development and testing and learning in the newsfeed will take up much of the year,” the company said.
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