TikTok promises new ad formats and a better future at NewFronts

Under new US leadership and with a tumultuous year behind it, TikTok returned to NewFronts Tuesday night to reassure advertisers that it’s still (mostly) the same platform and make the case that its new American iteration, which has been live for two months, is actually superior.

“What’s standing here today…is the strongest, most secure, most creative platform we have ever built,” Khartoon Weiss, TikTok’s VP and GM of global business solutions, told the audience at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York. “Our audience has never been bigger, they’'ve never been more engaged, and our community is thriving.”

At the NewFront event, Weiss introduced Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s USDS joint venture, who explained his mandate to “protect US user data and algorithms” while “[enabling] the same global platform and experience that our users and advertisers and partners have come to know and love.”

As part of the pitch to get advertisers to continue to invest in the platform, TikTok unveiled a range of new ad formats, including:

• Logo Takeover, which allows advertisers to “co-brand with TikTok on the logo launch page when users open the app.”
• Prime Time, which delivers up to three ads to one user within 15 minutes on the For You page, designed with live events, “tentpole moments,” and high-use periods in mind.
• TopReach, which combines the TopView ad, which is the one first viewed when users open the app, with TopFeed, which is the first viewed in-feed ad, into one package for big advertiser moments.
• Pulse Tastemakers and Pulse Mentions, two new additions to the Pulse Suite offering that guarantee advertisers adjacency next to trending and brand-safe content. Pulse Tastemakers allows brands to align their ads with a set of “hand-selected” creators while Pulse Mentions allows brands to place ads next to organic content about them or their product category more broadly.

How much is too much? While some believe the new additions could be disruptive and thereby turn viewers off to the platform, TikTok made the case that these types of personalized ads are necessary to break through in the attention economy.

“We’re going to try to move this business from a programmed, average demographic media buying behavior to deeply personalized targeting built just for you in your For You feed,” Weiss said.

Coming for TV? TikTok played heavily on the recent success of original series on its platforms, repeating the phrase, “Shh, my show is on,” throughout the presentation and showcasing TikTok as the place to go for “top-tier entertainment.” The Bittarverse series from jewelry brand Alexis Bittar was presented as one example of a successful brand activation on the platform.

“People come to TikTok to watch…not just for bite-sized clips, but for full immersive entertainment,” Presser told the audience.

Not addressed at the event: The Trump administration’s $10 billion fee from TikTok’s new US investors in exchange for brokering the sale, which has caused further concern for some about the company’s financial strength. Perhaps that explains at least some of the new ad offerings.