Hot Takes: TikTok Comes To TV
TikTok is coming to TV.
It’s starting off on Amazon TV at first, but we’d be shocked if it didn’t quickly expand its footprint throughout the entire TV ecosystem.
And TikTok isn’t the first social media platform to make the leap to TV—YouTube has been available on TV for many years, and the amount of YouTube video that’s watched on an actual TV set has been growing rapidly.
We asked our TVREV Thought Leaders Circle members for their hot takes on how the launch of TikTok would affect TV and what the blurring of social video and TV means for the industry and for advertisers.
Mediaocean’s CEO, Bill Wise noted that many social platforms have “stream-worthy” lean back video.
Social media may move to the metaverse someday but it's getting a lot of play on TV now. In the case of platforms like TikTok and YouTube, it makes sense that people want to lean back and let those algos take over the big screen. Facebook, Instagram, Snap, and Pinterest also have lots of video content that is stream-worthy. For brands, the key to success is building creative assets that can scale across any device and personalizing them based on signals of context and identity. At Mediaocean, through the combination of Flashtalking and 4C, we can bridge across social and TV to meet in the middle with tools for cross-channel video.
LG Ads Solutions Head of Research, Justin Fromm noted that advertisers will benefit from the device graphs OEMs are building around CTV devices as social media usage on TV increases.
While mobile remains the primary platform for social, connected TVs, as the nexus of home entertainment, are positioned to be an important screen for social platforms going forward. To understand this, one needs look no further than YouTube, which drives massive amounts of viewership across several apps on CTV. Most instructive is the YouTube Kids app, which is building brand favorability and routines among the youngest viewers. The broader turn to video content on social also presages a greater shift of social consumption on CTVs, which bodes well for advertisers as well, given the device graphs that many OEMs are building around their CTV devices in the home.
Tubular Labs Head of Content & Product Marketing, Kate Ginsburg focused on the importance of being able to measure social video in a way that allows advertisers to compare it to traditional TV.
As social video is increasingly appearing on TV screens via various platforms, this highlights the ways media are transforming to meet changes in consumer viewing habits—and the need to draw adequate comparisons with linear TV. Transparency around social video audiences drives increased trust and investment from brands, which ultimately puts greater resources into producing higher-quality content specifically for these platforms.
IRIS.TV VP of Marketing, Rohan Castelino made a key point about the importance of context for advertisers as social video moves to the big screen.
With social video further accelerating on TV screens, it’s all the more important that advertisers understand the context in which their ads run. For that to happen, transparency will be key—and critical to monetization of this new type of CTV content
Our TVREV take: TikTok may prove to be very popular on TV. Many people like to binge-watch TikTok videos, which is a TV-like “lean back” activity and they’re happy to let the algorithm serve them up one video after another. So it may prove to be among the best suited of all the social video apps for TV. Add in the introduction of measurement platforms and device graphs that allow advertisers to better compare social video with streaming and linear TV, while taking context into account, and advertisers will also greatly benefit from the melding of video content on the most impactful screen in the house.
