collaborator - your energy brought TikTok House to life.
TikTok's presence at SXSW, where culture, creativity, and technology intersect, allowed us to demonstrate our commitment to our core values and our mission to Inspire Creativity and Spark Joy.
The theme Be What Happens Next resonated throughout the week. Together, we explored how culture on TikTok drives impact, how discovery sparks action, and how creative freedom helps brands grow in a fast-changing world. TikTok is where culture takes root - and takes off - influencing everything from trends to commerce.
Thank you for being part of this inaugural event, for the ideas shared, the connections made, and the inspiration sparked.
We look forward to what’s next...
Kris Boger, General Manager, Global Business Solutions TikTok UKI
What’s Next in AI?
+
Anastasia Evans
Creative Product Lead, TikTok
What we talked about:
Today, we're using AI like a Porsche 911 for a supermarket runcapable of extraordinary performance, but reduced to routine tasks. This session explored how we can unlock its full potential and drive real business transformation.
+ Ali McClintock
SVP, Head of UKI,
Key Takeaways
“ Brands are too focused on productivity and efficiency, instead of growth and value. The real question isn’t ‘How do we implement AI?’ - it's ‘What are the things our company needs to grow, and how can AI help support them?'
Ali McClinock, SVP, Head of UKI, DEPT
What brands should be using AI for:
Finding the right audience
TikTok connects brands to new, high-intent audiences through interest-driven discovery, unlocking fresh opportunities for growth.
Moving at the speed of culture
AI tools can help you stay ahead of the competition. With solutions like TikTok Symphony, you can move from script to productionfinding trends and executing in minutes, not days.
Winning the compressed customer journey
As journeys accelerate and attention fragments, AI helps deliver personalised content that captures interest and drives action.
What’s Next in ?
Joanne Boulos Head of Product UKI+ Nordics, TikTok
Julia Urruzmendi Senior Acquisition Media &
What we talked about:
Traditional search still works but no longer matches how people discover. Today, discovery is about relevance, personalisation and authenticity. It’s about content that shows rather than tells, and trusted recommendations.
Grant Munckle Director, Global Partnerships,
Key Takeaways
“ The digital landscape is changing. The social landscape is changing. You can't ignore TikTok.
Julia Urruzmendi, Parfums Christian Dior
TikTok sits at the intersection of inspiration and action, where you can blend discovery and conversion tactics to drive better results.
Grant Muckle, Sprinklr
How to think about Search on TikTok:
Set KPIs early
This isn’t traditional search, and so it raises new questions about budget ownership - should it sit with social or search teams?
Defining clear KPIs and R&Rs upfront helps set the right strategy from the start.
Unify search and social
Search expertise has traditionally been siloed from social, but that's changing. To succeed, brands need to combine keyword and phrase matching skills with strong content and creative strategies.
Fuel the funnel with Search
TikTok sits at the intersection of inspiration and action, where discovery leads naturally to conversion. In today’s non-linear journeys, Search should be viewed holistically, supporting every stage from first glance to final purchase.
What’s Next in Creativity?
Akshara Sharma
Marketing Solutions Strategist, TikTok
What we talked about:
We explored why creativity on TikTok isn’t static; it evolves with culture and trends. For marketers, this means viewing creativity as a dynamic, ongoing practice - refining content to stay culturally relevant while remaining true to core brand messages.
We discussed the importance of expanding how we think about creativity on TikTok. By embracing a broader view of what effective creative looks like, brands can better understand the full return on their creative investments, creating more impact, often with less.
+ Beth Marchant Senior Strategy Manager, Global Partnerships at System1
isn’t static; it evolves with culture and trends.
We also redefined "return on creative" beyond traditional ROI. It’s not only about measurable outcomes but also the less tangible value - insights that can inform R&D, fuel creative automation, and reveal unexpected audience segments. Creativity and ROI aren’t mutually exclusive on TikTokthey are interconnected.
Every interaction on TikTok is an opportunity to deliver value, earn attention and turn viewers into loyal fans. This makes a compelling case for thinking about creativity more expansively, not just as a campaign output, but as a growth driver.
We highlighted brands leading this approach, including Burberry, Duolingo and Heinz, and shared research developed with System1, offering clear guidance on how to create engaging, effective TikTok content.
Key Takeaways
“
In today's world, you can't buy attention - you have to earn it. People understand they're about to be advertised to - it’s part of the value exchange. Great ads that put on a show are your best defense against creative fatigue.
Beth Marchant, Senior Strategy Manager, Global Partnerships at System1
Principles for more effective creative
Hook attention with joyful, surprising entertainment
Entertainment that sparks happiness and surprise is key to capturing and sustaining user attention - it makes content more memorable and more likely to drive engagement.
Prioritise early brand recognition
Branding in the first two seconds matters. The earlier your brand appears, the greater the chance it will be remembered and positively associated with the content.
Shorter ads command better attention. A tight, engaging narrative increases the likelihood of capturing viewers before they scroll on. Keep it short and sharp
Does Tech Drive Creativity or Vice Versa?
CEO and Founder, Uncharted
What we talked about:
It’s unanimous: tech drives creativity as much as creativity drives tech.
The big creative idea matters more than ever - but it also needs to be simpler than ever. As amplification scales across platforms, creative work becomes more fragmented, so clarity is key.
AI can be a powerful driver of the big idea. Think of it as a co-pilot, not an autopilot - helping your creative reach the right audience at the right moment, and making the message land with greater impact.
+ Hattie Matthews
+ Dan Wood Managing Director, Creative Futures UK, MediaCom
+
Johnny Watters ECD, Ogilvy
Key Takeaways “
People hate advertising?
They don’t; they just hate sh*t advertising.
Johnny
Watters,
ECD, Ogilvy
“ Think about bias and potential prejudice inherently happening with AI. How are you making sure your tech teams teaching the AI are diverse.
Hattie Matthews, CEO Uncharted
Be curious
For marketers to stay ahead, we need them to understand the tools available to them. Be curious and play with AI, try to integrate it into existing workflows. AI won't take your job, but the person who knows how to use AI will.
Bring new voices and help them
All brands have is creative to stand out. It's important to bring new voices into the process and give them a media skillet. That's why creatives need to understand the tools to get the most out of them including AI, so they can save time on things they don’t want to do.
Have a clear lens of the value you offer
Humans still have the ability to sift through, and hold businesses to account over the rigour we put into what’s good. So brands must have a clear lens through which they build creative and truly offer value to users.
Head of EMEA Sales GTM, Adobe VP, Smartly Solutions
Marketing is no longer a department; it’s an engine of culture, commerce, and content. It can be difficult for brands to move at the speed of culture and make the most of trends on TikTok. But with the changing ecosystem, tools are evolving too. With TikTok solutions, like Symphony and TikTok One, creating campaigns from ideation to production is easier than ever. The best bit? We have phenomenal partners who can help bring extra efficiencies, easily, so your teams can focus on what really matters.
Key Takeaways
“ The way audiences react changes how brands make their Creative. We're in a world where many of the best ideas come from your community.
Ed Lyon, VP Solutions, Smartly
The marketing team is changing
Marketing today is a real-time system, not a static function. Speed, flexibility, and creativity must work together. Unlearn how you work and the idea of linear flows of a project, think what the most efficient way to do something is with AI integration.
We’re all in this together
Partnerships and platforms are the new infrastructure. They enable scale, agility, and impact across content, commerce, and culture.
Rip up the rulebook
The brands leading in 2025 will be the ones who rethink their creative supply chains from production to performance.
TikTok Shapes
The Way the World Shops?
Kris Boger
General Manager, Global Business Solutions, TikTok
Travis Clinger
Chief Connectivity & Ecosystem Officer and GM, LiveRamp
What we talked about:
TikTok is shaping how the world shopsthrough culture, creativity, and measurable commerce. TikTok is where discovery starts. It meets people at every step of their journey, from the first scroll to a spark of curiosity to an active search for answers or inspiration.
The panel unpacked how measurement is evolving in the age of Discovery Commerce, and how brands can prove TikTok's omnichannel impact.
Sellforte's Travis Clinger discussed their work with C&A in DACH, demonstrating TikTok's ability to drive in-store traffic, not just clicksbringing TikTok's offline impact to life.
Suzanne Tompkins
Fashion & Beauty Business Development, TikTok
Paul Arpikari
CCO,
Sellforte
Meanwhile, LiveRamp's Paul Arpikari, spoke of their partnership with Coca-Cola, which showed the power of data connectivity, helping Coca-Cola achieve a 2.5x ROAS by tying TikTok engagement directly to offline sales.
And as Suzanne Tompkins highlighted, Luxe Collective proved the power of LIVE Shopping on TikTok Shop - converting real-time engagement into high-value sales, with 94% of transactions driven by self-hosted LIVEs and a $562 average order value.
TLDR; From Smart+ to Symphony to GMV Max, TikTok's suite of solutions helps brands scale creative, optimise performance, and bridge discovery and purchase - with ease.
Key Takeaways
“
On TikTok, discovery isn't a step it’s the spark that powers the entire shopping journey.
Culture shapes decisions
TikTok is where people discover what’s trending, what’s relevant, and what’s worth buying. Shopping is shaped by creators, communities, and cultural cues.
Creative scale meets commercial precision
Products like Smart+, GMV Max and Symphony help brands move faster, create smarter, and optimise performance, without losing creative edge. Scale is no longer a trade-off.
Every moment is measurable
TikTok drives outcomes across in-app, online and in-store, and new tools are making it easier to connect discovery to real-world sales.
TikTok Shop:
Stunt or Strategic?
Oli Hills
Olivia Ferdi CEO, Nonsensical Founder, TRIP
What we talked about:
Read our new
Discovery Commerce: A Playbook for Enterprise
From TikTok Shop in collaboration with Accenture Song
64% of users have purchased something, either on or off platform, influenced by the content they have seen on TikTok. Discovery commerce has re-written rules of how we interact with our customers by bringing the best of both worlds together - the convenience of online shopping and the joyful experience that in-real-life shopping offers, allowing buyers to interact directly with sellers or creators through shoppable live streams and content.
Key Takeaways
“ Don’t view it [TikTok Shop] as a threat or cannibalisation […] see it as a way to amplify your other channels. We’ve not seen any negative impact across our own website, Amazon or retail channels.
Olivia Ferdi, Founder, TRIP
TikTok Shop complements D2C
TikTok Shop doesn’t cannibalise D2C, it complements it. Consumers are fluid and shop everywhere.
Discovery at scale
Nowhere else lets you interact directly with consumers in real time at this kind of volume. Build buzz with brand content pre-drop, boost for reach, let creators fuel the halo effect, then launch with a live and sell it out. Create reasons to buy now - bundles, exclusives, innovative products. Don’t just give your audience the “why”; give them the “why now.”
Be active and play the long game
If you upload your products and leave them, you’ll get swallowed. You need dedicated people, resources, and a proper growth plan. Play the long game - it takes time to build momentum. TikTok Shop isn’t a short-term stunt; it’s a long-term strategy. And if you’re not going all in, you’re probably not going anywhere.
What's Next For
Culture-First Partnerships
+ Rob Ryan Head of GBM, UKI & Nordics, TikTok
What we talked about:
TikTok is where culture takes shape. It is where people choose to engage rather than escape, to create and consume with intention. Increasingly, it is where brands earn not just attention but affection.
Culture on TikTok is shaped by communities and powered by shared passions. The Commercial Partnerships team, spanning Sales, Creators, Marketing and Editorial, provide a unique view into the communities that define the platform.
+ Tori Smith EUI Commercial Content Partnerships,
This dynamic is powerful for brands. Success is not about forcing a way into trends, but about tapping into the passions that already connect people and showing up in moments that matter. Through key partnerships at events such as Tomorrowland 2024, the UEFA Women’s Euros, the Tour de France and EGX, TikTok’s Commercial Partnerships team is helping brands drive significant impact.
These partnerships are designed to help brands connect meaningfully with the people who are shaping culture today.
Key Takeaways
“ It's about choosing relevance over reach. It's about meeting communities where their passions live. And it's about entering the moments that matter with purpose, not pressure.
Tori Smith, Head of Commercial Partnerships, TikTok
Choose relevance over reach
Finding the right audience - one that is engaged and ready to become loyal to your brandstarts with a community-first strategy.
Meet communities where their passions live
There is a community on TikTok for everything and everyone, from cottage cheese to cottage core.
Entering the moments that matter with purpose
Tapping into TikTok commercial packages gives brands access to teams who understand the platform at a community level, helping ensure they show up authentically and meaningfully.
Culture-First Packages
Culture-First Packages Find Your Funny:
Why Humour can be a Serious Business Tool?
+ Gavin Jewkes Marketing Solutions Lead UKI
What we talked about:
What we talked about:
We explored the value of humour as a business tool to drive results. The session broke down simple ways brands can use humour on TikTok, with examples from brands like Gucci and Sky.
We explored the value of humour as a business tool to drive results. The session broke down simple ways brands can use humour on TikTok, with examples from brands like Gucci and Sky. It also provided concrete steps to help brands start leveraging humour on the platform today.
Key Takeaways “
TikTok has decidedly impacted and shaped humour as we experience it in popular culture today. It's made it more acceptable, accessible in the everyday and is a daily celebration of all things joyful. Brands should be using it more and more.
Experiment freely, privately
Fail in private, succeed in public. Keep iterating and testing - TikTok’s recommendation system serves what "works" to more users and leaves less successful content well alone, giving you the freedom to experiment without risk.
Self-reflection can be handy
Looking back at your brand’s origins and existing brand codesa famous catchphrase, a recognisable sonic cue, a vintage ad - can reveal new ways to unlock humour in the present.
Timing is crucial
Show up unexpectedly and stay relevant by keeping an eye on emerging trends and sounds. Leverage the ones that fit your brand authentically.
Focus on one change at a time
Small tweaks can go further than big overhauls. Adjust one element - a tonal shift, a mascot, a trend - rather than trying to change everything at once when experimenting with humour.
Double down on what works
When something resonates, lean in. Use AI-powered tools like TikTok Symphony and TikTok One to scale and optimise quickly and effectively.
Solutions to be what help you happens next
Smart+
An AI-powered, end-to-end campaign automation solution for performance advertising on TikTok
Ideal for:
Advertisers seeking efficient performance at scale with minimal manual input
How it works:
You set KPIs, creative assets, and targeting preferences. Smart+ uses predictive AI to automate campaign setup, optimisation, and creative refresh
Find out more here
GMV Max
An automated TikTok Shop Ads solution that optimises total channel ROI by driving both organic and paid conversions
Ideal for:
TikTok Shop sellers focused on scaling product performance and ROI across all commerce surfaces
How it works:
Automatically generates and optimises ads using your top-performing creatives; leverages paid, organic, and affiliate traffic across Feed, Search, and Shop Tab placements
Find out more here
TikTok Symphony
Powered by generative AI, our new suite of creative solutions is designed to enhance every step of your TikTok content creation journey.
Ideal for:
Businesses of all sizes, creators, and agencies to level the playing field, boost productivity, and uncover valuable insights. From scripting to video production to asset optimization, Symphony transforms the complex into the simple - if you can imagine it, you can create it.
How it works:
Symphony is a comprehensive tool that can help you from ideation to production of your ideas. Here you can edit videos, turn images into videos and even generate avatars to sell your product internationally with our language dubbing feature.
Find out more here
TikTok One
TikTok’s Creative Centre, Creator Marketplace and Creative Exchange - all in one place
Ideal for:
Extending your marketing team capabilities with partners and inspiration.
How it works:
• Creative Centre: Fuel your creativity with the biggest trends, top ads from different industries and verticalised best practices.
• Creator Marketplace: Find the right creator to produce your next TikTok Campaign with a fast and efficient workflow.
Find out more here
• Creative Exchange: Work with partners to help you produce fast, scalable, and high performing branded content.
Branding Solutions
For impact in and beyond the ForYou Page. Campaign solutions designed to boost visibility, engagement and reach.
In Feed ads
Start a conversation right in your feed. Tell your brand story in a true to TikTok way with this sound on, vertical video ads that can be further enhanced with interactive add-ons.
Top View
Leave a lasting first impression. Making impact with the first add our user sees when they open the app.
Spark ads
Find out more here
Tap into the TikTok community. Create ad content that expands your reach by combining the scale and impact of paid ads with the authenticity of organic content to foster connections and enhance performance.
