Dive Brief:

• TikTok is showcasing a number of ad products for its second global product summit, including a new tool targeted at entertainment marketers, according to a blog post.   
• Showtimes on TikTok is a native ad experience that plays a full movie trailer with a “Get Showtimes” button that surfaces a list of nearby theater options and showtimes based on location data. Consumers can click out of the ad to ticketing partner websites to make a purchase.  
• The app is also touting a Focused View campaign objective where brands only pay when users have watched an ad voluntarily for at least 6 seconds or interacted with the ad within the first 6 seconds of airing. The offering comes as marketers steer toward performance-driven media in a tight economy that’s weighed on resources.  

Dive Insight:

TikTok continues to make overtures for bigger ad budgets as marketers head into the thick of their holiday planning. The ByteDance-owned app is promoting a variety of features as part of its TikTok World summit today (Oct. 13), including ones tailored to specific categories that experienced a rebound earlier this year, like entertainment. 

Studios are pinning their hopes on box office momentum reigniting in the fourth quarter with the release of a rush of Oscars contenders as well as blockbusters like the anticipated “Avatar” and “Black Panther” sequels. As with a lot of TikTok’s recent product developments, Showtimes on TikTok factors in a commerce component to entice marketers that want to see a stronger connection between their messaging and sales. Viewers of the ads can voluntarily submit their zip code to find theaters near them and then click on showtimes to see ticket-buying options from partners like Atom Tickets and Fandango. The tool is currently only available to select studios in the U.S.  

Beyond vertical-specific ad formats, the video app is emphasizing its strengths in viewability. Focused View was positioned as the “next generation” of TikTok’s Video View campaign objective in Ads Manager. 

Samsung tested the offering around a summer push to raise awareness of its Galaxy products. The tech giant saw an 11% increase in ad recall and 53% increase in average watch time per view, per a case study. It quickly launched a follow-up campaign leveraging the 6-second tool for its Z-Flip 4 phone that produced a 4% increase in purchase intent. 

Focused View rolls out globally on Oct. 20 and attempts to recognize that marketers are under pressure to improve return on ad spend. Weaker advertiser demand has weighed on the social media category broadly, which is also contending with shifting privacy mandates. 

TikTok is using the summit to spotlight a revamped Shopping Ads commerce solution that was first detailed in August. The company is also updating its creator marketplace with improved search capabilities, a recommendations tool for matching brands with relevant talent and clickable links so creators can more easily steer followers toward app stores and product pages to see more information.

Additionally, TikTok premiered a Profile Kit option that allows creators to display their content on third-party apps, with Linktree as the first partner.