Ms Patricia Goh, a highly motivated and driven individual with over two decades of experience in the media and advertising industry, currently leads the Brand & Growth Partnerships for TikTok in Singapore and Malaysia. Under her leadership, TikTok has launched the TikTok Advertising Awards in Southeast Asia, recognizing the innovative and impactful work of advertisers, agencies, and partners on the platform. With a passion for driving results through marketing innovations and building meaningful business solutions, Ms Goh shares insights into the evolution of TikTok’s advertising initiatives and the future of digital advertising on the platform.
What motivated TikTok to launch the TikTok Advertising Awards in Southeast Asia, and how do you see this initiative evolving in the coming years?
Over the past few years, it hasn’t just been our users who have been getting creative on our platform. Across branding, performance, and commerce – established brands, small businesses, and creative agencies have all found new ways to be both inspiring and effective, building always-on relationships with our communities and becoming part of the cultural zeitgeist, all while driving incredible results through TikTok’s suite of solutions. With that said, it is incredibly fitting that we shine a light on the advertisers, agencies, and partners who have made their mark on our platform, in recognition of their contributions. In our very first TikTok Ad Awards, we saw over a thousand award entries across the region – which is a testament to the growing confidence in our platform. In the coming years, we hope to continue this initiative by tapping into the best industry minds to help us pave the way for more great work to shine in this region, and serve as best-in-class examples for the rest of the industry.
Can you share some insights into the selection process for the award winners? What were the key criteria that the judges focused on?
This is our first year running the awards in Southeast Asia (SEA), and it was an honour having industry leaders be part of our jury and share our vision, and take part in sharpening the winning criteria and shaping the winners. While every category required demonstration of standout results, campaigns were also assessed on ability to push the boundaries of creativity in a way that was native to TikTok. Our winners this year have all collectively redefined the benchmarks which we had for all brands and agencies, exceeding our expectations by creating these groundbreaking campaigns while staying true to their unique brand propositions.
Also Read: The Rise of Retail Media Networks in Southeast Asia: Insights from Ken Mandel, Head of GrabAds
How does TikTok support brands and agencies in creating successful campaigns on the platform? Are there specific tools or resources provided to enhance their creativity and effectiveness?
At TikTok, there are several programmes and initiatives that we have put in place to support brands and agencies. From creative suites to partnerships with local organisations, we have constantly updated our solutions for them to spotlight their brands in the best light possible on the platform. Furthermore, as we recognise the value of creative effectiveness in driving business growth on TikTok, we provide brands an all-encompassing suite of tools for the different stages of the creative production of their content.
Ideation and Production:
The Creative Center provides creators free insights, production tools, and royalty-free audio, which helps with cutting back on costly resources and time in their creation process. A part of this centre is TikTok’s Symphony Assistant which acts as a great source of case studies and creative tips from around the world.
The TikTok Creative Exchange is a hub that helps creators connect with partners who will help bring their content to life. It’s a one-stop shop that enables fast, scalable, video production and delivers large volumes of high-performing ad creatives specifically designed for TikTok.
Optimisation:
To help creators develop creative ads that warrant performance and engagement, Smart Creative on TikTok Ads Manager helps with curating automated creative solutions that simplify the process of creating ads. TikTok aims to enhance one’s productivity when creating ad content, through enabling creators to preview, select videos, and edit text used in the auto-generated videos, to help with cost-efficiency over time as well. Another available feature, referred to as Smart Fix, automatically analyses advertisements during the creation process – it will help to notify creators of potential ad review issues and offer actionable creative solutions.
What trends or innovations in TikTok advertising have you observed over the past year, and how do you anticipate these trends shaping the future of digital advertising on the platform?
Content is king when it comes to advertising or branding on TikTok, given that it has the potential to meet consumers’ emotional needs. Our recent whitepaper with Accenture, the Shoppertainment 2024 report, found that 79% of consumers in Asia Pacific (APAC) are inspired to make more intuitive and confident decisions through content that allows them to experience its value, in contrast to content that are related to discounts, for instance. In the same vein, content that drives confidence in consumers to make purchases were also found to revolve around three content attributes – emotional resonance, authentic and credible expressions, and relatable realism.
We’ve also gathered that consumers on TikTok deem our platform as a space for discovering new ideas and things; where they stumble across information or content that piques their curiosity. Our What’s Next 2024 report revealed that this gives brands and marketers the opportunity to spotlight their unique propositions, by tapping into brand quirks and developing content that resonates with various TikTok communities to drive purchase or engagement.
Keeping those in mind, value, volume, and variety of content – both paid and organic – have become more important than ever to appeal to audiences and capture their attention right off the bat.
To help brands produce more valuable content and streamline and scale the creative process, we have introduced two new solutions:
TikTok One: This is a centralised destination for marketers to access our creative tools. Brands will be able to tap into this one-stop-shop to access TikTok creators, production partners, and insights, including TikTok Creator Marketplace and TikTok
Creative Challenge: This allows advertisers to access nearly two million creators, discover top agency partners and leverage our creative tools to implement and scale successful TikTok campaigns — all with a single log-in.
TikTok Symphony: We have also rolled out our new Creative AI suite that blends human imagination with AI-powered efficiency to help marketers scale content development, creativity, and productivity on TikTok. With Symphony, everything from writing a script to producing a video and optimising assets is simple and efficient — to fuel real results with a new paradigm of creativity.
Can you provide examples of how TikTok’s unique features, such as branded hashtag challenges and brand takeovers, have helped brands achieve their marketing goals and connect with their audiences in meaningful ways?
We believe that TikTok communities are primed to engage with content on the platform. To this end, formats such as HashTag Challenges, Branded Missions, and Spark Ads, tend to allow participation by these communities to co-create brand content to deliver a more authentic and genuine marketing message. At the same time, we’ve seen many successful campaigns by brands across the region, which have taken a piece of each of these creative formats to bring their messages to life through the platform. A recent example is a campaign by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), who was awarded the gold award for Best Branding Campaign at our Ad Awards this year. As a uniformed organisation that ensures nationwide public safety in emergencies, it leveraged TikTok’s tools to promote their organisation to potential millennial and Gen Z recruits and spread the word about their advocacy.
Their award-winning campaign utilised the Gamified Branded Effect:
Branded Effect: SCDF used a Gamified Branded Effect in the form of a quiz where users can learn about the various roles and responsibilities in their organisation. Users had to match the function to the corresponding role by moving their heads in the direction of one of two options, after which there was also a section in the game where users were educated about SCDF’s office rankings.
Because of its interactive nature, the SCDF’s Gamified Branded Effect had an average playtime that was 4.8 times longer than the average watch time of in-feed ads. Another example of a successful brand hashtag challenge is Lay’s Thailand. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when borders were closed, the brand launched three travel-inspired flavours for their local consumers. To amp up the launch, it rolled out a hashtag challenge – this captured the engagement of its audience who uploaded their photos with the potato chips, both in real-life and virtually, through a TikTok Branded Effect.
Ms Patricia Goh’s extensive experience and dedication to embracing digital technology have positioned her as a leader in the media and advertising industry. Her commitment to driving meaningful change, nurturing talent, and fostering a culture of innovation has enabled brands and agencies to create impactful and engaging campaigns on TikTok. As TikTok continues to evolve and introduce new tools and solutions, Ms Goh’s vision and leadership will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in shaping the future of digital advertising in Southeast Asia and beyond.
