With Pulse Premiere, the media partners will have the capability to run ads directly after their professional videos as the next post in the TikTok feed, a person familiar with the program told Ad Age. YouTube, Snap, Twitter and Facebook have developed similar media deals over the years. Twitter, for instance, has Amplify, and NBCUniversal has used that to post videos from major sporting events such as the Olympics, and it strikes brand deals to run ads with the coverage. Media partners and platforms can create ad packages from the content partnerships deals, and sell them to brands.
At last year’s NewFronts, TikTok also made a play for advertisers with more prestigious ad placements. It launched an ad product called Pulse, which ran ads in the feed after videos from the top TikTok creators.
TikTok’s NewFront show this year has been a bit of a mystery. In contrast to rivals that promoted their events and opened them to the media, TikTok is keeping its NewFront closed to the media. TikTok is dealing with sensitive issues around its ownership ties to parent-company ByteDance. U.S. lawmakers have proposed laws and regulations that could limit TikTok’s ability to operate in the U.S. Lawmakers are concerned about how TikTok stores data and how it manages its algorithm that serves the media diet of millions of Americans. TikTok, however, has become a force within internet culture, particularly with young people, and many brands have been eager to join in.
Related: TikTok talks with brands, agencies about potential ban
It’s clear that TikTok still has close ties to the media world, lining up partners for Pulse Premiere, which could lend credibility to content on TikTok. One of TikTok’s problems with advertisers has been around brand safety, where marketers want better visibility into what content appears next to their ads.
Ad Age has learned that TikTok’s NewFront will be held at Chelsea Piers in New York on Thursday evening. The show is a way for TikTok to promote its videos, shopping connections and creator community. TikTok’s NewFronts follows YouTube, Amazon, Snap and Meta.
—Contributing: Parker Herren
