TikTok Solves Real-World Marketing Challenges with Creative Competition

TikTok​, the leading destination for short-form mobile videos, is calling all marketing and creative professionals as well as agencies in Southeast Asia to think outside of the box and join the TikTok Trendsetter creative competition. Launched yesterday, the competition aims to inspire professionals and agencies in Singapore to harness the untapped potential of TikTok to solve real-world marketing challenges.

“The power of TikTok is clear, but it requires a new and different way of thinking. Utilising an entertainment-based platform allows marketers to engage with users in a ‘sound on’ environment, opening an entirely new window of opportunity,” said Ng Chew Wee, TikTok head of business marketing. “Just like our users, we invite marketers to be experimental and explore their creative side while addressing today’s brand challenges through the Trendsetter creative competition."

Running for over the course of six weeks, the TikTok Trendsetter creative competition is divided into three separate categories, including:

- Individual Category: Individual contestants to submit one TikTok video creative idea that addresses marketing-related challenges for Small and Midsize Businesses (SMBs), and sectors such as Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and government.

- Agency Category: Agency contestants to submit a storyboard for at least four TikTok video creative ideas, a media plan leveraging TikTok and one sample TikTok video that addresses marketing-related challenges for industries such as Fintech, Luxury, Automobile, and Telecoms.

- Existing Campaigns: Campaigns that have already run on TikTok this year can also participate in the competition.

All submissions will need to be submitted by 24th December 2020 with voting for the most creative ideas taking place from 4th to 22nd January 2021.

The following panel of judges representing in-house and agency creative executives, as well as CMOs and TikTok creators, will be determining the winners of the competition which will be announced on 1st February 2021:

- Ng Chew Wee​, TikTok head of business marketing

- Katie Puris​, TikTok managing director of global business marketing

- Dianchen Yao​, TikTok head of client solutions SEA

- Nguyen Dinh Toan​, senior vice president of marketing at Suntory Pepsico Vietnam

- Sutirapan Sakkawatra​, EVP head of marketing at Siam Commercial Bank

- Roberto Saputra​, chief brand officer at Smartfren Telecom

- Jeff Cheong​, DDB Group Singapore deputy CEO and Tribal Worldwide Asia president

- Maryzyle Fernadez Galinato​, group creative director at Hakuhodo Saigon

- Pingkan Rarumangkay​, executive creative director at Wunderman Thompson Indonesia

- Tay Guan Hin​, chief creative officer of BBDO Singapore

- Sompat Trisadikun​, chief creative officer at The Leo Burnett Group and Publicis Group in Thailand

For each category, regional and local winners will be selected. Agency teams will have a chance to win up to US $40,000 in prizes, while Individual applicants can win a mentorship session with TikTok global business marketing executives.

Kantar research shows that in order to tap into the powerful audience response, it is vital to understand TikTok and engage with users on their own terms. To provide a deeper understanding on how to leverage TikTok for marketing purposes, TikTok will also hold a creative workshop on 24th and 26th November in partnership with BBDO Singapore, hosted virtuall​y on the website for anyone who is interested in learning about leveraging the platform to solve creative challenges.

"The importance of TikTok as a platform for brands is growing rapidly", said Nick Morrell, managing director of BBDO Singapore. "So, we were absolutely thrilled to partner with TikTok to create the Trendsetter Awards competition to help encourage creativity on TikTok. Developing the idea, building the competition website and devising the tutorial content to help brands get the most out of the platform has been great fun and we look forward to seeing all the fantastic TikToks being submitted."

Click here to enter the competition, view tutorials, best practices and creative playbooks.