TikTok's Branded Mission allows advertisers to start content crowdsourcing from creators

What’s great about TikTok is that it always prioritizes its content creators. It always finds ways to encourage them to create more videos through various motivations like exposure, traffic, money prizes, and more. That’s the recipe TikTok is integrating then again in Branded Mission, a new ad product that will benefit both creators and businesses.

“Brands who see the most success on TikTok take the time to listen to and engage with the TikTok community,” says TikTok in its blog post announcing the new product. “Branded Mission brings brands closer to communities on TikTok by empowering creators to contribute to a campaign, while giving them the power to boost the top-performing content that resonates with their brand.

“We are always looking for creative ways to support and drive value for creators, provide measurable campaigns for brands, and help them reach the TikTok community with authentic and relevant content.”

Branded Mission has a very simple concept: to encourage connection between creators and businesses. In this new ad product, advertisers will be allowed to start crowdsourcing original content from TikTok creators.

Advertisers can start their Branded Mission content crowdsourcing through a brief that they can release later. It is a checklist-like page where they will be able to select the particular points they want to see from the content pieces creators will submit (e.g., show product, show brand logo, dance with music, etc.).

After that, the creators will be notified about the missions live. They can choose where to participate based on the potential earning opportunity presented or shown on each Branded Mission page. Once ready, the creators can submit up to three entries, and the advertisers will choose the ones they think represent their brand the best.

“Creators are at the center of creativity, culture and entertainment on TikTok,” says TikTok. “With Branded Mission, we’re excited to bring even more creators into the branded content ecosystem and explore ways to reward emerging and established creators. Eligible creators whose videos are selected by the brand as ads will benefit from a cash payment and boosted traffic.”

According to TikTok, Branded Missions will accept the participation of creators who are at least 18 years old of age. Participants also need more than 1,000 followers to be considered. The good thing about this criteria is that it makes the missions accessible to many users. Aside from the promised cash payments, it will be a good opportunity for lesser-known or new creators to be discovered. Even more, with the traffic that the creators will receive (if they are chosen), they will gain more exposure on the platform, which can translate to more followers and other earning opportunities in the future.

As of now, Branded Mission is now live as a beta across a dozen markets globally. TikTok, nonetheless, promises to have its expansion in other markets before 2022 ends.

This is not the first attempt of TikTok to aid businesses and advertisers in navigating the place. A month ago, it introduced the Creative Agency Partnerships University program to help agencies become ‘TikTok Experts.’ The program provides relevant information like techniques to help participants understand the TikTok environment better.