Impacts From The TikTok Ban For Marketers

The episode examines the implications of the 14-hour TikTok ban in the USA, exploring its impact on creators and advertisers. It dives into user experiences, advertising shifts, and the emotional toll on individuals who rely on the platform. 

• Discussion on the TikTok ban's cultural significance
• Brian shares his experiences as a TikTok user during the suspension
• Insights into how content changes when American creators were offline
• Analysis of the emotional impact on users and advertisers
• Examination of advertising dynamics and shifts in budget allocation post-ban
• Speculation on TikTok's future amid potential governmental restrictions

The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to Brand News, and today we're talking
about probably what's on manypeople's mind in the well, not
just the advertising community,but also people just in the
world in general.
Well, probably not the world ingeneral.
There's more important thingsgoing on in the world than this
actually right now, buteverybody that likes to enjoy
social media.
We're obviously talking aboutthe TikTok ban in the USA, which
went down for how many hours?

(00:29):
I think it was about 14 hours.
14 hours which really impacteda lot of people's lives.
It sounds like, as someone whodoesn't use the app daily, I
didn't really notice it at all,but really big news.
And I guess today we're goingto be talking a little bit about
it from an advertiser's pointof view, because we do have
clients who are on there andthat's obviously going to be
impacting them.
But then Brian, who is amassive TikTok user, how it
impacted his life over therecent period as well.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I got TikTok back in the five days leading up to the
January the 19th to witness thiscultural event, just to take
part in it.
So just to report back to you.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And also, this is an Australian experience of the
American TikTok brand.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, that's what we're going to be talking about
today, because it sounded quitedramatic for you.
I feel like it's more importantto get my perspective as an
Australian, because we werethere after they left.
So for an American, they weregone.
So the days leading up to thisTikTok ban as users on the app
let's say not so muchadvertisers the feeling really

(01:27):
was surely not.
Surely something's going tocome in and save it in time.
But the Congress purposefullyset the date as the 19th, the
day before Trump's inauguration,to ensure that it actually does
go down.
But, as expected, trump came inand saved it.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Looks like a big hero .
We were talking about thisbefore and I don't know how
everyone just didn't see thishappening Like you were saying.
Your experience on the platformwas everyone was like, oh, it's
going to be gone forever andeveryone's getting all sad and
this.
But it kind of just felt likesomething that could be a very
easy win for Trump on a veryshort timeframe from him
becoming president.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, I think there was some of the media correctly
saying this is voted in, so hecan't just turn that around.
He has in a day with anexecutive order, but he's
delayed it, having to go downwith a view to try to turn it
around in a bit more time.
So to the typical user it feelslike, oh, it's back again.
But in the lead up to it goingdown, I think people were

(02:23):
starting to realise about two orthree days out, oh, this is
happening, this is reallyhappening.
And then all of these Americancreators started doing their
thank you stories.
It's been a wild four yearsI've reached 10 million of you
and then they'd start tellingall their deepest secrets and
crying to camera.
It was a very weird moment onTikTok as the rest of the

(02:46):
Commonwealth, let's sayCommonwealth countries Canada,
australia and UK are watching ongoing oh, see you guys.
Then there was the moment whenit actually went down for the
States and all of the content onmy For you page was Australian,
uk and Canadian content and itwas refreshing.
Not saying there's a problemwith the US creators, but they

(03:07):
take up so much of the pie ofattention on TikTok.
Some of their biggest creatorsare American.
So seeing a refreshed For youpage with more local focus and
with more UK and Canadian-basedcomedy and entertainment was
cool for a little bit.
There's been a lot of peopleduring that break and since the

(03:30):
Americans came back saying, oh,it'd be nice to have a localised
my For you page option so Icould see a bit more of these
local creators.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Isn't the feed really determined by the kind of stuff
you follow in the first place?
Like I, obviously my feed'sgoing to be quite different to
yours, but I do tend to getquite a lot of local stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, I do too.
I think, just having it sovisibly only local when the
American creators disappearedand that might've been a feeling
that for a day people liked itand then whether they'd like
that ongoing, I doubt, becausethey're obviously engaging with
these American creators, but Ido think American creators they

(04:09):
get a big boost from localengagement.
That then allows it to bespread to 4U pages
internationally, whether we likeit or not.
So you're getting a lot moreUS-based content, whether you've
engaged with it or not.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, and not to discount anything from the
feelings of the people who wereseeing it go down as well, if
that was in their revenue stream.
Imagine that was your businessthat you'd built up over four
years and then out of yourcontrol.
Within a day something may beshutting down your entire
revenue or your whole way ofgenerating revenue.
So, ken, I guess sympathize withthese people who have spent so

(04:43):
much time and work.
People may discount that, oh,it's just influencers being
upset about losing theirfollowers, but the reality is,
potentially it is going to havean impact on their way of life
and their way of living and it'staken away something that they
have actually worked to achieve.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, I think it's more than influencers.
Influencers are a widespreadturnout.
There's people who built theirbusinesses on TikTok yeah, they
might be considered aninfluencer their businesses on
TikTok yeah, they might beconsidered an influencer, but
they're doing what we're tryingto do.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yes, you know we're building a personal brand.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
We're building a personal brand.
There's nothing wrong with it.
That's what we advise people todo all the time.
I think when the US wasreactivated and when they came
back, the sentiment really ishow do we allow this to happen?
We there's, you know, 170million US users on TikTok.
How are we allowing ourgovernment to take this away

(05:31):
from us?
That was an inexcusable momentof damaging to the view that
they've got these freedoms inthe States and that's what they
hold so dear, and that that wastaken away.
So it's great that it's sort ofreturned to normality.
I'm seeing a lot of peopleshifting to this Chinese app
called Red Note.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
It kind of makes no sense because you feel if
TikTok's going to get banned,why wouldn't this other Chinese
app get banned?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I think it was the people's way of saying well,
we're going to.
If you don't want us to be onthis one, we're really going
deep into a Chinese-based appand they're shifting to Red Note
Into a Chinese-based app.
Yeah, and they were shifting toRed Note.
And then a lot of Americans onRed Note saying, wow, china
looks pretty good, like thecities look clean.
Yeah, people starting to go, wow, china's way ahead of what we

(06:18):
thought they were and they werebeing really welcomed onto this
Red Note app by, you know, theChinese population of people on
this app.
Okay, and then TikTok came back.
People are back on the app andeverything is back to normal
again, but from an advertisingperspective, what did you see?

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, so we've obviously got clients who are
advertising in TikTok in the US.
So that was a bit of a stressand problem and, being that it
was only a short time, not toomuch of a problem.
But what we did experience isan increase in CPMs on meta.
So I think in the lead up to it, brands aware of this risk and
brands who was heavily spendingon TikTok and just run some
stats, and there was $12.34billion spent on TikTok

(06:56):
advertising last year in the USalone in 2024.
So that is a massive amount ofmoney that most businesses would
expect to advertise both onTikTok and meta, money that most
businesses would expect ofadvertising both on TikTok and
Meta.
But businesses are going tohave to go all right.
Well, we were spending X onTikTok.
Where are we going to investthis money in our advertising?
And so Meta's had a big surgeand so that's increased the CPMs

(07:18):
, which has increased the costof advertising for everybody now
on that platform.
So what?
I guess in the short term,we're probably going to be
experiencing higher CPMs onlybecause businesses are probably
going to want to leverage thatrisk a little bit, Because every
time you switch and youincrease your budgets
drastically within a platform,you're going to have that
learning phase.
I think what we're going to seeis that spend maintain higher
on Meta until this is all done.

(07:38):
Yeah, Because there is thatlevel of risk that, well, you
don't want to just be puttingyour money into a platform that
potentially is not going to beavailable in the near future.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Just to recap on what happens next, trump's executive
order gives 90 days for them toreally sort it out and to give
ByteDance a chance to accept a50-50 joint venture with
American investors.
Accept a 50-50 joint venturewith American investors.
If that happens, then there's acomfort level of the data of
the US citizens who are usingthe app and it can probably stay
on.
But advertisers who've gottheir campaigns now set up and

(08:08):
their budgets in meta are theylikely to pull it and build
those campaigns in TikTok?
Probably not.
They might wait and see whathappens, like you said, and
that's going to push up thosemeta ad costs for the next three
months and then potentially afew months after, as they trail
off those campaigns and it takestime to build out a new
campaign and set a budget andsplit that budget out.

(08:31):
Not everyone's just going torush back tomorrow now that the
app's back on.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and I imagine that's
more in terms of new campaigns.
Like, I mean, for us it wasdown.
We just reactivated thecampaigns, put it back on.
But I think if you're planning,all right, cool, what's our?
You know, what have we gotcoming up for?
You might be doing an Easterperiod or whatever in two to
three months time.
Are we going to be planning andstrategizing around our TikTok
strategy or are we just going tostay with what the safe bet is,

(08:56):
which is in the meta adsplatform?

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah Well, we keep monitoring our meta ads costs
and our TikTok ads costs, but Idon't see the engagement on
TikTok reducing.
But it will just have, I think,a short term or few months
impact on the advertising rates.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
And anyone who doesn't have TikTok currently
cannot download.
The app is also something atthe moment, so it's been blocked
from the app stores, but you'reable to use the app if you've
already got it on there.
That's as of recording at themoment.
So thank you very much forwatching today.
As we said, we'll keep an eyeon it.
It's not the biggest news inthe world, but at the moment,
from a branding point of view,it's definitely what's being
talked about a lot in ourindustry.
Thank you.