Variety Presents: Gaming on TikTok Leadership Summit featuring conversations with executives and creatives on the leading edge of video games, entertainment and content.
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00:00Super excited to be here. It's wonderful to see so many familiar and friendly faces in the audience. I really enjoyed dinner last night where I had the opportunity. Thank you so much of getting to know everyone a little bit more and also hearing more about how you're thinking about integrating generative AI into your workflows and what some of the hurdles are as well.
00:21So a little bit about me. My name is Adrian Lahens. I'm the global head of content strategy and operations at TikTok. I've been at the company now for three and a half years. I've been in the creator space for well over a decade now, and we're really at this really interesting intersection and interesting time for the marketing industry where we have the intersection of creators, technology, AI, creativity.
00:45And it presents so many wonderful opportunities, but it also opens up a lot of questions and challenges today as well.
00:53So if we kind of take a step back and think about where we are as an industry today, all the way back to the heydays of television, we used to be in this sort of age of context where information was delivered in a one-way direction.
01:10And then we fast forward to the advent of search engines, and now we're in the age of information and the age of knowledge where information is readily available and we're able to discover and search for anything that we'd want at the tip of our fingertips.
01:26And then we move to the age of social where finally, kind of for the first time, we're in this two-way conversation, right? Mostly limited, though, by our friends and our family, those of whom we know.
01:41And you fast forward now to today. We are in the age of content, which means that we're in that two-way conversation, and we have an abundance of content.
01:51With the tools that are available through TikTok, anyone can be a content creator, right? And that's a really wonderful thing. It's opened up such a richness of entertainment and connection and community, and those niche communities are really powerful to tap into.
02:10But brands and publishers are now in this ferocious competition for attention, and there's so much noise out there. How do we break through that noise? And really, creativity is the key to breaking through.
02:25Creativity is the heart of TikTok. It's always been central to the platform. Our vision and mission as a company has always been to inspire creativity and to bring joy. Creativity is what makes content memorable. It's what sparks conversations. It's what drives culture.
02:45And it's also the key to marketing effectiveness. In fact, 49% of incremental sales can be attributed to creative. And that's why, as marketers, we should really be thinking about creative not as a cost, but truly as an investment.
03:01And it's an important nuance to think about creative as an investment in that way. And when we think about how can we maximize our return on investment or maximize our return on creative, we conducted a study recently in partnership with Ipsos and Dentsu, and there were three key themes that emerged from our white paper.
03:23And the first is about creative bravery. Brands really need to embody creative bravery in order to break through. You need to be creating content that is educational, entertaining, inspiring, informative. You need to offer your audiences something of value, right?
03:43Secondly, you need to show up more. More volume and more variety is truly key to the TikTok ecosystem, especially when it comes to the breadth of amazing content that's out there.
03:57And I really want to harp on this piece because when we're talking about generative AI and we're being tasked with, as marketers, scaling our content five times, ten times more than what we're currently producing, which is really what's key to being successful on TikTok today, how are you going to do that?
04:16Because you're not getting more budget. You're not getting more headcount. So how are you 5Xing your content? Generative AI plays a really big role in this part here. And then the third is about combining that organic and paid, which I know has been a central theme kind of throughout multiple presentations here.
04:34But really that organic piece, that paid piece, they work together in harmony on TikTok. Oftentimes those departments are quite siloed. Those disciplines are quite distinct in an organization. But we highly recommend bringing them together because you're going to find far more effectiveness on both sides of that equation.
04:50Okay. When it comes to our creative solutions, as we're building out our tools, we're building them to be full journey, which means every step of the way from concept to campaign completion, ideation, production, and optimization, flexible.
05:07So we're building for the whole ecosystem. Whether you are a brand, a publisher, a creator, an agency, we are building solutions to support your creative needs and also future proof. We're investing in the most cutting edge innovations really of our time when it comes to marketing.
05:27Okay, this slide is a little bit complex, but I'll kind of break it down for you. So our team is really focused on building out a whole suite of creative solutions that really tap into four key product families.
05:42So first is inspiration. We are focused on empowering real inspiration and ideation with faster, sharper ideation and iterations with data-driven insights. Second, it's about fostering collaboration. So unlocking that expert support through creators, through agencies, and through tech providers.
06:09Thirdly, it's about scaling and simplifying your workflows in order to be able to create that volume of content with tools like TikTok Symphony on the generative AI front. And then finally, it's about how you can build those connections and foster those deeper relationships with our communities by having those insights to support that.
06:30Okay, so generative AI, the human element is so incredibly important here. We're not going to take the keys and hand them over to the machine, right? We're building these solutions to empower human creativity with AI efficiency to create content that resonates.
06:50In other words, if you can imagine it, you can create it with Symphony. And that's really core to our ethos is bringing and empowering all of the existing creators and creative people out there, but also thinking about how these tools can bring about whole new segments of creative people and creators who might not have had the tools to be able to do that effectively in the past.
07:15So when it comes to gen AI, a lot of the times when we present these solutions to brands in the industry, the question is, TikTok is such a platform built around human connection and authenticity. So how are TikTok users responding to generative AI on the platform?
07:36And so we conducted a study, and we looked at just that. What is the perception of users when it comes to generative AI? And what we found is that TikTok users in particular are more familiar with generative AI compared to other platforms. They're also more likely to have used generative AI themselves.
07:56TikTok users are also more enthusiastic about generative AI. They're actually excited to see gen AI in ads, and they believe that gen AI is the future of content creation.
08:08And when it comes to brands who are leveraging generative AI in their strategies, they're being seen as creative, innovative, and cutting edge. And so when we're building these tools, we're thinking about how can we level the playing field regardless of your budget or your bandwidth or your skill set?
08:26How can we boost your productivity if you're going to 5X your content creation? How can you do that effectively and efficiently? And keep in mind that generative AI tools are not only for the purpose of generating the end output, but it's also about how you can pull in those data and insights and provide the best content that's informed by what's trending on the platform.
08:53Okay, safety and responsibility is really core to our product strategy when it comes to generative AI. There's a few product principles that we keep in mind as we're building these various solutions, and I link here to our synthetic and manipulated media policy as well.
09:10Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure. Transparency is key. You need to absolutely disclose when you are using a generative AI. We make it really easy. So within TikTok Symphony Creative Studio, if you download an asset that is generated through that platform, it'll be auto watermarked. That's AI generated. It's a small label. Doesn't call too much attention, but it's very clear and it's transparent.
09:38Also, we have avatars, which are hyper-realistic representations of real people, and we ensure that no private or public figures likeness is used without their consent through any of our tools.
09:54Also, we restrict the splicing or manipulation of content that misleads users about real world events. And finally, advertisers. It's about the input and the output, right? And just like as a brand or as a publisher, you're going to be responsible for whatever content you publish, right?
10:16So make sure that you're reviewing that content, and of course, none of the content is auto-published. You have the chance to review and approve everything before it goes live.
10:27Okay, so alongside the focus on responsible AI, we also in June launched the Symphony Collective, which is our AI industry advisory board.
10:38And this is a forum that we bring together leading marketers, leading agencies, notable creators to have a conversation around how they're applying AI in their workflows, and we get their feedback to inform our product roadmap.
10:54And in some of the conversations we had last night, I know that especially with gaming brands and entertainment properties, with all of this incredible IP, there's a lot of legal hurdles that you're going to have to get through that might also be more specific to your vertical compared to others.
11:10So I just want to call out that we're very happy to have those conversations with you one-on-one and find any solutions and workarounds to make sure that you can take advantage of these products as well.
11:22So definitely feel free to connect with your TikTok rep or feel free to reach out to me as well.
11:28When it comes to Symphony Collective, this is a very closed forum, and we're happy to also invite you all to be a part of this as well.
11:37We're going to be opening up some more slots for our coming quarters as well.
11:42Okay, so now that I kind of laid the whole groundwork, let's get into how Symphony actually looks like in practice.
11:49So we'll cover ideation, production, and optimization tools, first starting with the Symphony Assistant.
11:54So the Symphony Assistant is your AI virtual assistant.
11:58You could think about it like your creative sidekick.
12:01It really is a creative assistant that can help you to generate ideas, to get tips on the latest trends on TikTok, to summarize top-performing ads, and also you can use it to create a script and even storyboard ideas.
12:17So I don't know if you'll be able to see this so well, but we'll just play it just so you can kind of see it in action if you could play it.
12:26So you could see the user is prompting Symphony Assistant, asking it, you know, what are the latest trends in my vertical?
12:35Can you generate some ideas for me?
12:37Can you show me some top-performing ads?
12:39Can you actually write a script?
12:41And you'll see here, write a 45-second script to showcase the value, et cetera, based on my brand.
12:47And you'll actually see it generating that script in real time and actually storyboarding out the ideas with those sketches.
12:56So one of our partners, our creative exchange partners, Fabulate, they are an Australian-based technology provider and creative agency.
13:08They have currently integrated Symphony Assistant into their workflow, and they've been able to reduce their script generation time by 78%.
13:18So again, I mean, it's not going to be 100%, right?
13:21You're not going to just hand over the keys, but it will be able to help you to boost that productivity.
13:26All right, now let's get into Symphony Creative Studio.
13:31So Symphony Creative Studio is our AI video generator.
13:34And just like a fully-equipped creative studio with cameras, grips, and lighting, we have four mini-apps that help you to create TikTok-fit content in just a few minutes.
13:48First is product videos.
13:49What this means is you basically upload your URL or a few assets that you might have about your brand or your game, some top information, and it will auto-generate a TikTok-fit video in just a few seconds.
14:04Avatar narration, again, hyper-realistic representations of real people that can translate your content in multiple different languages.
14:14And also, we have over 200 stock avatars to choose from, covering a wide variety of different appearances, tones, et cetera.
14:25Dubbed translations, this is where you could take existing content and translate that into other languages, localizing that content and being more inclusive in your content strategies.
14:36And refresh video, this is something that is brand new.
14:39It actually hasn't launched yet, which is also, you know, we're sharing a lot of these tools even before they become readily available because we want to get your feedback.
14:48And we're really building not only for the industry, but really building with the industry.
14:53And refresh videos is where you can take an existing asset and you can create multiple different variations of that at the click of a button.
15:00And what's really cool about that is it allows you to kind of avoid that creative fatigue without having to go through another production cycle.
15:07Okay, so let's take a little look at what this looks like.
15:10Product videos.
15:11So on the right-hand side here, you have the input.
15:14So this is where you input here product name, brand, very basic information, what is the price, product description.
15:22I will also call out here that none of our models are trained on the input data or the output data.
15:28I'll just call that out.
15:30And let's play the output video.
15:32This is what is generated just from this information alone.
15:36Hey guys, I just found a game-changing matte long-wear lipstick that you need to try.
15:41The makeup gurus I trust are raving about this one.
15:44It gives you a bold look that lasts for hours without drying out your lips.
15:48It's packed with beauty vitamins and nourishing goodies like shea butter and vitamin E.
15:52It glides on super smoothly and gives full coverage in just one swipe.
15:57For me, it's lasted for at least eight hours.
15:59Go grab your For You Beauty lipstick and try it out now.
16:02All right.
16:03So you can see that I pulled in music from the commercial music library that was commercially available.
16:09It also took the assets that were uploaded.
16:13It did not pull in any other imagery.
16:15And then that person is actually an avatar that is licensed for commercial use.
16:21Okay.
16:23So now we have dubbed translations.
16:25I'm going to show you the input video.
16:27This is from our TikTok for Business account.
16:30It's in Spanish, the original video.
16:32And then we'll play the output video, which is translated in English.
16:35We'll just show like maybe 10, 15 seconds of the input.
16:39Bienvenidos a Videocast For You.
16:41Un espacio de TikTok for Business donde vamos a descubrir juntos la magia de TikTok de la mano de expertos,
16:47de marcas y creadores que han logrado descifrar las reglas del juego para potenciar su negocio.
16:52Welcome to Videocast For You, a TikTok for Business initiative where we'll uncover the magic of TikTok together.
16:58Join us as brand experts and creators who've mastered the platform's nuances share their secrets to success for your business.
17:05Okay.
17:06So as you can see here, also, I think it's important to note that it maintains kind of her accent as well, right?
17:15Okay.
17:16So let's bring this to life with a case study.
17:18So we have Vox Media.
17:20They are an agency based in Germany.
17:23They were working with an auto brand, and they wanted to translate their top-performing English content into Spanish.
17:30And by doing so, they were able to reach a whole new segment of audiences, right?
17:35And they were able to drive two times the amount of conversions and 75% lower CPA compared to business-as-usual content.
17:45Okay.
17:46So let's move on to the avatar piece.
17:49So I'm going to show you actually my avatar.
17:51I have an avatar.
17:53And the reason I want to show you my avatar is because you'll be able to see me here, and you'll be able to see the avatar, and you'll see how hyper-realistic it is.
17:59So let's go ahead and play it.
18:03Hi, there.
18:04My name is Adrienne.
18:06Well, not Adrienne, Adrienne, but TikTok's latest symphony digital avatar.
18:10I am a custom avatar born from TikTok's latest generative AI technology.
18:15What I love about my job here at TikTok is that we're building for the future of creativity and marketing.
18:21And today, I'm thrilled to unveil our new symphony digital avatars right here and now.
18:27We believe this technology has the potential to fuel the creator economy and offer new avenues for creators and marketers to scale their content globally.
18:36In fact, I can now speak over 10 different languages, from Espanol to Francais.
18:42It's like a better version of me.
18:45When it comes to innovating with AI, we are focused on putting creators at the center of our strategy and taking an authentic and responsible approach when it comes to building new, innovative tools.
18:57We look forward to continuing to listen to our community and build alongside the industry in order to take creativity to the next level on TikTok with you.
19:07So I filmed that video or I filmed the video that trained that avatar, which is representing the background there in my bedroom with my iPhone.
19:14And so it's that easy to create this content.
19:17And again, I'll just remind you all that any avatar that is in available in our system is fully consented.
19:25These are paid actors.
19:28We have two types of avatars.
19:31We have stock avatars, which we have over 200 that represent a wide variety of different appearances.
19:37But then we also have custom avatars.
19:39So if you have your own brand IP, if you have creator ambassadors that you're working with on an ongoing basis, we can create a custom avatar kind of similar to that.
19:50And that can be available just to you alone.
19:54So let's look at what this looks like in practice with Viking Guard.
19:59I think you're going to need to play it.
20:05In this epic game, you will become a Viking builder and experience the Viking way of life.
20:11Expand your territory, develop your culture and build a new living place for your brothers and sisters.
20:17Dispatch residents to work on various tasks or go hunting.
20:21When resources in the village begin to run low, brave warriors can also play their role.
20:26They will go to resource points to explore and return with a full load.
20:30Now is the time to join and believe that you will definitely find your own Viking way and write a Viking legend.
20:39And you can see here the performance improvements when they integrated avatars into their content.
20:45Okay, and then with custom avatars, this example is with Viajet.
20:48They were one of the first to test this solution.
20:50They have brand ambassadors that only speak Vietnamese.
20:53And they wanted to use those same brand ambassadors for an English-speaking campaign.
20:57So they were able to leverage this tool to be able to do that effectively.
21:01Okay, last up.
21:03And I'm sorry.
21:04I know I'm a little bit out of time.
21:05Do I have a few more minutes?
21:06Okay.
21:07So we're going to talk about refresh videos.
21:09This is a really exciting innovation.
21:11And it has not launched yet.
21:13It's coming in October.
21:14But basically, this solves the problem of creative fatigue.
21:17And it allows you to take whatever your best-performing asset is and create multiple different variations of that.
21:24And so we'll show you here a video that we posted on our TikTok for business.
21:28And we'll show you the output when it went through the refresh tool.
21:33Oops.
21:34Let's play it, please.
21:36The first one.
21:37Not that one.
21:38Okay, so this is the input.
21:41Okay.
21:57You'll see how different, yet similar, the output is.
22:05I'm a movie buff, and I love to stay updated on the latest film buffs.
22:09That's why I'm thrilled about the new TikTok search feature.
22:11Now I can search Oscars and be part of the awards season excitement.
22:15I get exclusive content and immersive experiences, all while keeping up with the five-year film population.
22:21Ready to stay in the know?
22:22Try search Oscars on TikTok today.
22:26Okay.
22:27And then the last part of the presentation is about optimization.
22:30So Symphony lives on multiple surfaces.
22:33We have a standalone website.
22:35But it's also integrated into the Ads Manager to make the whole process really seamless for you.
22:40So within Ads Manager, you can auto-fix, auto-optimize, auto-generate content directly through Ads Manager.
22:48And I also just want to quickly call attention again to the disclosure piece.
22:52Super important to disclose.
22:54You can see what the label looks like on that bottom left-hand side.
22:58Again, it's auto-watermarked through Symphony Assistant Creative Studio.
23:03But if you're using any other tools, you can leverage that toggle as well.
23:07So just to wrap it up, want to kind of highlight here, generative AI is all about empowering human creativity.
23:15If anyone is telling you otherwise, they're not doing it right.
23:18It's about empowering the human component here.
23:21It's about facilitating localization, being able to scale your production, you know, very efficiently and in a cost-effective manner.
23:30And also enabling personalization with tools like Symphony Creative Studio.
23:35You can batch process 300 pieces of creatives very quickly and easily.
23:40So hopefully you feel a little bit more empowered now to kind of get started with an idea, take that idea to reality,
23:46drive performance, all while saving time and energy with these tools.
23:51So thank you so much for your time and for the extra time.