The global It Starts on TikTok Campaign took the entertaining 9:16 world of TikTok and brought it outside the app, giving the world a "free trial" of all the diverse culture and content on the platform.

For the first time, the biggest global trends – from cloud bread to Sea Shanties – were happening on the smallest screen, and TikTok was at the heart of it.

By launching the campaign and seeding our story to publications across the globe like CNN and AdAge, we p?roved that there's way more to TikTok than people even realize.

By April 2020 TikTok hit 2 billion downloads. The brand had seen tremendous growth, but was now faced with big perception challenges.

As one generation lapped us up, another turned away, believing that TikTok “was for dancing and lip syncing,” or “silly and superficial.” Add to that the geopolitical disruption and increased competition faced by the app – TikTok needed to show the world that we had something for everyone.

Meanwhile, all this fresh new TikTok content – from the latest food craze to hit songs – was being shared across the web, and even making headlines. It all started on TikTok, and yet people still didn't think the app was for them. Our opportunity was to use traditional media to share the magic of our 9:16 world with the world – from the US to the UK, from Brazil to Japan.

While there was a world of diverse, community-driven content on TikTok, people still didn't realize that their favorite new songs, trends, recipes and more all started on TikTok first. They thought it was just a dance app for young people.

We took this insight, and created a simple messaging platform "It Starts on TikTok" to ground cultural zeitgeist within the creativity of our community and platform. This was something we continued to live and breathe throughout the rest of the year, making bold moves to champion our TikTok creators.

From working with them to co-create Dua Lipa's next music video, to making the Sea Shanty the trendsetter the star of our new TV ad, it all started on TikTok.

The role of PR was instrumental in this campaign, in order to give everyone a "free trial" of TikTok via traditional channels that reached a broad audience. We demonstrated that TikTok has a something for everyone, contrary to popular belief.

To reach our non-user audience, the campaign strategy focused on high-impact integrated media as well as press outlets, showcasing the best of our content where our audience already was. We demonstrated there's more to TikTok than the public might think.

By celebrating our creators in our high-impact media placements, during primetime TV and placed against unmissable BVOD, we generated earned media as well on social media. The campaign championed the spirit and diversity of our platform, while reminding those seeking entertainment and pop culture, that TikTok was at the heart of it.

"It Starts on TikTok" was not a one-off creative execution, but rather something that continued to live and breathe throughout the rest of the year, making bold moves to champion our community to the mass audience.

We started with the community first. On high-impact OOH and TV we celebrated creators who drove trends and shifted conversation during lockdown, and put their content and handles front and center.

We got iconic global artists onboard like Dua Lipa. Hundreds of millions have since watched "Levitating," co-created with the TikTok community. To take it to the next level, we also deployed iconic digital OOH around the world to cement that music starts on TikTok.

When we saw the music trend #SeaShanty start to build momentum, we acted quickly to take him from the small screen to primetime TV, which generated much press conversation around this cultural phenomenon.

- The campaign changed macro perception barriers, moving perception metrics to fuel growth globally. At TikTok, "likability" has been identified as the strongest indicator of not only positive perception of the brand, but intent to download.

- In the US, the It Starts on TikTok campaign had a significant impact on mitigating perception issues we faced during the US Executive Order announcement from the former president, growing likability from 38% pre-launch to 56% (+18%). We received earned media through positive press coverage, including trade publications like AdAge, and from TikTok creators who posted their positive reactions to their social media accounts.

- Across the UK and Germany, after a similarly negative news cycle, the campaign drove significant increases in likability scores with non-users, at +25% and +14% respectively, along with strong gains. We saw similar lifts in likability in all the markets where we ran the campaign globally with 2Billion impressions.

- Sea Shanty artist Nathan Evans hit top of the charts in several countries, and had everyone from Gary Barlow, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bryan May, to Elon Musk singing, performing and tweeting about Sea Shanties. (He has since quit his job as a postman.)