• by Colin Kirkland , May 18, 2022

Today TikTok announced the launch of its newest advertising feature, Branded Mission, which will help connect creators with brands, and potentially earn rewards for videos. 

Brands are invited to share a brief with the creator community in order to encourage them to participate in Branded Missions.

Advertisers will be able to crowdsource original content from creators on TikTok and turn top-performing videos into ads, with the goal to improve brand affinity with media impressions. 

“This new form of two-way engagement between brands and creators enables the TikTok community to have a creative hand in the ads that are a part of a brand campaign and helps brands discover emerging creators broadly across TikTok,” the company said.

This could be especially helpful for micro-influencers and creators with smaller followings, as the follower limit to participate in Branded Missions is set at 1,000. 

While the TikTok Creator Marketplace –– influencers’ best shot at landing at a brand deal –– demands at least 10,000 followers to be included, Branded Missions will open up the pool of potential branding options for both creators and advertisers.

Earlier this month, the company launched a contextual advertising solution called TikTok Pulse, which guarantees that brands’ ads will be placed alongside the top 4% of all videos on the platform. It is also the first advertising product to involve a revenue share directly with creators. However, creators must have at least 100,000 followers to participate. 

“Creators are at the center of creativity, culture and entertainment on TikTok,” the company said. “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.”

To promote transparency, creators – –who must be 18 years or older––will see the potential base payout prior to participating in a Branded Mission. If their video is chosen, they will be paid in cash, along with a potential performance-based payout as well. 

Creators are invited to submit up to 3 videos per brief. 

Branded Mission is currently in beta testing and available to brands in more than a dozen markets. TikTok says the new ad product will be available in additional markets later this year.