The Sad, Triumphant Return of Vaporware

Why are the digital ad platforms so good at announcing things, but bad at actually, you know, doing those things?

Today's News

• TIKTOK • Dashboards and Duets: Upgraded Tools

• TIKTOK • Big Layoffs Coming to Support Teams

• META ADS • Videos in Catalog Product Ads

• COMMERCE • Which Discount to Use? A Cheat Sheet

• SOCIAL MEDIA • Best Times to Post Organically

• YOUTUBE • Violations Timecodes and AI Music

TIKTOK • Dashboards and Duets: Upgraded Tools

Yesterday, it was Google’s big day. Today, it was TikTok’s turn to try to capture the hearts and minds of marketers.

At its TikTok World event, the company announced some new tools — no surprise, much of it focused on AI.

First, something they call TikTok One which will be a kind of dashboard for their all their creative tools, measurement tools, and agency partners. They’re throwing in the Creator Marketplace there too. So it sounds like some consolidation of their various surfaces.

Then, there’s TikTok Symphony — this sounds like roughly the same thing, but for all their AI tools.

Vaporware is Back

Beyond that, there wasn’t a lot of detail — which is, sadly, common these days.

In the push to show off how innovative they are, all these platforms announce stuff way in advance, some of which never actually comes into fruition. (Yesterday’s Google Marketing Live was a good example of that. Some of the things they “announced,” were actually announced last year too.)

Back in the COMDEX days, we used to call it Vaporware. It’s software, sure, but it’s not really out yet, so it’s more just kind of vapors.

Indeed neither of these two TikTok things — TikTok One and Symphony — are widely available yet. If you go to TikTok’s web site, there’s a form to sign up for a waitlist.

Automation Tools

They also announced some new automation tools for campaigns that will take over once you put in your budget, campaign objective, and some creative — TikTok’s AI will then choose the creative to show, the audience, and the timing of impressions. Presumably this is something you’ll be able to choose to turn on, and not something that will happen automatically.

Interactive Formats

They also showed off a new interactive add-ons for their TopView placement which will now let you add pop-out elements and countdown stickers.

There’s also something called “Duet with Branded Mission,” which lets advertisers participate in duets alongside creators.

Measurement

On the measurement side, the company launched Unified Lift, which will combine conversion and brand data to give a wider view of campaign results.