Viral Nation Earns TikTok’s Premier Creative Badge: Our Approach to Creator Marketing

Viral Nation has earned TikTok’s Premier Creative Badge in the Creator Marketing specialty, becoming a Premier Badged Marketing Partner. TikTok’s Creative category recognizes expertise in developing and producing content for the platform, across organic and paid activity.

When choosing a TikTok partner, brands should ask how they select creators and decide what those creators will make. We recommend making those decisions together, based on what viewers need to understand about the product.

Choose creators for the questions they can answer

A familiar brand entering a new category gives its marketing team a hefty challenge. People may recognize the name, but they may still need a reason to try the product. To that end, the creative brief should address that gap: what can a creator explain or demonstrate that would help someone judge whether it’s right for them?

This approach changes how one should strategically build out a creator shortlist. Look at the subjects someone covers, how they use products and the questions their audience asks. A category specialist might explain a technical detail. Another creator might show where the product fits into an everyday routine. Giving each creator’s approach a clear role in the campaign needs to be a major focus.

This is also how we think about community relevance. A creator’s connection to a subject should shape what you ask them to make. Bringing several communities into a campaign gives the team an opportunity to explore different uses and perspectives. On the other hand, repeating the same script across a diversity of creators could completely waste that opportunity.

Make room for the product and the creator

Product education gives a creator something useful to work with. In some cases, starting with a question a viewer might ask is a strategic approach. How could this make my work more effective? Where can I integrate this product into my day? Creators, in response to these questions, can then work on a format that answers it in their own style.

It’s important to be precise about product facts and any claims that need approval. After this, we leave room for the creator to decide what to show and how to explain their experience. In some cases, we ask our creators which parts of the brief fit the way they normally make TikToks, and which need rethinking.

Our work at Viral Nation combines creator expertise, cultural insights and technology in its broader approach. SocialAI brings together social, creator, audience and performance signals to inform decisions. In addition to this, Viral Nation Secure helps our teams assess creator fit and brand safety. Those capabilities support planning and, in response, our teams still need to make creative choices with their creator partners.

How e.l.f. approached a new category

For “Look Who’s e.l.f.ing Hair,” e.l.f. partnered with Viral Nation to introduce its hair care collection and demonstrate its performance across different hair textures. The creator mix included hair experts, curl and texture creators, beauty voices and niche communities, with product education and entertainment central to the content.

                                                                        
Our takeaway from that approach is the connection between the product question and the creator mix. With an objective that included demonstrating performance across hair textures, the team had a reason to bring several perspectives into the campaign.

The wider launch moved from TikTok Shop to direct-to-consumer availability and then Target activations, where creators made shop-along content. That gave the creative a practical subject: where audiences could find the products.

Between July 14 and July 31, the campaign recorded 53 million views and 1.5 million engagements across 50 TikTok posts. For a similar launch, ask creators to explain how the products work and show viewers where to buy them.

Choosing the right creator and measuring success

One of the most critical parts of a successful campaign is choosing the right creator. To do this, you should be looking at a variety of different aspects of the creator, such as success metrics like engagement rate, audience bases, and general topics that they talk about. The TikTok One Creator Marketplace is a great method to do so and provides first-party information on the indicators that matter for creators. At Viral Nation, we've integrated the TikTok One API to feed that information into our own discovery systems to ensure we're helping businesses find the exactly right creator for each program.

Once a program goes live, it's incredibly important to be tracking the success of that campaign or identifying key areas in which to boost a given post to help it perform even better against the goals of the campaign. The TTO API also gives us the ability to pull in real time the metrics of the campaigns that we are facilitating, so that our paid teams are able to execute efficiently and effectively. We are able to adapt to what's working and what's not working inside of the campaign.

Give the audience a useful next step

It’s important that the creative brief makes the viewer’s next step clear, whether that’s learning more or finding a retailer. Brands should also consider product availability at each launch stage so creators can direct viewers to the right place.

Before launch, brands should also agree on the reporting period and what they’ll measure: views and engagement for awareness, or purchases for sales. Reviewing each creator’s content alongside the results can then help identify ideas worth testing again.

What to ask of your TikTok partner

We think it’s important to ask a prospective partner to explain the decisions behind a campaign: why those creators, what the audience needs to understand, and how the team assesses those responses. Brands should be able to follow the reasoning from the objective through to the work.

TikTok partner evaluation checklist

• Define the product question each creator will help viewers answer.
• Assess creators’ subject expertise, product use, and audience questions against the campaign objective.
• Confirm product facts, claims requiring approval, and room for each creator’s own format.
• Match the viewer’s next step to product availability at each launch stage.
• Agree on the reporting period and measures before launch.
• Review creator content alongside results to identify ideas worth testing again.

Our work at Viral Nation supports brands across TikTok strategy, creative production and creator partnerships, alongside community management, paid media and measurement. We bring those teams together around the job your campaign needs to do.

Explore Viral Nation’s TikTok marketing services to discuss your next campaign.

Frequently asked questions

How should brands choose creators for a TikTok product launch?

Choose creators whose subject expertise, product use, and audience questions fit the launch objective. Give each creator a clear role, such as explaining a product detail or demonstrating how it fits into an everyday routine.

How much creative freedom should TikTok creators have?

Set clear requirements for product facts and claims that need approval, then give TikTok creators room to choose the format and explain their experience in their own style. Discuss which parts of the brief fit their usual content and which need rethinking.

What should brands measure in a TikTok creator campaign?

Agree on the reporting period and measures before launch. Use views and engagement to assess audience response for awareness objectives, and purchase data for sales objectives; review each creator’s content alongside the results to identify ideas worth testing again.

What should brands ask a prospective TikTok marketing partner?

Ask how the partner selects creators, develops briefs, reviews product claims, and connects reporting to campaign objectives. The partner should explain why each creator fits the assignment and how the team will assess audience response.