TikTok courts CMOs with first-ever Collective, as it targets bigger budgets

A team of onsite videographers captured the event in real time, uploading TikToks throughout to a private CMO Collective account accessible via QR code to show just how easy getting a brand on the platform can be.

“That was a big part of the event,” said Sam Tucker, project director at A*live, the events company that created the event space for TikTok. “In the lobby and around the hotel there were screens showing this content. The whole point was to show how easy it is to make content and ads for the platform, with just your phone and CapCut.”

The event covered TikTok’s “4Ps”: planning, performance, people and protection through educational talks and Q&A sessions about the platform’s capabilities, TikTok Shop integrations and TikTok’s product roadmap. A TikTok exec even took a grilling from British journalist and Channel 4 lead news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy on brand safety. There were rooms set aside for ad hoc one-to-ones with any of the 30-strong TikTok team on the ground, including regional general manager for the U.K., Ireland and Benelux business solutions, Kris Boger, and group vertical director of retail and e-commerce for TikTok U.K., Paul Mears. 

For entertainment, attendees were treated to a 5K run with Sir Mo Farah, archery with GB Olympic archers Penny Healey and Megan Havers, a breathwork session with freediver Alessia Zecchini, a pub quiz hosted by British podcasters William Hanson and Jordan North, a three-course dinner in the woods by English Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge and private performance by British singer-songwriter Cat Burns. Tucker added that a “around a quarter” of the budget was spent on talent, though he declined to share specific figures.

Even TikTok global CEO and TikTok USDS board member Shou Chew made an appearance, albeit virtually due to a last minute scheduling change. He talked about the company and reassured advertisers that their dollars are safe with the platform, and any U.S. upheaval following confirmation of the U.S. deal, was nothing more than a temporary adjustment period.

While this was the first-of-its-kind event for TikTok’s global business, led by TikTok’s U.K. and Europe events team, the Collective – which is expected to return – mirrors a broader strategy also seen in the U.S. It suggests that even as the two parts of the business now operate independently, they are aligned in prioritizing deeper advertiser relationships and larger budgets. 

More specifically, the event gave marketers a small glimpse into how TikTok Global is positioning itself in 2026. It plans to double down on efforts to convert CMO interest into larger, long-term ad commitments, while reassuring them that it’s business as usual, following years of regulatory scrutiny. 

Elsewhere, TikTok is cosying up to independent agencies – nimble partners who can champion the platform directly to clients, without the conflicts or slow decision-making that tend to define holdco relationships.

And the account reps those agencies are talking to have a specific brief: TikTok is assigning them based on agencies’ Meta spend rather than their TikTok investment. It’s a pointed move, targeting the budgets flowing to Reels, which Zuckerberg said has already hit a $50 billion annual run rate, and making the case that TikTok is the more compelling home for short-form video spend.

According to Brave Bison director of paid media Mark Byrne, the broader strategy is shifting toward fewer, deeper partnerships capable of unlocking larger budgets – a move away from the wide-reaching, high-volume incentives TikTok previously used to drive adoption.

“TikTok seems to be prioritising partnerships that can demonstrate its role in discovery and decision-making, particularly through surfaces like search,” he added. “Overall, it signals a move away from driving incremental spend to competing more directly for larger, long-term brand budgets.”

Another move is TikTok’s play for new business, via a refreshed version of its long-running advertiser acquisition incentive program. The program is primarily geared toward TikTok Shop across all markets where it operates, but also includes some incentives for advertisers not yet using Shop. The program, according to Space & Time’s paid social manager Emily Waywell, includes structured coupon ladders for qualifying new accounts when spend thresholds are met within defined time frames. 

“There’s clearer eligibility criteria and less public emphasis on partner or agency specific credit distribution,” she said. Waywell made the point that it’s an evolution from what she saw last year, where incentives focused on getting more business through a combination of seasonal promotions and tiered “spend-and-get” rewards, or even partner or agency-specific bonuses. Now, she explained, TikTok is moving toward a more controlled scalable acquisition approach.

These types of incentive programs mesh with agencies trying to persuade cautious clients to test the platform, because they encourage marketers to test TikTok by reducing the upfront risk and making that initial investment easier to justify – typically by offering spend-based deals, where advertisers receive ad credits, or a percentage of their spend back within a set time frame. Brand performance agency Prospect Knight’s co-founder Luke Knight said that budget is one of the biggest barriers his team has with clients when it comes to testing new channels.

Then there’s the existing closed-door program TikTok has been working on to prove the platform’s impact beyond its own walls. For select agencies that are selling across other channels like Amazon, TikTok has been subsidizing tests to validate halo effects driven by TikTok ads, including GMV Max.

“They [TikTok] will effectively pay us (our subscription) to work with a sample of their clients to help validate these effects which is meant to lead to scaling budget on their platform,” said one exec who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Taken together, these initiatives point to TikTok trying to strengthen advertiser relationships, while sharpening its commercial strategy. If the CMO Collective was designed to show how easy it is to activate on TikTok, the broader push appears to focus on convincing advertisers to treat the platform less like an experimental channel and more like a core part of their media mix.

TikTok did not respond to Digiday’s request for comment.