Omnicom Media Group expands its TikTok relationship to include search keyword access

Does Omnicom Media Group know something about TikTok’s future that the rest of the world seemingly doesn’t? If so, it’s not saying, as OMG executives declined to comment on TikTok’s impending status, except for chief product officer Megan Pagliuca acknowledging the agency network is “closely monitoring the situation. The way we’re working with them is business as usual. The consumers are still there.” 

Search is OMG’s primary focus at CES this week, given two other partnerships the agency network has already announced — one with Google and another with Amazon Ads. The TikTok partnership primarily involves OMG’s influencer agency Creo, led by president Kevin Blazaitis. 

Essentially, the partnership gives teams across Creo and OMG visibility into organic search volume and keywords on TikTok, with a mission to find creators and influencers that fit the goals of clients while also generating more relevant content, and resulting in more effective paid search outcomes. According to Pagliuca, it’s the first time TikTok has shared this search data outside its own walls, making OMG a first-mover (but not exclusive) partner. 

“A lot of Gen Z is starting with Tiktok and [other] social platforms as their search engine — that is a huge kind of change in behavior,” said Pagliuca. “In that, a core component of why they’re searching is for influencer content — deciding what they’re going to buy, both from discovery down to purchase, which is another huge consumer behavior shift.”

“We recognize that one of our key consumer groups, those under 35, are now using social platforms not only for entertainment but mid-and-low funnel behaviors including starting their search journeys on platforms like TikTok,” agreed Nicole Kane, vp of media and marketing transformation at Bimbo Bakeries USA, a client of OMG’s PHD media agency. “Omnicom’s continued innovations to bring [Bimbo] a broader picture of the behaviors taking place on key social and video platforms allows us to be thoughtful in how we reach these consumers in a full funnel way.”

For its part, TikTok realizes this behavior among young users has value to agencies and brands.  “We are seeing a growing trend of users researching products on video and social platforms rather than traditional search platforms, and we are excited to offer advertisers a new way to tap into these multifaceted search behaviors,” said Brian Torpey, TikTok’s global head of monetization, search product solutions and operations.

Blazaitis said the evolution of OMG’s relationship with TikTok makes sense, having graduated the relationship from a data deal to a commerce deal to this search partnership. But it’s also about how influencers wield so much more clout in young consumers’ minds. 

“It’s no longer [about] did somebody like a piece of content, or did they gain a little bit of buzz and awareness from it?” said Blazaitis. “We are now looking at search as part of that behavior, because ultimately, the content that we are getting back from TikTok — the volumes and the keyword quantities — all inform what type of content we should be asking influencers to produce, and how we should discover influencers that are already organically producing that content.”

As with its other partnerships, the Omni operating platform plays a role in information exchange with TikTok, added Clarissa Season, chief experience officer at Annalect, which runs Omni. Audiences are crafted and fused within Omni then matched to TikTok audiences to seek out optimal influencers for OMG and Creo clients. “This is a collaboration that is also pushing us both forward,” said Season.

And which types of clients might be looking to dig deeper into understanding and collaborating with the right influencers? “It broadens a little bit of those types of brands who are looking to impact consumer search under the age of 35,” said Blazaitis, who noted the deal affects the U.S., with plans to roll out globally at a later time.

“I think about financial service brands that have a hard time with regulations, and others that are looking for very specific calls to action, or trying to bring additional mid-funnel consideration to different products. This is a way to inform that isn’t just high funnel.”