NEW YORK — As ad buyers scrambled around Manhattan to catch upfront presentations from major streaming and TV publishers Wednesday, TikTok hosted its own showcase across the East River, in Brooklyn, boasting of its strengths in turning brand discovery into intent and even action through commerce tools, including a new way to book travel in the U.S.

Beyond debuting a number of ad products, the social media app’s executives highlighted the flexibility of its artificial intelligence suite in a swipe at rivals that take an all-or-nothing approach toward the technology. For instance, TikTok is allowing marketers to toggle Smart+, an AI-powered performance solution, on or off across every step of the campaign process to provide a greater degree of customization moving forward.

“Most platforms only give you the extremes. Either they automate your ads entirely, and you have no control over what your audiences are engaging with, or they smother you with dashboards and options,” said Jose Villalobos,  global head of product marketing for platform and core ads, on stage at TikTok World. “We’ve heard the feedback from so many of you here. Again, you need automation, but with a human touch.”

TikTok also pulled back the curtain on its approach to agentic AI marketing. The platform, which plans to launch a dedicated agentic hub next month, detailed two new offerings on this front: TikTok Ads Skills, which gives developers an existing AI infrastructure to build on for executing different tasks, and the TikTok Ads Model Context Protocol MCP Server. The latter acts as a “translator,” according to TikTok’s website, mapping a brand’s agent requests to TikTok’s Marketing API. In short, it enables “marketers to connect their own AI agents directly to the TikTok Ads platform,” Villalobos explained.  

“Think of Skills as your building materials and MCP is the blueprint that connects the pipes across everything,” said Villalobos. “So your agents can assemble, adapt and continuously improve. They’ll provide both the connectivity and the building blocks to help you plan, launch and optimize your campaigns your way.”

Building buzz with creators

TikTok World, a product-oriented summit now in its sixth year, followed the company’s NewFronts presentation in March. The NewFronts largely served to emphasize TikTok’s stability following a ban attempt that resulted in the formation of a U.S. joint venture backed by firms like Oracle earlier this year.

At TikTok World, less attention was placed on TikTok’s complex ownership structure to instead narrow in on innovation. TopReach, a solution that combines high-visibility TopView and TopFeed placements that premiered at the NewFronts, is getting an added Creative Sequencing capability where advertisers can control how TopView and TopFeed work in tandem and extend into deeper storytelling. 

TikTok also trotted out two complementary advertising options that are part of its TikTok One collaboration platform. Branded Buzz gives advertisers the ability to collaborate with creators at scale, generating a heavy volume of videos in a short time frame to drive reach and awareness. Search Hubs are sponsored pages that can be linked to in the comments of videos, giving users a portal to explore a brand that appears in creator content. 

“This enables users to move into really, really deep exploration through sponsored, brand-owned pages that appear at the very top of your search results,” said Dina Liu, global head of brand product marketing at TikTok, during a virtual media briefing earlier in the week.

L'Oréal’s Brazil division leveraged both features for a holiday campaign in support of its luxury fragrances, with Branded Buzz creator videos accruing over 42 million views in two weeks, according to TikTok. The personal care marketer then funneled those eyeballs into search, resulting in a three-times lift in activity for the channel. 

In addition to Branded Buzz, TikTok is integrating a Creator AI Search function in TikTok One that uses automation to analyze brand and agency briefs and comb through the platform’s talent pool to find the right collaborators. 

“It facilitates faster, more organic creator partnerships to deliver impactful brand moments fueled by efficient AI-powered discovery,” said Villalobos during the briefing.

Content and control

Other TikTok World announcements catered to specific categories like travel, entertainment and gaming. TikTok Growth Max is a new product that brings advertising to native app experiences like Mini Games and Mini Series. Mini Series taps into the trend of episodic, short-form microdramas that are in vogue with advertisers and naturally aligned with TikTok’s scrolling content model, while Mini Games are designed to support additional monetization opportunities for brands. 

TikTok revealed advertising is coming to TikTok Go, which was announced earlier this week as a way to find and book travel without needing to leave TikTok. Expedia Group is an early partner on the initiative. Keeping users within the TikTok app was a theme across several of the announcements as the platform tries to shore up momentum in areas like social commerce, where it has seen sign-on from a growing number of companies.

“Travelers are already turning to TikTok for inspiration, and as we look for new ways to meet them where discovery happens, TikTok Go creates a natural path from interest to booking,” said Daniel Duckart, vice president of growth marketing at Expedia Group, in a press statement. “We are committed to continue finding innovative ways to connect travelers with the trips they’re dreaming about.”