TikTok taps BuzzFeed to produce the first sponsored weekly live shows on the platform

By Sara Guaglione

BuzzFeed and TikTok signed a year-long deal in which BuzzFeed will premiere multiple live video series on the social media platform and TikTok will secure sponsors for the shows. The deal marks the first time TikTok is working with a media company to sell sponsorships against weekly live shows on the platform.

“I Made This” is the first series to come out of the deal. Coming from BuzzFeed’s cooking vertical Tasty, the eight-part series features live cooking videos for different events and holiday celebrations, such as Friendsgiving, a tailgate party, date night, Diwali and Hanukkah, and stars in-house and independent creators that BuzzFeed works with. The first episode aired on Nov. 3. Episodes will come out every Wednesday through Dec. 22 and stream live on Tasty’s TikTok account. BuzzFeed declined to share how many viewers tuned into the “I Made This” episodes that have aired so far.

To start, the shows will feature product placements for sponsors. The first sponsor is Cyetus, a home appliance brand that will appear in the show’s Thanksgiving episode. For now, TikTok is bringing brands it works with to the BuzzFeed livestream series, which opens BuzzFeed up to working with new clients. Cyetus, for example, is a brand that “we probably wouldn’t have worked with,” said Ken Blom, svp ad strategy and partnerships at BuzzFeed.

Tasty’s editorial team and branded content team, as well as BuzzFeed’s creator and talent teams, are working with TikTok to create the shows’ content. “We are essentially the production: They own the partnership; we own the content,” Blom added. Both companies declined to answer questions about how much money each party stands to make from this deal, though a BuzzFeed spokesperson confirmed the two sides are sharing the revenue.

BuzzFeed brings to the table its brand recognition, popular content format and themes, and its creators, while TikTok can offer access to its over 1 billion monthly active users as well as sponsors for the live shows. (BuzzFeed and Tasty already have 1.1 million followers and 1.9 million followers, respectively, on TikTok.)

“Putting the creative along with the commercial side, that’s the goal here,” said Harish Sarma, global head of content business development at TikTok, of the partnership.

The next stage of branded content opportunities on TikTok

The deal serves as a pilot program of sorts for developing how publishers like BuzzFeed can work with TikTok to generate direct revenue on the platform. Similar to how TikTok is exposing BuzzFeed to new advertisers like Cyetus, BuzzFeed can open TikTok advertisers that may be looking for a guiding hand to investing in running branded content on the platform.

“Advertisers who have never done TikTok will feel more comfortable to tap into this type of product placement because they know BuzzFeed is tried and true and it’s an easier insert into a new program with TikTok,” said Ashley Karim-Kincey, vp of media at the agency Dagger. Upon hearing of this deal, she was already thinking of clients that could be a good fit for this series and said …read more

Source:: Digiday