The Glossy 50 celebrates individual changemakers. They include executives who took their companies into new, competitive categories, industry newcomers who disrupted age-old processes, dealmakers who led groundbreaking partnerships and creatives whose work managed to cut through the noise. More from the series →
The Trendsetters: The work of these executives and creatives influenced competitors, or the masses.
Matt Cleary leads the enterprise retail sector at TikTok, focusing on ad solutions and partnerships between brands and the platform. The brands range from mass to luxury and include those under the Richemont umbrella which have grown their presence on TikTok in the last year.
With luxury brands known for being slow to embrace new platforms, Cleary said a presence is more important than a perfect strategy. “Compared to a year ago, there’s been a massive increase in the amount of earned media that is coming to the luxury channel via TikTok,” said Cleary. As such, brands including Chanel have joined TikTok and are advertising on the platform.
However, some of the most substantial TikTok ad returns are still going to mainstream brands, like Madewell, which has been testing new strategies like exclusive promo codes on the platform.
“TikTok has had a material impact on Madewell’s business, beyond what they were [giving us] credit for,” said Cleary. “They measure [attribution] via a shopper’s last click. But we put together a unique campaign leveraging TikTok-specific promo codes, and we found that the e-commerce revenue was 500 times greater than the results they were seeing through their former attribution model.”
Rather than seeing TikTok as a singular campaign driver, Cleary said the biggest opportunity for brands is to treat it as an always-on channel for fueling and activating their communities. Plus, he noted the new commerce opportunities through TikTok Shop, which launched in September. Beauty companies including Benefit Cosmetics, L’Oréal and Estée Lauder joined TikTok Shop this year. For its part, Benefit described its entry as a “wild success.”
“Being able to constantly listen and get feedback from the community [is invaluable],” said Cleary. “You can ask: What are they excited about? How are they styling things? What are the trends they’re pushing forward, and how can you take them into your own long-term planning?”
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