When it Comes to TV, Instagram and TikTok Are Headed in Opposite Directions
Highlights from the Scalable Summit
Next week, I’m excited to be recording a live podcast with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Bridget Jayaram, VP, Data-Driven Advertising Sales, at the Go Addressable Upfront Brunch in New York on May 14. Be sure to check it out.
Given YouTube’s meteoric ascendance in connected TV, there has been much debate about what Instagram and TikTok - YouTube’s rivals on the short-form front - should do about it. Does either platform want to make a serious run at YouTube, and TV budgets? After all, new data from the IAB this week indicates that social video is actually outpacing CTV ad spending growth in the US.
Still, it’s tough to pass up that big screen streaming time and cede it to competitors. It’s why TikTok at one point tried - and largely failed - at TV. Yet Instagram - backed by the ascendant Reels - is headed in the opposite direction, as was apparent at yesterday’s Scalable Summit in Los Angeles.
Marisa Hammonds, Global Head of Creator Marketing & Community, TikTok said that even as TikTok is seeing more intentional viewing, and embracing scripted microdramas, when it comes to a TV app, “I don’t think that is on the roadmap right now,” she said. “Never say never.”
As much as YouTube Shorts apparently has an audience on CTV, there are reasons why TikTok and Reels won’t work on TVs. Most social video algorithms are deeply personal (while TV can be communal). And swiping is intrinsic to the experience (what’s next?!)
I asked Mind Chatter Media founder and CEO Adam Wescott - who helped shepherd the successful Tubi movie series “Sidelined” with TikToker Noah Beck - for his take.
“Short-form vertical video still has a lot to prove when it comes to the lean-back CTV experience,” Wescott said. “Both TikTok and Instagram are chasing YouTube’s success as a clear leader on smart TVs, outpacing competitors like Netflix and Hulu.”
Regardless, last December Instagram launched a CTV app for Reels, and according to Digiday, parent company Meta has been talking about various ways to bring its killer audience targeting to TV in some fashion (the two moves may or may not be connected).
At Scalable, Tessa Lyons, VP of Product, Instagram, hinted there is more to come.
Lyons said the company had already been hearing anecdotally about teens casting Reels to smart TVs, and that the company also wanted to cater to creators drawn to the big screen.
“There is definitely a market for short-form viewing,” she said. But, “I don’t think it is going to be enough."
“Reels is a multi-year journey. Long-form is a part of it. It’s still early.”
That seems to be something of a warning shot to YouTube.
More quick nuggets from the excellent Scalable Summit (major congrats to founders Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg).
Frank Cooper III, CMO, Visa, said the company had doubled its ad budget spend with creators over the past year, and expects to do so again this year. But it’s still not easy to scale brand deals - so he’s looking less at one-off influencer deals, but “creators as businesses…we’re investing in them all day long.”
Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, said the live-streaming app still makes a large majority of its revenue from users ‘tipping’ creators vs. advertising. But given the resurgence in live streaming, “there is a ton of opportunity on the other side,” he said, hinting that Twitch is looking to channel “scaled influencer marketing” around streamers that love particular brands. His biggest challenge is that brand and media executives “aren’t users of Twitch.”
In the influencer marketing/tech space, the era of big acquisitions may be over. Dillon Lawson-Johnston, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Guggenheim Brothers Media, said that Publicis’ 2024 purchase of Influential may be the last mega deal for a while. “There were some huge winners in that space,” he said. “It’s going to be extremely difficult for new entrants there.”