TikTok plans to "increase efforts to promote its brand this year, particularly around large sports events," building on the ad it ran twice during Fox' live stream of Super Bowl LIV, according to Sahil Patel of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. TikTok's Super Bowl ad "ran alongside other streaming-only ad inventory" sold by the network. Fox sought $300,000-400,000 for 30 seconds of ad time. This year's Super Bowl already "reflected the rise of TikTok's popularity." The NFL ran two "hashtag challenges in the lead-up to the Super Bowl as part of a larger two-year content and advertising agreement between the league and TikTok." This year's Super Bowl efforts "could serve as a template for how TikTok approaches other big sporting events." A TikTok spokesperson said that the app will "follow up with marketing" tied to the upcoming NCAA Tournament and Tokyo Games. The spokesperson "declined to be more specific or to say how much TikTok will spend on marketing this year" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/5).
CHARACTER BUILDING: Bundesliga club Bayern Munich D Alphonso Davies has made a "strong play to be named soccer's king of TikTok with his latest viral effort." Davies "demonstrated his formidable acting skills by lip-syncing his way through the whole of a police line-up scene" from the Fox comedy series "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (ESPN.com, 2/4).
