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From confusion and envy to excitement and nostalgia, we brought the creative process to TikTok
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How we took creativity to the max on TikTok via a series of original idents.
Creative Canvas is a series of 12 TikTok idents, each expressing a different emotional experience within the creative process. By commissioning a range of artists, It’s Nice That helped demonstrate the vast creative possibilities that the platform has to offer.
TikTok came to It’s Nice That to help it showcase the creative potential of the platform. Our brief was to create a series of 12 idents to inspire users with the app’s possibilities for creative expression.
Our aim was to strengthen TikTok’s relationship with the creative community as well as provide the team with the opportunity to test different branded content on its platform, and discover new opportunities to work with global creatives.
We started with a deep dive into everything TikTok, as we knew it was critical to understand the community and the kind of content that is popular on the app. We also thought deeply about creativity’s present and future role on TikTok.
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Work in progress: Fa & Fon green screen exploration
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Work in progress: Fa & Fon green screen exploration
“This was TikTok’s first ever European ident projects, which is a great milestone to have been a part of.”
Lauren Coutts, creative at It's Nice That
Users were already achieving incredible things with the app’s potential for experimentation and self-expression. What would happen when it was put into the hands of creative professionals? What could a set designer with years of experience in the fashion industry do on the app? How might a stop-motion animator use its tools? These questions led us to notions of play, individuality, breadth of discipline and flair, informing our project concept “Creativity with Humanity”.
We set about commissioning a bunch of our favourite creatives, keeping in mind the comedic tone and DIY approach of TikTok content. We selected 12 European artists from a huge variety of disciplines, including animation, kinetic sculpture, typography and 3D rendering.
Each one was tasked with expressing a different emotion associated with the creative process. These included excitement, romance, triumph, nostalgia, awkwardness, craving, amusement, interest, confusion, satisfaction, envy and entrancement. Because sound is a major element of TikTok content, we also worked with sound designers Sounds Like These to produce an audio track for the creatives to work to.
Satisfaction - Sophie Koko Gate, Confusion - Natalie Liu, Interest - Kenny Brandenberger
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Named Creative Canvas, the 12 idents took over the Top View slot on the app. This is the first thing users see, presenting an amazing opportunity to expose original work to millions. Alongside the idents, the creatives shared behind-the-scenes content on their own TikTok profiles.
As we launched the different idents on TikTok, we published five articles exploring the inspiration behind each one. The launch article introduced the campaign with a long-form interview with Lucas Zanotto, our first creative briefed on the series. The following four pieces were published at regular intervals during the ident rollout and featured two to three creatives in each.
- 240 million unique views across TikTok
- 740 million impressions across all idents hosted on TikTok
- Total campaign reach of over 1 million people on It’s Nice That
- With more than 20,000 page views across all editorial articles
- 12 global creatives commissioned
TikTok shared the 12 idents in its top view slot weekly for three months garnering a total of 240 million unique views from users across Europe. By experimenting with different styles, colours and narrative structures across the idents, we brought an entirely new range of aesthetics to users’ feeds.
“We were one of TikTok’s first partners to bring artistic talent to the platform in an advertorial or directional aspect,” says Lauren Coutts, creative at It’s Nice That. “Plus, this was TikTok’s first ever European ident project, which is another great milestone to have been a part of. TikTok is a really engaging and special community that should be considered more often for social campaigns.”