Advertising Week presented an opportunity to engage directly with media professionals, fostering new relationships and deepening existing collaborations. TikTok’s presence was designed to educate advertisers, demonstrate practical solutions, and ultimately influence media agencies and brands in their budget allocation decisions. As the Design Director, I played a crucial role in shaping TikTok’s brand presence, overseeing the visual identity of our activations and builds across multiple years and global regions, ensuring a seamless and engaging user experience, and designing creative assets that effectively communicated TikTok’s advertising solutions. My work helped establish a cohesive narrative that demonstrated practical solutions, reinforced brand messaging, and ultimately influenced how media agencies and brands considered their budget allocation decisions.
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"TikTok has pretty much had the coolest activation I have seen in the last few years that I have attended Advertising Week." - Former NBA Player Baron Davis
Over the years at Advertising Week, TikTok has faced evolving challenges, from establishing credibility as an advertising platform to proving its effectiveness beyond brand awareness. Early on, many advertisers saw TikTok as a space for viral trends rather than a serious business driver, making education a core focus of our activations. My role as Design Director was pivotal in shaping TikTok’s presence into a visually immersive and strategically structured experience, ensuring that every activation, from interactive product showcases to creative content hubs, seamlessly reinforced TikTok’s narrative. The goal was to transform brand perception through design—by creating engaging, hands-on experiences that demonstrated how TikTok’s creative tools, commerce solutions, and performance-driven advertising models could drive real business results. From the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt Bodega in 2021 to the Exponential Entertainment activation in 2023, my design leadership was about more than aesthetics; it was about building a cohesive, experiential storytelling framework that helped advertisers not just see, but feel TikTok’s impact. By 2024, TikTok’s role in the advertising industry had matured, but new challenges emerged, particularly in privacy, AI integration, and cross-platform measurement. My design approach evolved to align with these shifts, ensuring that our activations weren’t just engaging spaces but also educational and strategic environments. This meant unifying TikTok’s messaging, visual identity, and product demonstrations into a seamless experience that positioned the platform as an indispensable business partner that maximizes return on creative investment. Each element—from on-site activations to stage designs and executive presentations—was crafted to communicate TikTok’s evolution in a way that was clear, compelling, and actionable for advertisers. My impact has been in ensuring that TikTok’s presence at Advertising Week isn’t just memorable, but transformative, reinforcing its industry authority and driving deeper engagement with brands and agencies looking to invest in the platform’s future, positioning TikTok as the future of entertainment marketing.
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Over the past few years, TikTok has significantly evolved its presence at Advertising Week, cementing itself as a dominant force in the advertising and marketing industry. From 2021 to 2024, the platform has transitioned from an emerging digital disruptor to an essential partner for brands seeking to engage audiences in innovative ways. Creatively, we wanted to stand out in a crowded field of publishers and really target an audience of decision making practitioners that were in control of a lot of ad budgets across the industry.
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Each year presented distinct challenges and opportunities, from overcoming industry skepticism in 2021 to refining measurement strategies in 2023 and pushing the boundaries of creative commerce in 2024. Through immersive activations, thought leadership sessions, and innovative design, TikTok has consistently set the benchmark for how digital platforms integrate into industry events, proving its ability to influence advertising trends at scale.
As the Design Lead, my role was instrumental in shaping the visual and experiential identity of TikTok’s presence at Advertising Week. From crafting visually compelling brand activations to designing immersive spaces that seamlessly integrated storytelling with product education, my work ensured TikTok's brand presence remained impactful and engaging. This was a smart and informed audience that was extremely media saavy and had seen plenty of activations in their careers, so we had to stand out and do something creatively fresh.
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Each year, the design challenge evolved—from establishing TikTok’s credibility in 2021 to refining user interactions and maximizing impact within budget constraints in 2023 and 2024. By overseeing the creative execution of brand spaces, digital assets, and motion design elements, I helped create a unified narrative that reinforced TikTok’s industry leadership. Across all three years, my contributions enabled TikTok to attract thousands of attendees and drive measurable business impact, fostering deeper connections with brands and advertisers while positioning TikTok as an indispensable partner in the marketing ecosystem.
Advertising Week 2021 featured one of TikTok’s most memorable creative activations, centered around the "TikTok Made Me Buy It" visual identity. Collaborating with Mike Hinson, we conceptualized a bold and culturally resonant experience, designing a bodega-inspired activation that merged TikTok’s community-driven ethos with real-world brand engagement. The activation transformed an everyday space into a vibrant TikTok-powered discovery hub, celebrating spontaneity, creativity, and commerce. Down to the subtle details on the coffee cups which featured our very own TikTok branding, we emphasized the power of commerce on our platform.
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Attendees were invited to take home fresh bouquets of flowers, a design element that reinforced TikTok’s role in driving organic discovery—symbolizing how users "stop and engage" with content that resonates. The space also featured eye-catching tote bags adorned with the "TikTok Made Me Buy It" branding, which became instant hits, serving as walking advertisements that extended TikTok’s presence beyond the event.
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Designed to feel like a bustling, vibrant corner of New York, this experience was centered around the idea of discovery, comfort, and cultural relevance, seamlessly blending the “TikTok Made Me Buy It” campaign with a high-touch hospitality approach for top clients. Each morning, the activation space came alive like a New York bodega meets luxury concierge experience. A curated breakfast spread welcomed attendees, offering fresh pastries, artisanal coffee, and grab-and-go breakfast bites, ensuring that early-morning visitors were energized and engaged.
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Attendees could help themselves to a selection of individually wrapped croissants, fresh fruit, yogurt parfaits, and energizing granola bars, reflecting a mix of indulgence and practicality for busy professionals on the go. The coffee station was another focal point, featuring high-quality brews and oat milk options to cater to diverse preferences, reinforcing TikTok’s attention to inclusivity and premium experiences. This activation exemplified TikTok’s ability to seamlessly blend culture, creativity, and commerce through thoughtful and strategic design.
Despite working within a limited budget, we proved that a strong concept, authentic engagement, and strategic storytelling could deliver high-impact results. Our team further designed intimate meeting spaces for our Culture Driver series of talks which focused on inspiration as an extension of our Creative Lab to supplement the early morning inspiration with a dinnertime bookend to end the day with. The format was so successful that we expanded this portion to extend to four other cities after the initial event to increase inspiration across the nation at our TikTok offices with top clients.
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While 2021 laid the foundation for TikTok’s presence at Advertising Week, we opted to skip 2022 due to strategic commitments elsewhere. However, this hiatus allowed for a recalibration of resources, ensuring that TikTok’s return in 2023 was bigger and more impactful than ever. With fresh momentum and a deeper industry presence, we re-entered the event space with an amplified vision that further solidified TikTok’s leadership in the advertising world.
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By 2023, TikTok had established itself as an indispensable partner in the digital advertising space. Advertising Week presented an opportunity to showcase its innovative capabilities in creative advertising, measurement solutions, and audience engagement through an expansive series of activations, live programming, and strategic partnerships.
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As the media landscape continued to shift, we made it clear that TikTok is where creativity, commerce, and community collide, offering brands an unparalleled opportunity to engage with audiences in real-time. Our strategy was twofold: debunk myths and remove barriers to adoption while showcasing how brands can unlock incremental growth through TikTok’s creative ecosystem.
With activations like the #TubeGirl Content Creation Booth, live coaching for CapCut adoption, and thought leadership sessions tackling gaming, DEI, and video strategy, we proved TikTok’s value beyond traditional advertising—as a full-funnel solution for brand-building and performance marketing.
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The theme of the year, "Exponential Entertainment," emphasized TikTok's ability to merge entertainment, creativity, and commerce to drive tangible results for advertisers. From the bodega theme, we evolved to more of a subway central transit hub that felt more appropriate in New York having shifted from Hudson Yards to the Manhattan Mall. The message was clear: success in advertising today means prioritizing TikTok, embracing native content strategies, and leveraging the platform’s community-driven momentum to drive meaningful business results.
As the Design Director, I led the visual development of TikTok’s activation space, programming materials, and user experience design with my design team including folks like Crystal Yin and Joy Seet. The activation space drew over 3,000 attendees across four days, with key touchpoints like the Creative Center, CapCut for Business, and the #TubeGirl content creation booth standing out as major engagement drivers. These interactive elements balanced education with entertainment, reinforcing TikTok’s narrative that “creating is easy” and making it clear that brands could seamlessly integrate into TikTok’s ecosystem.
A highlight of TikTok’s presence at Advertising Week 2023 was the exclusive Measurement Lunch at Eataly, an invite-only gathering designed to bring together top marketing executives, measurement experts, and brand leaders for an in-depth conversation about TikTok’s evolving measurement solutions. Held in the warm and sophisticated ambiance of Serra by Birreria, the event provided a relaxed yet strategic setting for high-level discussions on how TikTok is closing the attribution gap and proving the effectiveness of its advertising solutions.
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The lunch format encouraged open dialogue, allowing clients to share their needs and concerns while hearing firsthand from TikTok’s product leads about how the platform is addressing industry-wide challenges in transparency, effectiveness, and ROI validation. Notably, Chipotle’s marketing team praised the event as one of the most valuable sessions of the week, citing the depth of discussion and clarity on TikTok’s measurement roadmap as key takeaways. The intimate setting, combined with curated discussions and strategic networking, made the Measurement Lunch a powerful engagement moment that strengthened TikTok’s position as a leader in advertising performance and analytics.
The #TubeGirl Content Creation Booth at Advertising Week 2023 was more than just an activation—it was a high-impact organic user acquisition engine. By transforming a massive cultural trend into an interactive, psychologically safe space, we enabled attendees to confidently participate in the Tube Girl movement in real-time. Through live coaching by TikTok’s L&D facilitators, over 800+ #TubeGirl TikToks set to the tune of Tate McCrae's viral hit "Greedy" were created onsite, and 200+ CapCut template downloads were directly driven by the experience. But the true business impact lies in the value of these conversions—each user who downloaded and used a CapCut video template represents an $86 UAC based on industry benchmarks.
This means our activation delivered a potential equivalent of $17,200 in high-value user acquisition—without paid media. By removing friction, guiding users through the creation process, and embedding TikTok’s creative tools into a cultural moment, we didn’t just showcase our platform’s power—we demonstrated how community participation translates into real business impact. This activation proved that when you make creativity feel accessible, participation—and brand loyalty—follows.
A major design challenge in 2023 was navigating increasing competition and industry skepticism. Platforms like Meta and Google dominated ad performance discussions, making it critical for TikTok to position itself as a credible, results-driven alternative. This meant product integration which emphasized how creating on TikTok is a frictionless experience such as Capcut or the TikTok Creator Marketplace took center stage from an activation standpoint.
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Our design solutions emphasized authenticity and engagement, leveraging modular digital elements, interactive learning hubs, and live demonstrations to differentiate TikTok’s advertising offerings. The efforts paid off—live programming sessions saw record attendance, with over 78% of surveyed attendees stating they were more likely to allocate ad spend to TikTok within six months. We even held an intimate measurement dinner with a focused audience.
The Creative Codes Card Deck was a project I spearheaded, working closely with Design Force to scale it in time for Advertising Week 2023. This deck was designed as a powerful, tactical resource to help advertisers, agencies, and creators break down the six core principles of effective TikTok content creation—all backed by data. With aesthetically compelling design and strategic clarity, it provided an actionable roadmap for brands to think TikTok-first, tap into trends, structure content for engagement, and maximize the power of sound and visual stimulation.
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The urgency of launching this deck in time for Advertising Week meant streamlining design, production, and distribution, ensuring it could be a cornerstone resource at the event. Its impact was undeniable—250+ decks were distributed to industry leaders eager to translate insights into action. By making complex creative strategies digestible and immediately usable, this deck not only reinforced TikTok’s role as an essential marketing partner but also empowered brands to confidently create high-performing content with ease and efficiency.
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With compressed timelines and ambitious goals, 2023 was also a testament to cross-functional collaboration. Through agile workflows and adaptive design, we ensured that TikTok’s presence was not only visually engaging but strategically aligned with key messaging goals. This set the stage for an even more ambitious and refined approach in the years to come.
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Ultimately, Advertising Week 2023 was a turning point for TikTok, proving that its advertising solutions are not only innovative but indispensable for brands looking to thrive in an increasingly digital and entertainment-driven landscape. As Design Director, I am proud to have played a key role in bringing this vision to life, demonstrating that strategic creativity can drive measurable business impact and position TikTok as a leader in the evolving world of digital marketing.
By 2024, TikTok had evolved into an advertising powerhouse, with a major focus on performance measurement, creative commerce, and privacy-enhancing solutions. The event, held from October 7th to 11th, saw TikTok introduce new ad tools and AI-driven solutions, including Smart+, GMV Max, Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs), and Out of Phone: Retail. The arrival of our impressive in-house environmental designer, Tracy Llewellyn, in 2024 was a game-changer for how we approached spatial design and experiential activations. With a keen eye for functionality, aesthetics, and audience engagement, Tracy helped us take our Advertising Week presence to the next level by mapping out and building a detailed 3D render of our activation space that included all of these tools in prominent ways.
This powerful visualization allowed us to analyze user flow, optimize pathways, and refine key engagement zones to ensure that every touchpoint was intuitive, immersive, and high-impact. By simulating the attendee journey, we were able to enhance accessibility, streamline content interaction, and maximize dwell time—transforming the space into a seamless fusion of creativity, education, and brand storytelling. Tracy’s expertise in environmental and experiential design reinforced TikTok’s commitment to innovation and world-class execution, proving that every detail—from layout to user experience—plays a critical role in driving meaningful engagement and business results.
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These intentionally placed product launches were designed to address advertiser concerns around measurement, transparency, and commerce integration, ensuring that TikTok remained a top choice for brands seeking to maximize impact. However we always have to ensure we balance product with entertainment and trends on the platform. Building off the timely success of TubeGirl the year prior, I pushed for a creative strategy where we tapped into the trending "Very Demure, Very Mindful" catchphrase started and blessed by the eternally cutesy Jools LeBron.
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A major challenge in 2024 was the shifting composition of TikTok’s audience at Advertising Week. The event saw a growing presence of senior leaders, with 28% of attendees at the director level and 12% representing the C-suite, increasing the need for more tailored and sophisticated messaging. The design strategy had to balance accessibility for new users while providing high-level insights for decision-makers, requiring a nuanced approach to information architecture and visual storytelling.
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Adding to the complexity, budget constraints required a more resourceful design approach compared to previous years. Despite this, we executed an impactful activation space that maximized engagement through strategic, cost-effective design choices. Interactive screens, modular installations, and QR-code-driven tutorials ensured that the space remained engaging without excessive overhead costs. The Smart+ suite, a flagship launch for TikTok, captured 91% of media coverage, positioning TikTok as a leader in AI-powered ad performance. We also reinforced the Return on Creative branding and messaging throughout as an integrated campaign.
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Audience retention and education were key focuses in 2024. Survey results revealed that 72.5% of activation attendees were likely to invest in performance campaigns on TikTok, highlighting the effectiveness of our messaging. Additionally, 80% of respondents correctly identified TikTok’s creative strengths, proving that our educational efforts were resonating with key stakeholders.
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Despite tight timelines and increased industry competition, TikTok’s presence at Advertising Week 2024 resulted in over $87 million in touched revenue within 30 days post-event. The event successfully positioned TikTok as a top-tier advertising platform, showcasing its ability to deliver measurable performance while maintaining a strong creative identity.
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From 2021’s bold cultural activation to 2023’s expansion and 2024’s strategic refinement, TikTok’s presence at Advertising Week has continuously evolved to meet the needs of brands and advertisers. Through thoughtful design, immersive storytelling, and a relentless focus on engagement, each activation reinforced TikTok’s position as a must-buy platform for advertisers.
The Fit Check Glambot Photo Moment was an immersive activation that brought TikTok’s culture of creativity, self-expression, and trendsetting to life at Advertising Week. Designed as an engaging, high-energy experience, this activation invited attendees to capture their most stylish moments in cinematic slow-motion, mirroring the viral "fit check" trends that dominate the platform.
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By blending entertainment with shareable, dynamic content, the Glambot moment reinforced the event's overarching theme—Be What Happens Next—by showcasing how TikTok empowers brands and individuals to shape culture in real time. Just as TikTok redefines digital storytelling, this activation underscored the platform’s role in merging personal style, social influence, and creative commerce, proving that the future of brand engagement is interactive, visually compelling, and community-driven.
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As the Design Director, my role was pivotal in shaping how TikTok was perceived in the industry, ensuring each year’s activation was not only visually compelling but also strategically effective. Across all three years, my work contributed to attracting over 10,000 attendees, fostering key advertiser relationships, and driving millions in revenue impact. This required deep partnership with folks on our events team like Maya Seshadri and Micayla Deiner while ensuring our stage panels with folks like Tim Natividad and Rema Vasan carried through the story we were telling in our activations on stage.
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Advertising Week 2024’s 20th anniversary was a celebration of the industry's evolution, and TikTok stood at the forefront of that transformation, proving once again that it is the driving force of modern entertainment. As the lines between content, commerce, and culture continue to blur, TikTok led the charge in redefining how brands connect with audiences in an era of infinite digital touchpoints. The event brought out some of the biggest names in entertainment—Camila Cabello, Terry Crews, Taylor Lautner, Carmelo Anthony, and the indomitable Yara Shahidi—all sharing insights on the changing media landscape, the power of storytelling, and the role of platforms like TikTok in shaping the next generation of engagement. With exponential entertainment at the core of every conversation, TikTok cemented its position as the epicenter of cultural movements, trendsetting content, and innovative brand partnerships.
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This journey reflects not only the growth of TikTok as a platform but also the increasing importance of integrated design and storytelling in digital advertising’s future. From our intimate targeted bespoke dining experiences to the larger event space on the show floor as well as the elevated swag items consumers took home, everything had a high touch element to it but also felt intentional and data driven to move the needle on business results.
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Advertising Week 2024 was a pivotal moment for TikTok’s continued dominance in the advertising and media landscape, reinforcing our position as the go-to platform for exponential entertainment and high-impact marketing solutions. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving digital ecosystem, this year’s event showcased how TikTok is not just an advertising platform but a cultural powerhouse driving the future of brand engagement. With immersive activations, thought leadership panels, and data-backed insights, we deepened our relationships with agencies and brands, equipping them with the tools and strategies to thrive in an ever-changing market.
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From the Fit Check Glambot Photo Moment to highly anticipated speaker sessions, every touchpoint was meticulously designed to showcase TikTok’s unmatched creative ecosystem. Our messaging was clear—TikTok is where brands must be to shape, amplify, and participate in culture. With record engagement, new partnerships, and undeniable business impact, AdWeek 2024 was a milestone in cementing TikTok’s reputation as the premier destination for brands looking to drive relevance, revenue, and real results.
Building on our North American success, we scaled the TikTok Co-Working Garden activation for Advertising Week Europe 2024, leveraging insights from our U.S. experiments to optimize impact in a new regional market. In close collaboration with Cogs & Marvel as our production agency, we refined our approach to maximize engagement, tailor content for a European audience, and ensure seamless execution. By incorporating learnings from past activations—such as enhancing user flow, refining interactive touchpoints, and creating a stronger link between physical experiences and digital amplification—we transformed the space into an immersive, brand-driven environment.
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The bold, interactive locker system became a central engagement hub, gamifying attendee participation while reinforcing TikTok’s core business messaging of Get Creative, Get Inspired, Make Impact. This global-to-local execution strategy resulted in record-breaking attendee participation, exceeding newsletter sign-ups and solidifying TikTok’s presence as a leader in the European advertising ecosystem. The overwhelming success of the branded TikTok lockers even led to their upcycling and permanent installation at TikTok’s London office, a testament to the impact and longevity of our strategic experiential design.
Key Collaborators: Tiffany Green, Yvette Banks, Micayla Diener, Maya Seshadri, Dwight Holden, Matt Steele, Elena Robustelli, Ryan Hague, Ishaan Mishra, Christie Ramistella, Tracy Llewellyn, Marina d’Orthez, Joy Seet, Eric Schroeder, Brian Wall, Heliz Mansouri, Jaclyn Fitzpatrick, Kristina Borgwing, Blair Shiffman, Connor Brownell, Ananya Kacker, Alana Tabak, Ashlie Williams, Stacey Pang, Sofia Hernandez, Rema Vasan, Dana Viltz, Alainna Schiano, Michelle Chan, Corianda Dimes, Hunter Mejaly, Kellie Norton, Kate Amery, Misha Rindisbacher, Angelo Miranda, Jordan Thompson, Selina Santiago, Krystle Watler, Allison Miceli, Jordan Randall, Andrea Herskowich, Erica Coven, Ann Nguyen, Bahar Bozdogan, Kim Wu, LuShuang Xu, Nina Skoko, Ilinca Sipos, Mette Miller, Jacob Kim, Ted Fernandez, Joe Schaefer, Taco Zhang, Jesse Barrett, Hannah Tucker, Marjorie Pouyes, Loree Sanchez, Sean Roe, Beau Avril, Diana Liu, Denise Dillon, Michael Fee, Joie Seow, Francis Stones, Dennis Petrone, Gabriel Nicolau, Nandeeta Seth, Keiko Mori, Adria Farrero, Chris Liao, Alex Grignon, Ami Soto, Malia Estes, Danielle Langer, Haley Paas, Sandra Manzanares, Judy Chang, Sloane Humphrey, Grace Theodore, Rashida Still, Ashley Rutland, Gideon E. Moncrieffe, Christopher Chen, Cameron Colan, Lizzy Pettigrew, Hyunjin Park, Crystal Yin, Vanessa Rizk, Kenneth Liew, Macy Tang, Dana Spomer, Wesley Phung, Parris Pierce, Liz Amendola, Lorrie Cartago, Sara McNutt, Chelsea Yu, Justin Ivey, Mike Nguyen, Christina Cowan, Tanya Vandriel, Sloane Winters Holtzman, Sarah Khazzam-Claude
Tools: Adobe Creative Suite, After Effects, Figma, Cinema 4D, and Sketch.
Deliverables: Immersive installations, branded activations, co-branded workshops, executive speaking engagements, and integrated design narratives.