TikTok, the leading platform for short-form mobile videos, recently concluded TikTok Unboxed Malaysia, a significant event designed to unveil innovative branding and commerce solutions.
These solutions aim to help Malaysian enterprises effectively engage with their audiences and customers in the ever-evolving digital economy. The event was held at the Tropicana Gardens Mall Convention Centre and centered on practical strategies that leverage TikTok’s full-funnel capabilities for brand building and boosting Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) growth.
Attendees included marketing leaders from prominent brands and agencies such as Grab, Dentsu, and MediaDonuts, who shared valuable insights on how upper-funnel activations on TikTok can drive business impact by harnessing content as a powerful means to engage audiences. The event highlighted the profound transformation occurring in Southeast Asia’s commerce landscape, driven by content-led experiences that seamlessly merge discovery with purchasing. TikTok is playing a pivotal role in this shift, boasting over 325 million users in Southeast Asia, making it a dominant force in the region’s commerce arena.
As TikTok continues to grow, the rise of content-driven commerce on the platform has revolutionized consumer engagement with businesses. Users can build brand awareness, generate interest, and drive demand all within the same platform, further enhanced by TikTok Shop, the platform’s closed-loop shopping ecosystem. This innovative system blends community, creativity, and commerce, delivering a seamless shopping experience for users.
In Malaysia’s fast-paced digital landscape, TikTok encourages businesses to explore unique digital solutions that enhance audience reach, drive growth, and unlock new opportunities. The platform aims to support businesses on this journey by providing essential tools and solutions to engage audiences effectively across the funnel, build lasting brand equity, and achieve strong ROI while leveraging TikTok Shop and its other features to convert engagement into sales.
A recent study by BCG revealed that generative AI could reduce production costs by 5-15%. Recognizing this potential, TikTok has actively listened to feedback and collaborated with creative marketers across the industry to innovate its advertising products, enhancing the experience for businesses, creators, and the entire TikTok community.
Exciting new tools are on the horizon for brands, including TikTok’s creative AI suite, which leverages generative AI tools like TikTok One and TikTok Symphony. These tools will enable businesses to scale their creative production and develop content that resonates with audiences worldwide. TikTok One will serve as a centralized hub for marketers to access TikTok’s creative tools, allowing them to connect with nearly 2 million TikTok creators, discover top agency and production partners, and gain insights through TikTok Creative Exchange, TikTok Creator Marketplace, and TikTok Creative Challenge—all accessible with a single log-in.
On the other hand, TikTok Symphony will provide marketers with a generative AI-powered video editing suite, allowing for streamlined content development, creativity, and productivity on TikTok. With Symphony, tasks like scriptwriting, video production, and asset optimization become efficient processes, fueling real results and ushering in a new paradigm of creativity.
In addition to these innovative products, TikTok will launch an e-commerce playbook outlining strategies that businesses can adopt for growth, based on successful sellers in the region. This playbook includes strategies such as identifying and nurturing Hero SKUs—products that achieve significant traction on the platform, often driven by creators and users. For instance, an inflection point occurs when an SKU garners an average of 30 daily orders over the past 30 days, resulting in a 36% uplift in orders in the subsequent 30 days.
Furthermore, utilizing a combination of TikTok Shop Ads is essential for achieving sales growth. Starting with Product Shopping Ads (PSA) to secure initial sales and transitioning to Video Shopping Ads (VSA) to extend content reach, businesses can also employ LIVE Shopping Ads (LSA) to create Super Hero SKUs, ultimately driving GMV. This multi-faceted approach has proven to deliver 2.4 times GMV growth for sellers compared to using just two ad formats.
Businesses will also gain access to TikTok’s Business Accelerator on Seller Center, which offers shop diagnostics and tailored recommendations for success. With these insights, businesses can effectively engage their target audience and achieve sustainable growth on TikTok Shop.
“Our vision for this event is to empower and celebrate businesses by highlighting the creative possibilities they can unlock through TikTok. We want to showcase how brands can not only drive growth but also build meaningful connections with their audiences. This event is about more than just digital tools—it’s about inspiring homegrown businesses to harness the power of creativity, stand out in the e-commerce space, and thrive in today’s fast-moving digital landscape,” stated Delilah Chan, Head of Partnerships for Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia at TikTok.
Hatim Azizan, Creative Director at Dentsu Creative Malaysia, also shared insights on the potential of AI in creative processes, stating, “The rapid growth of AI within APAC presents us with the era’s biggest opportunity to scale. By partnering with the experts from TikTok Creative Exchange, we developed the Face of Courage campaign, creating an avatar that gave a voice to domestic violence survivors to tell their stories while protecting their privacy. By understanding the role generative AI can play in our creative process and empowering that technology with human insights, stories, and ideas, we can solve real problems for our communities in innovative new ways.”
