Have you always wanted to exploit your hard-won years of photographic and video experience to help big brands advertise their products for absolutely no guarantee of financial compensation? Well, thanks to TikTok’s new Creative Challenge, that’s exactly what you can do!
The social media app launched the new feature this week. It essentially lets users create advertisements from a list of briefs. The brand can then select its favourite from the submitted videos and run it as an advertisement. However, there is absolutely no guarantee of payment for the creators.
The programme is open to anyone over 18 with over 50,000 followers. The payment criteria will, of course, be based on metrics like views, clicks, and conversions. It’s not that different of an idea from some other photography brief-based platforms, where photographers can submit their work based on speculation alone.
“Submissions should be high-quality, well-edited, original content,” says the announcement. Submitted videos will not be displayed on the creator’s profile, but once reviewed and approved, run as ads on the For You Feed. TikTok admits that they are merely testing out the idea at the moment with just a few carefully selected brands.
@tiktoknewsroom ⭐️TikTok Creative Challenge⭐️ A new way for creators to collaborate with brands with full creative freedom! We’re excited to continue recognizing and rewarding creators for their creativity through this new in-app feature.
So TikTok is essentially exploiting its most talented creators on the vague promise that they might possibly be selected to be paid for their time and work.
Knowing how much time, effort and experience go into making a high-quality advertising video, I find this rather dispiriting. Sadly, this won’t deter many people from applying for this programme in the hopes that they might get chosen. At best, it’s a lottery.
At worst, it’s exploitation sold under the guise of saving the creator’s time by reaching out to brands themselves and establishing relationships. I think we all know who will really benefit from this arrangement. And it’s likely not the people creating the content.
[Via The Verge]
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