Meet Symphony Avatars: TikTok’s New Creative AI Tool

Creativity thrives on TikTok. When brands truly lean into creative bravery and experimentation, they are able to speak directly to their community and invite them to join in the conversation. At TikTok World 2024 we launched Symphony, our suite of ad solutions powered by generative AI. Today, we are excited to unveil Symphony Digital Avatars, AI Dubbing for global translations, and our Symphony Collective to help creators and brands produce TikTok-first content that breaks through.

With Symphony, businesses of all sizes, creators and agencies can blend human imagination with AI-powered efficiency to help scale content development, creativity, and productivity on TikTok. Research has proven that not only does creating TikTok-first ads boost purchase intent by +37% and brand favorability by +38% (1), but also 79% of TikTok users show a preference for brands that demonstrate a clear understanding of how to create content specifically for the platform (2). 

“At TikTok, we aim to empower creators and propel their creativity to a global audience with the power of generative AI,” said Andy Yang, Head of Creative Product at TikTok. “Symphony Digital Avatars unlock a new avenue for creators to scale their opportunities with brands globally. We aim to fuel the creator economy by investing in creative solutions that spark joy, imagination and action.”

Bring Your Creative to Life with Symphony Avatars 

To help creators and brands captivate global audiences and deliver impactful messages in an immersive and authentic way, we are excited to announce Symphony Digital Avatars. Digital Avatars help breathe life into branded content with generative AI avatars of real people, which will enable new ways to scale creative strategies on TikTok. With 58% of TikTok users saying they are more likely to trust brands after learning about them from TikTok creators, avatars help scale and globalize branded content with a personalized, human feel and wide variety of gestures, expressions, nationalities, ages and languages. (3)

To help both brands and creators take their creativity and content to the next level, we are introducing two types of Digital Avatars:

• Stock Avatars: pre-built avatars created using paid actors that are licensed for commercial use. Stock Avatars allow businesses of all sizes to add a human touch to their content with quick and accessible global creators from a diverse range of backgrounds, nationalities, and over 30 languages.
• Custom Avatars: crafted to represent a creator or a brand spokesperson with multi-language abilities, giving creators and marketers the control and power to scale their likeness and brand. For creators, they can leverage their own likeness and construct multi-lingual avatars to expand their global reach and brand collaborations. For brands, not only can they build their own Custom Avatars with their brand IP, spokesperson or a partnered creator, they can now easily work with creators from around the world to help localize their global campaigns.

TikTok Creator O’Neil Thomas states, “Creating on TikTok has not only saved my artistry, it’s monetized it on a global scale. Thanks to TikTok I’ve been able to meet and collaborate with prominent brands in a fun, authentic, and creative way. With the new Tools TikTok continues to implement, I’m able to utilize even more ways to create new and fresh concepts with my brand partnerships. I’m so excited to be one of the first creators to develop my own custom Digital Avatar so I can scale my reach globally and my revenue exponentially.”

Learn more on Symphony Digital Avatars to see how creators and brands can create at scale.

Global Translations to Scale Your Creative

The Symphony AI creative suite empowers brands at each step of the creative process to help produce TikTok content that resonates and connects with our global TikTok community. Our goal is to help brands scale their creative campaigns to help meet their goals and objectives. Today, we are introducing Symphony AI Dubbing, a global translation tool that allows creators and brands to break down language barriers, scale their content with multiple languages and connect with global audiences.

AI Dubbing gives creators and marketers the control to translate their content into 10+ languages and dialects, making their message more inclusive and impactful across diverse audiences. The tool automatically detects the original language in a video, transcribes, translates and produces a dubbed video in the selected languages, giving creators and brands the ability to communicate with their global audiences.

Check out more on AI Dubbing and how marketers can globalize their content.

Innovating with our Community with Symphony Collective

With the launch of Symphony, our goal is to ensure industry feedback is core to our development strategy. To help facilitate important discussions around the development and responsible use of AI in creative marketing, we’re launching the Symphony Collective: Industry Advisory Board. The founding members are comprised of a diverse range of content creators and thought leaders including representatives from Mondelez, American Eagle, Wendy’s and the NBA, agencies including OMD, Tinuiti, Day One, Tool, VaynerMedia, and TBWA Chiat, and creators such as Drea Okeke, David Ma, Michelle Gonzales, and O’Neil Thomas to help provide critical feedback about TikTok’s AI marketing solutions and provide an open forum to discuss the industry at large.

Quotes from Founding Members:

“As a creator, I’m always experimenting with new filmmaking techniques for my craft and content. I’m constantly exploring new ways to scale my content without sacrificing my creativity,” states David Ma, Director, Filmmaker & TikTok Creator. “TikTok has been a pioneer in providing creative tools that allow me to effectively collaborate with brands and create lasting, long term brand relationships. I’m honored to be a part of The Symphony Collective to help test and build their new creative AI solutions– to help myself and other creators find efficiency in our creative processes while maintaining our artistic voices.”

“TikTok has been a remarkable force for more open, diverse, and bold forms of creativity. With GenAI as a creative catalyst, this stage that welcomes thousands of creators and communities will become even more dynamic,” states Anthony Hamelle, Executive Director of Digital, Social & Innovation at TBWA/Chiat/Day US. “As a founding member of TikTok’s Symphony Collective, it is my honor and privilege to work alongside TikTok and share some of the insights gleaned from TBWA’s groundbreaking projects on the platform, such as Hilton’s 10-min TikTok, and our own GenAI initiatives and products such as FEED AI.”

“I’m so excited for the future of creativity! As a creator, my goal has always been to bring joy and share my culture with the world. TikTok has been a game-changer, allowing me to connect and build an online community in ways I never thought possible. I love using AI to streamline my creative process and boost productivity, so I’m especially excited to join the TikTok Symphony Collective. I’m looking forward to seeing the creative ways that AI can help us creators be even more innovative and grow,” states Drea Okeke, TikTok Creator

At TikTok, we are continuously innovating to help brands authentically connect with their community and reward our creator community for their creativity. To learn more about our Symphony creative tools, visit TikTok for Business.

1. TikTok Marketing Science Creative Coding Analysis based on 3,500 TikTok ads that ran from 1/1/2021 – 10/1/2021 representing all major verticals, conducted by Kantar, 2022
2. TikTok Marketing Science Global Creative First Study 2022 conducted by Ipsos
3. TikTok Marketing Science Global Creators Drive Commerce Study 2022 conducted by Material