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Five rules to win on TikTok in 2025

PLUS: What does brand building really mean in eCommerce?

Author

Zihan Lyu
August 16, 2025

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Hi there!

Highlights from today's newsletter:
👨‍💼 An interview with Michael Edelmann, CMO of 111SKIN
🤖 How agencies are battling for AI supremacy
💬 Multi-time CMO (prev. at Slack, Zendesk, Salesforce) talks about what's broken in B2B marketing and how to fix it

EDITOR’S PICK

#SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

ClickZ was on the ground at eTail Boston this week, where one of the most pragmatic-and talked-about-sessions focused on TikTok’s evolution from trend machine to full-funnel sales engine.

Leaders from Henkel, Mid-Day Squares, DMi Partners, and Fospha shared their no-BS rules for making TikTok work in 2025.

Key takeaways?

  • Livestreams convert, but only if treated like must-watch events

  • Micro-communities beat celebrity reach

  • Audience co-creation deepens loyalty

  • AI tools can help catch trends before they peak

  • And without full-funnel measurement, you're flying blind

WHAT WE ARE READING

Independent agencies emphasize agility for rapid AI deployment, while holding companies leverage scale and partnerships for resource-intensive solutions, both seeking to improve marketing outcomes.

High-quality data infrastructure remains critical, as AI is currently a decision-support tool, not an autonomous driver. Agencies achieve measurable gains in ROI and operational speed, signaling both opportunity and caution amid escalating competitive and regulatory pressures.

Michael Edelmann, CMO of 111SKIN, discusses the necessity of authentic storytelling, community engagement, and product quality in building culturally relevant brands. He emphasizes transparency and regulatory compliance as consumer expectations shift, cautioning against overreliance on influencer-driven marketing. The insights are particularly relevant as the beauty industry navigates new consumer trust dynamics and regulatory scrutiny.

American Eagle’s back-to-school campaign faced intense backlash for perceived racist and sexualized messaging, demonstrating the risks of tone-deaf advertising in a polarized climate. 

Marketers must prioritize value-driven, compliant messaging as consumer spending stagnates at $30.9 billion, while social media remains critical for driving Gen Z engagement and in-store traffic. Regulatory scrutiny and shifting consumer values demand carefully crafted campaigns to avoid reputational and compliance pitfalls.

TOP VOICE

💭Insights from Joshua Ritchie

Let’s be real: most B2B brands are stuck on repeat.

Same buzzwords, same bland websites, same tired playbooks. And in a sea of sameness, nobody stands out.

So how do you make people actually care?

In our latest episode of Best Story Wins, Jason Lankow and I sat down with Bill Macaitis, multi-time CMO (prev. at Slack, Zendesk, Salesforce) and now founder at SaaS CMO Pro to talk about what’s broken in B2B marketing and how to fix it. Spoiler: it’s not another lead gen campaign or cranking out more content. It’s about building a brand people actually remember, and care about. If you’re tired of playing it safe, this one’s for you.

We Also Get Into:

- The secret behind customer marketing that actually drives growth
- How to create bold, consistent brand moments without becoming a robot
- The role of the CMO in creating and maintaining alignment
- Why most marketing teams lose trust—and how to win it back
- And much more.

This conversation was a ton of fun, and packed full of wisdom from someone who's helped build brands and led marketing at some of the biggest and best SaaS companies over the last decade. A big thank you to Bill for coming on and for being a great guest!

💭Insights from Muskan Singh

I’m firing my entire writing team tomorrow.
(And replacing them with the new GPT-5)

Most agencies burn $3k–15k monthly on high-quality human content work… now that AI can do about 10% of it, why bother with the rest, right?

I spent the last 3 nights building a complete AI content system that:
• Handles briefs automatically
• Manages all platform uploads
• Pretends to know SEO
• Blah blah tasks

First 24 hours live:
• One site tanked from 15k to 200 traffic
• One received a manual penalty
• One lost all referral traffic and now no one’s talking about our brand

This isn’t theory. It’s built on pure chaos and misplaced confidence.

If you want it:
1. Connect with me
2. Comment “PROMPT”

Only sharing for 24 hours.

PS – In case I still want to save the few campaigns I have left, I’ll be rehiring my writing team… if they still speak to me.

Join us next Tuesday to see what’s next for brand measurement

ClickZ is hosting a live NYC event with Brandon Klausner (Global Product Lead, Ads Measurement at Google) and Fospha to show how leading brands are replacing outdated attribution with unified, full-funnel measurement that actually reflects how people buy today.

📅 Tuesday, August 19 | Midtown, NYC
🕓 4:00–6:00 pm ET-Presentations, live Q&A, and networking drinks.

What you’ll get in one session:
◾ Early access to Google’s new Measurement Playbook
◾ Why YouTube, Demand Gen, and Performance Max need full-funnel tracking
◾ Measuring beyond .com - Amazon, in-store, and more
◾ How brands are operationalizing measurement every day

WHAT WE ARE LISTENING TO

🎙 THE WARC PODCAST

Recent research by Fospha demonstrates that eCommerce marketers should not expect immediate results from long-term brand building initiatives. The study empirically distinguishes between the timelines required for performance-driven campaigns and the more extended payback periods associated with branding strategies. While short-term tactics may yield fast returns, sustained brand investment often takes longer to show measurable impact on business metrics such as customer loyalty and lifetime value.

In an environment of increasing demand for marketing accountability, brands must justify patient investment in brand-building with robust data. This necessitates advanced analytic frameworks capable of measuring lagged effects, shifting both strategic planning and resource allocation practices within the eCommerce sector.

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