Does Anyone Approving Your TikTok Strategy Actually Use TikTok?

“We need to reach younger audiences.”

Great.

How young?

“Gen Z.”

Excellent.

Do we have anyone here who understands Gen Z?

“Well, a lot of our junior staff are Gen Z.”

Perfect.

Have we asked them?

“No.”

Why not?

“They’re quite junior.”

Right.

So who’s developing the Gen Z strategy?

“The Marketing Director, Brand Manager, Head of Comms and GM.”

Any of them Gen Z?

“No.”

Do they use TikTok?

“The Marketing Director downloaded it.”

Great.

When?

“Yesterday.”

Excellent.

Personal phone?

“Work phone.”

We’re fucking flying.

We Have a Slightly Strange Way of Understanding Young People

Brands are obsessed with younger audiences.

We need Gen Z.

We need Gen Alpha.

We need cultural relevance.

We need to understand how younger consumers are changing.

Then we put six people in a boardroom who haven't voluntarily opened TikTok in three months and ask them to decide what young people will find interesting.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old social coordinator sitting 14 metres away is sending videos to their friends all day.

But they're not in the meeting.

They’re junior.

So instead, we commission a report.

Understanding Gen Z: What Brands Need to Know in 2026.

84 slides.

Excellent.

Now we understand the youth.

Platform Literacy Is a Thing

You wouldn't hire someone to run your television strategy if they'd never watched television.

You probably wouldn't put someone in charge of radio who says:

“I don't really listen to audio.”

You wouldn't hire a Head of Retail who refuses to enter shops.

But social?

Completely normal.

“I don't use TikTok.”

Okay.

Do you work on the TikTok strategy?

“Yes.”

Interesting.

This doesn't mean every Marketing Director needs to spend four hours a night watching a 19-year-old explain why everyone has been eating cucumbers incorrectly.

Although frankly, it wouldn't hurt.

But if you're making decisions about a platform, you should probably understand what it feels like to use the platform.

Not just what the quarterly trends deck says about it.

TikTok Is Not a Media Placement

This is part of the problem.

Traditional marketing structures often treat social platforms like places where advertising goes.

Make campaign.

Resize campaign.

Upload campaign.

Target young people.

Done.

But TikTok isn't just a rectangle where younger eyeballs happen to live.

It has a language.

Rhythms.

Formats.

Creators.

In-jokes.

Editing styles.

Comment culture.

Trends.

Anti-trends.

Things that felt fresh last Tuesday and already feel fucking ancient today.

You learn that by spending time there.

You start developing instincts.

You know when something feels native.

You know when something smells like a brand wandered onto the platform wearing a backwards cap.

A report can tell you what happened.

Using the platform helps you understand how it feels.

Both are useful.

They are not the same thing.

“We Need Something That Feels Native”

Great.

We make something native.

Marketing Manager watches.

“I don't really get it.”

That's okay.

You're 46.

It's for 22-year-olds.

“But will people understand it?”

The people we're making it for will.

“Could we explain it slightly more?”

We could.

“Maybe bring the brand in earlier?”

Sure.

“And can we lose the weird edit?”

Yep.

“I also think the music is a bit…”

TikTok?

“Chaotic.”

Right.

Three revisions later:

“Perfect.”

Great.

Now it feels native to LinkedIn.

Seniority Is Not Cultural Fluency

This one might sting.

Being more senior doesn't automatically make you better at understanding culture.

It makes you more senior.

Different thing.

You may be brilliant at strategy.

You may understand the business better than anyone.

You may know the customer data inside out.

You may have survived three restructures, two rebrands and a CEO who briefly decided the company needed a podcast.

Respect.

But none of that automatically means you understand why a particular creator is funny.

Or why a deliberately shit edit makes the video better.

Or why putting the product in the first frame makes the whole thing immediately feel like an ad.

Sometimes the junior person knows something you don't.

This is apparently controversial.

You Already Employ the Focus Group

This is what makes it especially weird.

Companies spend enormous amounts trying to understand younger people while employing hundreds of younger people.

Want to know what creators they follow?

Ask them.

Want to know whether the trend is already dead?

Ask them.

Want to know whether the phrase you're about to put on a billboard sounds like something a 48-year-old copywriter thinks a 20-year-old says?

Please ask them.

Want to know if your TikTok concept feels painfully corporate?

They already know.

You might not enjoy the answer.

But they know.

This doesn't mean:

LET THE INTERN RUN THE BRAND.

Calm down.

It means lived experience has value.

Your junior staff shouldn't automatically have the final strategic decision because they happen to know what “delulu” means.

But if you're trying to understand a culture they're actively participating in, maybe their opinion deserves more weight than:

“Interesting. We'll take that on board.”

Before everyone senior does whatever they wanted anyway.

Then There Are Creators

If ignoring your own young staff wasn't enough, brands also have access to people who have spent years building audiences on the exact platforms they're trying to understand.

Creators.

People whose livelihood depends on knowing what gets watched.

They know how to open.

How to pace.

How to speak.

When to cut.

When something feels forced.

When a brand integration is going to get murdered in the comments.

Then we hire them.

Brilliant.

And give them a script.

“Please say this exactly.”

They make a suggestion.

“No, we need to keep the wording.”

They suggest changing the hook.

“Brand really likes the opening.”

They suggest removing a product claim.

“Legal needs it.”

Then, after ignoring virtually everything they know about their audience:

“Could you make it feel more authentic?”

Absolutely.

Would you also like the chef to cook while you hold their hands?

Your Social Team Is Not the Department That Posts Things

This is another structural problem.

In plenty of businesses, social is still treated like the final little bit.

Strategy happens.

Campaign happens.

TVC happens.

Media happens.

Then:

“Can social do something with this?”

Sure.

We'll just take the beautifully cinematic 30-second film that opens with four seconds of landscape photography and somehow make a 19-year-old stop scrolling.

No worries.

The social team shouldn't just be the department that receives finished marketing and uploads it.

They should be feeding the marketing.

What did people watch last month?

Which hooks worked?

Which creators are emerging?

What are people saying in comments?

What language are customers using?

What formats are changing?

What are competitors doing that feels stale?

What are people completely sick of?

That knowledge should move upstream.

Into strategy.

Into creative.

Into casting.

Into the TVC.

Into the whole fucking thing.

Your Audience Is Moving Faster Than Your Org Chart

This is the difficult bit for big organisations.

Platforms move quickly.

Organisations don't.

A creator can spot something in the morning, make it at lunch and publish it that afternoon.

A brand spots the same opportunity.

Social sends it to Marketing.

Marketing sends it to Brand.

Brand asks Comms.

Comms thinks Legal should see it.

Legal asks for context.

Someone makes a deck explaining the meme.

The GM can't review until Monday.

Monday is a public holiday.

Approved Wednesday.

The meme is now deceased.

Cause of death:

Stakeholder alignment.

“But We Can't Just Let Young People Decide Everything”

Correct.

Nobody is suggesting that.

Young people can have bad ideas too.

Breaking news.

The answer isn't replacing one stupid hierarchy with another.

It's combining different kinds of expertise.

Senior marketers understand the business.

Strategists understand the problem.

Creative people understand ideas.

Social teams understand platforms.

Creators understand their audiences.

Customers understand their own lives.

Data tells us what people actually did.

Maybe all of those things should be in the room.

The problem begins when one type of expertise automatically outranks every other type because it has a more expensive job title.

Use the Fucking Product

There is an incredibly simple thing every marketer can do.

Use the platforms you're marketing on.

Not professionally.

Actually use them.

Create a personal account.

Follow things you genuinely like.

Let the algorithm learn who you are.

Scroll.

Watch.

Read the comments.

Send something to a friend.

Notice what makes you stop.

Notice what makes you leave.

Notice how quickly you can tell when something is an ad.

Notice how creators integrate brands without destroying the content.

Notice what happens when brands get it right.

And when they arrive sounding like someone's dad reading slang off a cue card.

You don't need to become an influencer.

Nobody needs that.

You need context.

Maybe Taste Requires Participation

We've talked about taste before.

Taste isn't something that appears when you become a Marketing Director.

It comes from consuming things.

Watching.

Reading.

Listening.

Being curious.

Knowing what good looks like.

Understanding why something works.

And if you're responsible for approving social creative while remaining completely detached from social culture, your taste is operating with missing information.

That's dangerous.

Because you still have approval power.

You can still say:

“I don't get it.”

And suddenly the people who do get it have to change it.

Before Your Next TikTok Strategy Meeting

Look around the room.

Who actually uses TikTok?

Who follows creators?

Who understands the comments?

Who knows what your audience is watching?

Who has made something for the platform?

Who has looked at the last 11 months of your actual social data?

Who knows which hooks performed?

Who knows which talent held attention?

Who can tell you what people are sick of?

And who downloaded TikTok onto their work phone yesterday because the meeting was coming up?

Maybe don't fire that last person.

Just don't automatically give them the loudest voice.

Because if you want younger audiences, you don't necessarily need younger marketing managers.

You need marketing managers curious enough to listen to the people who understand those audiences.

And occasionally admit:

“I don't get this. But maybe I'm not supposed to.”

That's a much more useful sentence than:

“Can we make it feel more on brand?”