TikTok’s new end-to-end creative AI tool you may not have heard about

These days, it seems like new AI tools are hitting the market every time you blink. AI is undeniably transforming everything from content creation to marketing strategies, but with so many new releases and updates, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

As marketers, it often feels like a race to keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI. Some tools, like ChatGPT, offer broad applications, while others, such as Midjourney, serve more specialised needs.

In this blog post, though, we’re focusing on just one tool: TikTok Symphony. While it’s still in its early days, it’s already showing strong potential to help both marketers and creators get more out of TikTok as a platform.

1. So what is TikTok Symphony?

🎶 I just wanna be part of your symphonyyyyyy 🎶 Is it a coincidence that that song is trending at the same time as TikTok reveals this new tool? 🤔

Here’s how TikTok explains what TikTok Symphony is:

“TikTok Symphony is designed to elevate your content creation journey every step of the way. Blending human imagination with AI-powered efficiency, TikTok Symphony enables businesses of all sizes, creators, and agencies to level the playing field, boost productivity, and uncover valuable insights. From scripting to video production to asset optimisation, Symphony transforms the complex into the simple – if you can imagine it, you can create it.”

Sounds exciting, right? It gives us the chance to level up our TikTok efforts at a time when attention spans are short and there’s pressure to experiment more than ever.

2. TikTok Symphony’s features and their applications

TikTok Symphony is made up of several tools, each designed for a specific function:

• Research & ideation (Symphony Assistant)
• Creative production (Symphony Creative Studio)
• Ad delivery & optimisation (TikTok Ads Manager)

Let’s go through these different tools and how they can help your teams drive performance.

2.1. Research & ideation: Symphony Assistant

Think of it like having ChatGPT directly integrated into TikTok. It can help you:

• Research creative trends (getting data to support them),
• Align with TikTok best practices,
• Source inspiration for your creative campaigns,
• Brainstorm TikTok ideas and…
• Even write out scripts with storyboards for you.

Its ability to pull trending keywords, hashtags, and top-performing ads with real-time performance data – and feed that directly into brainstorming – gives it a clear edge over what other social media platforms offer to marketers and creators.

2.2. Creative production: Symphony Creative Studio

While the Creative Assistant helps build the bones for the TikToks you will show the world, the Creative Studio helps bring them to life.

Product video generation

You can now create product videos in just a few clicks. Simply provide a product description, URL, or reference images, and the tool generates a video complete with an AI-written script and visuals. Plus, it gives you the option to create multiple versions of the same video, perfect for testing different approaches on the platform.

• Use case: This feature could be used to create unique product videos for multiple products that a company sells.

Translation & dubbing

Scaling up creative production to work across multiple regions and languages can be quite a challenge for many creative teams. You can now add in your base video and then have both its voiceover and subtitles translated into multiple languages. There’s also the option provided to have multiple accents for a particular language and have lip-syncing done for the videos.

• Use case: This could potentially be a huge game changer for teams with limited production resources who want to scale up market contextualised ads.

Up to this point, the features we’ve covered are pretty much what you’d expect from a tool like this. But here’s where things start to get really interesting — and maybe even a little unusual.

AI Avatars

The tool lets you choose from a variety of avatars in different settings, outfits, and even various camera angles. You can provide scripts in multiple languages, and the avatars will read them out. The result is surprisingly close to real creators speaking on camera, and in a few months, it could be nearly impossible to tell the difference.

• Use case: This feature could shake up the creator landscape in the long run, as it eliminates the need to work with human creators entirely if the technology continues to improve. However, it also raises significant moral and ethical questions about using AI-generated content. On a positive note, all videos created in the creative studio are automatically tagged as AI-generated when they’re uploaded to TikTok, helping to maintain transparency.

Editing

After uploading your content, you can use the built-in editing tool to refine your videos. Although the options are currently a bit limited, you can add music, and images, and adjust text placement.

• Use case: The editing tool, though basic, is great for people and teams who may not be as familiar with advanced editing software and tools. Working in the editing tool also helps capture the native feel you see in TikTok videos.

2.3. Ad optimisation: Symphony in Ads Manager

Now that your TikToks are ready, they can be launched into the Ads Manager. There are additional features present here that can help you optimise your ad campaigns.

• Auto-diagnosis & auto-fix: Symphony’s diagnostic tools automatically scan and fix compliance issues, ensuring your ads are launch-ready.
• Auto-optimisation: Scripts, subtitles and voiceovers can be instantly generated.
• Auto-generation: New video content based on product URLs or existing assets can be created.
• AI-enhanced display cards: Display cards can be generated.
• AI-enhanced carousel images: Product images for Video Shopping Ads Carousels can be optimised.

With TikTok vetting any ads that are published, you can ensure a system of checks and balances while easily creating iterations of top-performing ads with minimal effort.

2.4. Challenges and considerations

• You’re limited to TikTok: All content you generate is limited to being run on TikTok. They can’t be used across paid channels.
• Ethical considerations: As with any AI tool, it’s important to consider data privacy and the ethical implications of using AI to influence user behaviour. Make sure your campaigns are transparent and respect user privacy.
• Translations aren’t always accurate: Translations are AI-generated so they may not fully capture cultural and market nuances. Always make sure to vet the content being outputted with a native speaker.
• Lip-syncing is not there yet: AI avatars’ lip-syncing is not fully there yet, so it can look a little off when they speak.

What can you do next?

• Integrate Symphony into your TikTok strategy and identify problems it can solve for you.
• Test Symphony’s tools and see if the impact outweighs the effort and if it can help with an uplift in performance.
• Consider ethical implications and platform limitations before implementing Symphony.
• Remember to follow best practices on the platform.

TL;DR

• Ideation: Use Symphony Assistant for trend research, scriptwriting, and creative brainstorming directly within TikTok.
• Video creation: Quickly generate product videos, translate them into multiple languages, and use AI avatars to scale up production
• Ad optimisation: Optimise ads within your ad campaign in real-time.