When you’re marketing TikTok to marketers, it sounds like a joke. But Rema Vasan is deadly serious about it. As head of North American business marketing at TikTok, she’s leading the effort to show that TikTok isn’t just where trends happen, but also where performance happens too.
At this year’s ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, she says the industry’s big conversations have centered on three themes: the blurring line between brand and performance, the need to talk about marketing in business metrics rather than marketing jargon and the role of AI in amplifying creativity rather than replacing it.
Advertisement
“There were three big themes that stood out,” she tells The Drum. “The first is that brand and performance aren’t separate. Marketing generates demand and captures demand – it’s one funnel. The second is that we need to communicate marketing’s impact in business metrics, not just marketing metrics. And third, of course, is AI – how it can complement, not replace, human creativity.”
Those trends, she says, mirror TikTok’s own journey from cultural spark to commercial engine.
Vasan likes to describe her job as being a “marketer’s marketer.” It’s not a throwaway line. Her audience isn’t consumers, it’s the CMOs, media directors and agencies trying to translate TikTok’s cultural heat into measurable outcomes. “We practice what we preach,” she says. “When we market TikTok to marketers, we do it in a TikTok-first way. We show up with the same creativity, authenticity, and playfulness we tell brands to embrace.”
That TikTok-first mantra – creating ads that feel like part of the feed – has become the backbone of its own B2B storytelling. Vasan’s team applies it not just in the product but in how they market the product: through playful activations, community storytelling and an emphasis on education over evangelism. “My job is to show marketers how to wield the power of TikTok to drive business outcomes. We’re helping them connect culture to commerce.”
When The Drum first caught up with Vasan during Advertising Week New York, the story was about TikTok’s “more” – more creators, more control, more measurement. This time, the focus is on credibility. TikTok is still the home of viral dances and billion-view trends, but Vasan wants the industry to see it as a serious performance platform.
“The biggest misconception is that TikTok only drives upper-funnel results. That’s just not true any more. Brands like Ulta, Ray-Ban and Skittles are seeing real, measurable performance when they show up in a TikTok-first way.”
Under her watch, TikTok has been leaning hard into automation tools like Smart+ and Symphony – AI-powered systems that optimize targeting, creative and frequency to maximize return on investment. For Vasan, the message to marketers is simple: TikTok isn’t a vanity channel. It’s a value channel.
Vasan’s role gives her a unique vantage point – running B2B marketing inside one of the world’s biggest consumer platforms. “Every business is made up of humans,” she says. “If you think of B2B as B2H – business to human – the principles are the same. Know your audience, tell a great story and show up where they are.”
She cites even small businesses, such as a Lexus dealership that turned its sales team into TikTok creators, as proof that the playbook scales. “It’s not about size or sector. It’s about relevance.”
TikTok’s next frontier, she says, is discovery. One in four users searches within 30 seconds of opening the app and searches have risen 40% year-on-year. “Search on TikTok isn’t just about answers – it’s about discovery,” says Vasan. “It’s people finding things through authentic, first-person perspectives. That’s a performance opportunity for brands.”
Advertisement
From booking trips to buying products, TikTok is quietly becoming a commerce engine as well as a cultural one. The rise of TikTok Shop and new search behaviors are blurring the line between inspiration and transaction – and Vasan wants marketers to see that connection.
AI, of course, loomed large across the conference. Vasan is pragmatic: the hype is real, but the human factor still wins. “AI will never replace creativity. It can scale it, enhance it and make it faster, but you still need the ideas. You still need the humans.”
As TikTok continues to mature, Vasan’s brief remains the same: prove that the world’s most creative platform can also be the most commercially credible. “There’s a road to performance on TikTok. Culture drives conversion. We’re just making sure the industry sees the proof.”
Advertisement