Back To School Campaign

An important part of my role was serving as a cultural translator, transforming strategies from Beijing into creative approaches relevant to western and global audiences. The “Back to School” brief articulated a need to communicate “on trend” and “cheap.” Early iterations revealed how literal this direction was being taken by the Beijing based creative studio. I stepped in to guide the language direction and articulate strategic rationale behind creative choices about style, color, and tone.

 

The Task

Create a campaign for back to school shoppers showcasing TikTok’s competitive advantage as a discovery engine for inexpensive, on-trend products and school supplies. Leverage pre-approved ‘bento box’ design style in a color from the pre-approved color pallet.

I addressed stakeholder concerns about the color being ‘too bright’ by showcasing how TikTok’s ‘bento box’ design on yellow evoked the idea of a school bus.

I authored the ‘more trendy / less spendy’ tagline, and guided the content direction to emphasize TikTok’s unique role as your value minded partner helping you discover trendy new products.

Results

  • Number of unique brands and advertisers +160% (2025 —> 2026)

  • Year-over-year advertiser spend +20% (2025 —> 2026)

  • TikTok won majority share of advertiser social media budgets — 55% July/August 2026

  • One advertiser reported: +24% increase in GMV +37% increase in orders/items sold as a result of their ‘26 TikTok Back-to-school campaign

Credits

Content Design Lead // Wade Campbell
Design // TikTok Creative Studio