TikTok, the video-sharing app popular among young users, has teamed up with adtech platform The Trade Desk to offer its premium inventory to advertisers across Asia-Pacific, with PepsiCo’s Lays brand an early user.

The partnership will enable clients of The Trade Desk to purchase TikTok inventory directly and to incorporate the platform into their advertising campaigns, the two companies announced in a statement.

They said that TikTok is the first short-form video platform to integrate its ad offerings with The Trade Desk and that the partnership currently covers 11 Asia-Pacific markets – including Southeast Asia, India, Australia and Japan – as well as Russia.

PepsiCo is the first client to access TikTok inventory via The Trade Desk and, working with media agency Mindshare, the food and drinks giant is running a campaign for its Lays brand in Thailand.

Commenting on the campaign, Arun Mehra, PepsiCo’s senior director of marketing services, said Asia’s “smartphone-first demographic is absolutely critical for PepsiCo” and that the partnership between TikTok and The Trade Desk makes reaching this audience “easier and more precise”.

Having piloted the campaign in Thailand, PepsiCo is now looking to extend its TikTok campaign through the partnership across the wider region, he added.

Sam Singh, TikTok’s VP of monetisation in India, said the key objective of the partnership with The Trade Desk is to enable more brands to tap into TikTok’s short-form mobile video as part of their omnichannel campaigns.

“As our advertising solutions scale, we’re always looking to partner with industry leaders like The Trade Desk to bring quality and high-performing advertising options to brands in Asia-Pacific, including India,” he said.

Also commenting on what the partnership could mean for brands, Mitch Waters, The Trade Desk’s SVP of South Asia, said: “Everyone in this region understands the scope of TikTok’s reach, particularly with smartphone native users in India and Indonesia.

“Brands will be able to scale their campaigns to include short video, simply and safely.”

Sourced from TikTok, The Trade Desk; additional content by WARC staff