Reia Davidson, Vertical Director, Media & Entertainment, TikTok, Opening Remarks | TikTok Culture Catalysts Dinner 2024
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00:00Good evening, everyone. My name is Rhea Davidson, and I lead the media and entertainment team
00:09at TikTok. Thank you all so much for joining us. It is such a pleasure to look out across
00:15this beautiful venue and see so many familiar faces. This is our third year hosting the
00:21Variety and TikTok Culture Catalyst event, and I must say it is truly one of the events
00:26that I look forward to the most every year, really because it is just such a rare occasion
00:32that we get all of you industry leaders in one place on a single night. So before we
00:38dive into tonight's programming, I first wanted to just take a moment to thank you sincerely
00:44for all spending your evening with us here tonight. And I also wanted to take a moment
00:49to recognize all of the culture catalysts who are being recognized here. If we can get
00:54a round of applause. So 2024 has been truly a culture-defining year for entertainment
01:06on TikTok, because TikTok is where cultural moments are born. From Kamala Harris's Coconut
01:13Tree remix to Chapel Rowan's Feminomenon, there have been countless songs and sounds
01:21that have taken over our For You pages and have echoed throughout our daily lives. In
01:28January, we saw the resurgence of the nostalgic hit song Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield,
01:36and that was just echoed by TikTok superstars Glenn Powell and Sydney Sweeney, who brought
01:43this throwback hit to an entirely new generation on TikTok, featuring some really catchy
01:51creative from the Sony Pictures team and their amazing hit film Anyone But You. Over
01:59the summer, there was a small moment you might know about. Charli XCX dropped her latest
02:05album titled Brat. It made quite a splash on TikTok, turning everything a very distinct
02:11shade of lime green. And all sorts of creators, athletes, and users jumped in on the Apple
02:19Dance trend, and I especially loved seeing that the cast from Universal Pictures' blockbuster
02:26film Twisters even joined in on the fun. So if you're like me, then we just finished living
02:35our best brat summer. And perhaps when we look back at the summer season, the biggest
02:42singular cultural moment on TikTok really was the Olympics. And the Paris Olympics took
02:48the TikTok community on by storm, bigger than ever before. Together with NBC and Peacock,
02:56TikTok provided a behind-the-scenes look at the athletes, the Olympic village, and of
03:02course, the chocolate muffins in the cafeteria. So now that summer is over, if you're like
03:08me, we are now embracing what is set to be a very demure fall. And brands across all
03:15industries have jumped onto this trend. And I would say I think my personal favorite has
03:21to be the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice creative that Warner Brothers quickly turned around
03:25featuring Jenna Ortega, which was both very mindful and very demure of them. So looking
03:33back at all of these big cultural moments this year, there is one common theme. TikTok
03:39is cultural impact. And we all know that TikTok drives discovery. But what's clear
03:46today is that the power of TikTok doesn't stop there. TikTok is where discovery leads
03:53to action. It's where fandoms are born and communities flourish. And it's where creativity
04:00knows no bounds. And TikTok is also your partner to drive meaningful business outcomes from
04:08opening weekend ticket sales and moviegoing to efficient subscriber acquisition and tune-in.
04:14So tonight, we are thrilled to bring you two variety moderated panels, one featuring our
04:20partners from Disney and a second featuring our partners from Sony Pictures. And we'll
04:26really be celebrating their successes so far this year, as well as diving into their campaign
04:32strategy and their approach to working with TikTok as a full funnel marketing partner.
04:37So to get us started, please join me in giving a warm welcome to the stage, our speakers
04:43from Disney, as well as our variety moderator, Michael Schneider.