The TikTok Ad Awards 2023 | Nordic Winners

The winners of the second annual TikTok Ad Awards Nordics have been announced! This European award program, launched in Maj 2022, was established to shed light on the industry-leading brands and agencies that are fully embracing TikTok’s platform with campaigns that perfectly balance high-performance goals with creativity and entertainment. These G.O.A.Ts – that's Greatest Of All Time – show that when advertisers leverage the unique opportunities offered by the platform, only the sky becomes the limit! This year, TikTok added a new award category for Small Business brands to bring home the trophy.

This year, outstanding Nordic brands took home trophies in four categories – Greatest TikTok, Greatest Performance, Greatest Creative and Greatest Small Business. Their campaigns led the way with innovative strategies and ad solutions that powered significant business results. Read on to find out the brands that won on TikTok this year.

Greatest TikTok

IQ | Abby World | Wavemaker

The “Greatest TikTok” award celebrates the epitome of creativity, performance and TikTok first strategy. The winner has the honour to fly to Amsterdam to compete in the TikTok Ad Awards Grand Prix on the 30th of November, where the winner will be crowned the European G.O.A.T.

This prestigious G.O.A.T title was claimed by IQ, Swedish government-owned subsidiary, for the innovative campaign leading up to their TikTok first series addressing complex relationships between youth and alcohol. IQ’s ingenious approach included a collaborative casting process, allowing target audience co-create the story. Blending traditional self-tape in acting with TikTok engagement tools like the ‘Duet’ feature, the campaign generated over 450 pieces of entertaining videos from the audience to the audience. TikTok ads promoted the duets while always leaning into TikTok-first practices such as breaking the fourth wall to engage directly with viewers, using native text, and a lo-fi aesthetic that felt authentic and allowed the audience to connect with the case on a personal level.

Comment from the jury:

”When an audience has moved to a new platform, you better do your homework and figure out how you can follow them, and entertain them on their terms. The jury was both amazed and delighted with the smartness of this campaign, and the results it delivered, but could also clearly see the smartness that went into the solutions in order to convey the overall message. Because it’s hard to convey something that you can’t purchase, touch or really experience when the client you work for focuses rather on shifting norms than to have you buy the next next thing. But trust us when we say that we’d duet this, any day of the week.”

Greatest Creative

Cloetta Suomi | Toinen PHD | Bängeri

The Greatest Creative prize went to Finish Cloetta’s TV Mix campaign supported by agencies Toinen PHD and Bängeri. The award ”Greatest Creative” highlights brands and agencies who have the courage to redefine creative boundaries on TikTok. Cloetta’s TV Mix campaign took an innovative TikTok approach including ideation sessions with creators to gather insights from TikTok natives themselves. The campaign strategy included parody videos showcasing authenticity, ASMR trends with video intensifying sounds, oddly satisfying activities and collaboration with local creators. Cloetta skillfully used TikTok’s creative tools that enabled them to build engaging and truly TikTok native content that is hard to forget!

Comment from the jury:

”It’s not just about finding your audience on a platform, it’s also about you having them stay with you, and engage with you. The jury were all in agreement that there was so many layers to this campaign and its creative execution, that’s we could help but smile when we absorbed it. This campaign has it all, parts oddly satisfying, parts ASMR and many other trends baked into one. But when it’s all peeled away, what we saw was just brilliant work, spot on for its audience and not pixel perfect, but rather sound satisfaction at the highest level.”

Greatest Performance

Oddlygood | Bright Mind Agency

The award ”Greatest Performance” highlights creative campaigns with measurable effect and focus on brands and agencies that have used TikTok to achieve business goals. Greatest Performance award was claimed by Oddlygood, plant-based beverage brand, whose campaign seamlessly blended humour, making fun of Swedish Midsummer traditions, with impressive campaign results. Their content hit the mark with the target audience, positioning Oddlygood as a tasty alternative. By using TikTok’s unique platform, Oddlygood effectively showcased their ability to speak their audience’s language through voice overs and ‘DIY’ trends. In just three months, Oddlygood beat the giants and found its well-deserved 1st place in brand preference. The success wasn’t limited to the digital real; Oddlygood witnessed a 40% increase in in-store sales - an all-time high for the brand!

Comment from the jury:

”Go big, or go home - an old saying that we the jury believe in and could easily be applied to this work. 
It’s never easy being an underdog, but it allows you to try new things and take risks, and it certainly paid off!
The numbers speaks to themselves, and most impressively is the change of hearts for this brand by a younger audience. From being the 5th preferred to number 1. Oddly enough, great work on TikTok could apparently beat a giant.”

Greatest SMB

Brödinstitutet | Jung Relations

The “Greatest Small Business” award shines a spotlight on small businesses of under 50 employees that demonstrate strong strategy, creativity and real-world impact. This honour belongs to Swedish brand Brödinstitutet. Brödinstitutet’s campaign mission? Refresh the perspective of young adults on whole grain bread and encourage them to eat healthier. By recognizing TikTok as the hub for their target audience, Brödinstitutet deliberately adopted a witty and almost “dry” narrative that alluded to TikTok trends while crafting custom "memes". What set this campaign apart were the embedded elements in their TikTok’s, fostering engagement in the comments. As a result, the content felt organic and truly native to TikTok. The numbers tell the story of their success, with 840k video completions, 28k engagements, and 25k visits to the campaign page. Although, what truly mattered was that more young adults are regularly eating whole grain and, as a result, living healthier lives.

Jury nomination:

”It’s not easy engaging people with something that they no longer think is trendy or cool. One way to approach this challenge would be to take it very seriously, or you could just have fun with it and create some self distance and put a smile on peoples faces. And in this case, it truly paid off. The jury all found the solution to the problem very amusing and the numbers spoke to themselves. From stale to freshly baked, it looks like bread is back on the menu”.