TikTok is the place for entertainment to grow
As Scene on TikTok: How UK Entertainment Marketers Turn Culture into Conversion
It is impossible to think of the entertainment industry without immediately thinking of the fans and fandoms who make up the audiences; selling out arenas, buying cinema tickets for the latest summer blockbuster, and binge-watching the newest series of their favourite programme. Entertainment, the fandoms we belong to, and even the genres we enjoy have become deeply ingrained in our ethos and personalities. Sitting at the intersection of entertainment and social media, TikTok has played many roles within the industry. It functions as an entertainment platform, a modern TV guide, and a pivotal source of truth for advertisers aiming to discover, reach, and convert new audiences.
Users are creating fandoms, building communities, and connecting with each other in entirely new ways. We see time and time again, through real-life examples: driving fans to the streets outside the London Palladium to hear Rachel Zegler's rendition of Don't Cry for Me Argentina, seeing TikTok stars secure their own reality TV shows, following Addison Rae's journey from creator to major touring recording artist, or livestreaming Ariana Grande's recent tour to watch the "sit in silence" challenge spark rivalry between shows. When it comes to entertainment, TikTok sits at the very heart of culture.
Audience & Fandoms
TikTok is a natural home for conversion, designed with content discovery at its core. It is where users turn to for recommendations on #WhatToWatch, actively seeking out videos from creators and advertisers alike.
From the vast influence of #BookTok, to big-screen cinema releases, to reality TV conversations, TikTok serves as the UK's modern TV guide. In a study among UK TikTok users aged 18+, TikTok ranked directly behind recommendations from friends and family when determining what to watch*.
Furthermore, after finishing a film or television episode, fans flock to TikTok to continue engaging with show-related content*, across both paid and organic activity. From dissecting post-credit Easter eggs to sharing predictions, conversations on TikTok sustain excitement and cultural chatter long after the credits roll.
This organic cultural momentum does more than just build a community; it directly fuels commercial impact. By translating fan passion into measurable interest, TikTok opens up fresh avenues for film studios, broadcasters, and streaming platforms to convert casual scrollers into committed viewers.
#BookTok: From Page to Screen
One of the most active and commercially-impactful communities on TikTok is #BookTok. It is now virtually impossible to walk into a bookstore without seeing a #BookTok-specific table covered with current and future adaptions. Over the past 18 months, book-to-screen adaptations have dominated cinema release slates and television schedules (The Housemaid, Wuthering Heights, Project Hail Mary, The Odyssey, to name a few), and this trend is set to accelerate as major publishers and studios greenlight top #BookTok titles for production.
For film adaptations from 2025 to the present day, the data shows that #BookTok momentum drives users to cinemas at a rate +19.3% above the standard box office lift norm. #RomanceTok proves particularly swoonworthy, standing out as a primary conversion driver that outperforms the box office lift norm by +40.2%.
A prime example of this offline translation is creator Alex Basso (@itsalexlately), an American living in London who turned to TikTok to find local readers interested in discussing her favourite titles. Her video went viral, sparking the creation of the London Lately Book Club. Now boasting over 1,000 active members in its primary community, the group hosts regular in-person meet-ups to discuss featured reads, alongside trending #BookTok titles.
Furthermore, the community has spun off into niche sub-groups, ranging from over-35s and expats, to reality TV lovers, connecting users across shared passions. This multi-layered engagement underscores #BookTok’s unique ability to build highly engaged, intent-driven audiences that can be harnessed by active media campaigns.
#BookTok demonstrates that when a film taps into culturally-active TikTok fandoms well ahead of launch, organic enthusiasm translates directly into opening-weekend ticket sales. With a packed book-to-screen pipeline over the coming years, engaging this audience represents an essential strategy for entertainment marketers.
TikTok is the place for entertainment to grow
Over the past 3 years, we have built one of the most comprehensive entertainment measurement programmes globally. We have achieved this by combining insights across Film, TV, Streaming, Sport, and Live Events to understand where TikTok sits along the consumer journey. Through extensive research, including our recent meta-analysis of 74 UK film campaigns with LiveRamp and 33 TV and streaming studies with Samba, we have established concrete proof points demonstrating how TikTok drives measurable offline action and tune-in behaviour.
In 2025, we launched our best practices for film that defined three foundational pillars required to turn scrollers into cinema ticket buyers:
A Multi-Format Ad Strategy: Using premium ad formats alongside standard in-feed ads was key. Our early tests showed these formats worked well and gave us a strong base for driving cinema visits.
Creative Asset Variety: Our research proved that moving past single-format, low-frequency execution unlocked significantly higher yields. Campaigns deploying a diverse mix of assets (combining official studio trailers, cast and talent moments, and creator-led content) consistently outperformed single-asset campaigns.
Optimal Weekly Frequency: Pushing frequency up to 2 or 3 exposures per week across a minimum 2 week post-launch sustain period provided the necessary cadence to build ad recall and fill cinema seats.
As major film studios adopted this blueprint as standard procedure, overall performance across our expanded dataset grew significantly. Comparing our early testing cohorts against our full 2026 LiveRamp dataset reveals a clear performance dividend:
2023–2024 Early Cohort: Established our initial testing benchmark for premium formats at +23.8% Box Office Lift and +21.4% Customer Lift.
2025 Onwards Cohort: Campaigns executed strictly after the rollout of these best-practice guardrails achieved an extraordinary +49.1% Box Office Lift (+106.3% growth vs 2023–2024 early cohort) and +46.3% Customer Lift (+116.4% growth vs 2023–2024 early cohort).
Overall 2026 Dataset: Delivered an average +37.3% Box Office Lift (+56.7% growth vs 2023–2024 early cohort) and +34.8% Customer Lift (+62.6% growth vs 2023–2024 early cohort).
In 2026, we launched our 33-study Samba meta-analysis, that reveals that TikTok ad exposure generated an average +45.2% tune-in lift across UK streaming and linear platforms (up from our +44% baseline in 2025). This year-over-year increase confirms that advertisers are successfully implementing platform best practices and optimising campaign strategy.
We have learned what works for our advertisers in the entertainment space, which audiences are being reached by their media, and how to drive towards conversions. We have also established best practices to deliver repeatable success when advertising on the platform.
From Discovery to Conversion: Reaching Net-New Audiences
When it comes to driving new audiences to cinemas, our LiveRamp findings demonstrate a direct correlation between TikTok advertising and box office attendance, showing a remarkable 64.2% surge in new customer lift compared to previous baselines. This highlights TikTok's unique capacity to inspire casual moviegoers who might not otherwise visit the cinema.
We see a matching trend in television and streaming among Light TV viewers. Defined by Samba as individuals watching under two hours of television per day, this demographic accounts for 45% of TikTok households in the UK.
This group is typically missed by traditional media channels but actively engages on TikTok, expanding the potential conversion pool and unlocking broader reach through content discovery. Understanding how this group consumes content is key to moving them from feed to screen. Light TV viewers use TikTok as a modern TV guide, turning to the platform for recommendations, trailers, and cultural buzz rather than browsing traditional channels or menus.
Their behaviour on the platform reveals a strong appetite for discovery and genre-specific content:
Light TV viewers show exceptional potential on TikTok, as they are 33.4% more likely than average to discover new IP and 8% more likely to find returning franchises. Once exposed, this group converts rapidly, driven by high affinity for Reality TV (+65.5% lift) and crime (+54.9%).
Across the Samba analysis, Light TV viewers consistently outperformed baseline metrics, with targeted strategies such as retargeting (+64.9%), and genre-specific messaging for Reality TV (+74.8%) and crime (+70.0%), delivering the highest overall campaign lifts.
Strategic targeting is crucial when reaching new users, as they naturally take longer to convert. To convert both new and Light TV viewers, advertisers should adopt a "good frequency" approach: ensuring users are exposed to a mix of creative formats and ad placements over time, rather than repeating a single unit. We also recommend dedicated retargeting for this group, as our data reveals that retargeting drives an impressive +43.6% tune-in lift. Building tailored retargeting pools for Light TV viewers that combine fresh creative with varied ad units is key to establishing optimal frequency and driving conversion.
The IP Playbook: Balancing Originals and Established Franchises
While building frequency, retargeting pools, and aligning with genre affinities drives conversion across the board, how a campaign is structured also depends heavily on the familiarity of the content itself. Reaching audiences with a brand-new, unfamiliar title requires a distinctly different creative playbook than re-engaging fans of an established, returning franchise. Fandom and discovery are 2 core pillars of the TikTok experience, both driving tangible outcomes across tune-in rates and box office lift.
The primary objective for a new IP is building awareness from the ground up, whereas established franchises focus on reigniting existing fan communities and driving lower-funnel metrics such as 'intent to watch'. Naturally, upper-funnel metrics like ad recall and brand awareness yield higher relative lifts when starting from a lower baseline, as establishing a new title within the cultural zeitgeist requires time. As a result, marketing plans and KPIs for a returning IP must differ fundamentally from those for an original release.
Our 2026 Samba research demonstrates that users are 8.8% more likely than average to turn to TikTok to discover a brand-new show they have not seen before. This appetite for discovery is particularly pronounced in key television categories; Reality TV leads the way, performing 39.6% above average, followed closely by True Crime at 15.9% above norm.
We observed matching success for new film IPs in our 2026 LiveRamp research, where users turned out in force to discover original cinema releases. When campaigns paired standard video units with TikTok Search ads, we observed a +75.1% increase above average in cinema-going attendance. Furthermore, deploying TopView for new IPs generated a +50.6% customer lift, demonstrating the commercial power of establishing mass awareness on launch day. This momentum was especially evident in original horror releases, where audiences flocked to cinemas for brand-new horror IPs at +136.5% above the average box office lift norm.
The Discovery Engine: How Genres Drive Viewing
Another growing area of impact is how audiences respond to different film and television genres on the platform. TikTok hosts a highly responsive, conversion-ready audience across every major category.In film, genre dynamics play a pivotal role in dictating audience responsiveness:
Horror: Horror is the breakout genre on TikTok, delivering a staggering +70.7% Box Office Lift (+89.5% vs norm) and +65.4% Customer Lift. Crucially, New Horror IPs achieved an extraordinary +88.2% Box Office Lift, making it the single highest-performing genre in the dataset.
Romance: Achieved a +49.2% Box Office Lift (+31.9% vs norm) and +43.7% Customer Lift, alongside a +3.6% increase in spend per customer. As established, Romance titles with dedicated #BookTok ties generate even stronger conversion rates.
Thrillers: Delivered exceptional customer conversion across 15 studies, achieving a +48.1% Box Office Lift (+29.0% vs norm) and +46.9% Customer Lift (+34.8% vs norm), with high-impact placements like TopView and creative asset variety further amplifying results.
Sci-Fi: Generated a +40.6% Box Office Lift (+8.8% vs norm), +36.6% Customer Lift, and a +2.2% increase in spend per customer (+29.4% vs norm) across 20 studies. This demonstrates that sci-fi audiences not only turn out at cinemas, but also spend more per transaction. Premium executions like TopFeed further elevated performance to a +43.7% Box Office Lift.
Drama: Provided reliable scale at volume, performing consistently in line with or slightly above platform norms at +38.2% Box Office Lift and +35.0% Customer Lift.
Navigating Entertainment Measurement
While every film and programme release effectively functions as its own brand launch, a one-size-fits-all approach to measurement simply does not apply. While our measurement framework is robust, we recognise that solutions are neither straightforward nor universally accessible for entertainment marketers who still require rigorous, lower-funnel proof points. As a result, we take a creative, tailored approach to identifying the tactical methods that align directly with each advertiser's internal source of truth, helping studio heads and media planners understand the full consumer journey.
From Brand Lift Studies evaluating high-impact trailer drops and Conversion Lift Studies demonstrating streaming service subscriber growth, to independent third-party studies measuring tune-in lift directly linked to TikTok ad exposure, we provide actionable data touchpoints across every campaign phase.
Our findings show that when brands adopt a measurement-first mindset and establish structured learning agendas, performance improves significantly, allowing insights to be operationalised from campaign to campaign.
Core Measurement Best Practices
Align Study Design with Primary KPIs: Customise your measurement framework to match your ultimate business objective. If your primary goal is driving brand preference or subscriber retention for a streaming service over competitors, a standard tune-in lift study is not the right tool. In this scenario, we may recommend a Unified Lift Study combining Brand Lift (evaluating preference against a custom competitive set) with Conversion Lift to directly track new subscriptions driven by your media.
Be Strategic with Brand Lift Questioning: Align your survey design with audience baseline dynamics. For a brand new title with low baseline awareness, upper-funnel metrics like ad recall and campaign awareness can naturally deliver a high relative lift. Conversely, for an established franchise launching its fourth or fifth instalment, baseline awareness is likely already high, making mid- to lower-funnel metrics, such as 'intent to watch' far more indicative of true campaign impact. Tailoring questions to your specific campaign stage ensures you capture a meaningful lift.
Establish a Long-Term Learning Agenda: Rather than treating measurement as a post-campaign afterthought, we encourage advertisers to collaborate with our measurement specialists to build ongoing learning agendas. By establishing long-term benchmarks for both tentpole releases and evergreen flighting, marketers can continuously refine their playbooks. Identify precisely when to introduce high-impact formats like TopView for a new IP or how to extend campaign flighting post-launch to sustain box office momentum.
In short, your measurement framework should be as creative and dynamic as your media plan. Regular consultation and ongoing strategy adjustments with our measurement team ensure your data continuously guides future success.
Beyond the Curtain Call
Entertainment has fundamentally evolved, and so has the route to reaching modern audiences. As fans go to TikTok to discover new stories, dissect plot twists, and build thriving communities around their favourite releases, the platform has firmly established itself as the UK’s modern TV guide and an indispensable engine for commercial growth.The data delivers a clear, undeniable verdict: TikTok drives verifiable offline action. TikTok successfully translates online passion into physical ticket sales and active viewership.Here are the top 5 things entertainment marketers need to know;
Capture Incremental Audiences: Leverage TikTok as a primary channel to engage hard-to-reach Light TV viewers, and to reach casual movie goers, applying optimal frequency and dedicated retargeting strategies to move casual scrollers from feed to screen.
Match Media Strategy to IP: Tailor your campaign design to the story itself, using mass-awareness formats like TopView and Search ads to launch original IPs, while mobilising established fandoms like #BookTok to reignite returning franchises.
Harness Genre Affinities: Activate highly responsive category communities, from high-converting horror and thriller releases to Reality TV and True Crime audiences.
Adopt a Strategic Measurement Framework: Build long-term learning agendas and align custom study designs with your internal source of truth to continuously optimise campaign performance.
Turn Digital Hype into Commercial Impact: Whether launching an original thriller, expanding an established blockbuster franchise, or driving tune-in for a returning flagship series, TikTok provides the reach, culture, and empirical proof needed to build audiences and fill seats. By aligning media strategy with community passion, entertainment marketers can confidently turn digital hype into repeatable commercial success.
By Jenn Pizzurro