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For 14 hours on January 19, 2025 TikTok disappeared from the USwhich sent the markets into a state of collective panic. application, once synchronized with teenage dance crazes and meme culture, it has become a cultural juggernaut – and for many brands hard to replace life-line.
“It was a shock to the system,” said Jennifer Kohl, director of media at VML, an ad agency that had clients suddenly faced with an option they had only entertained on a hypothetical level: a life without TikTok.
Six years of political theater switched the app to a lightning rod labeled a national security threat and repeatedly drawn to the brink of extinction in the US, but in a twist that might as well have come from TikTok’s own algorithm, President Donald Trump he enteredreviving the app’s chances with a 75-day lifeline to resolve its future.
For merchants, the outage and subsequent return wasn’t just a technological glitch — it was a stark reminder of their uneasy contract with TikTok these days. Uncertainty is no exception on this platform. It’s the price of admission—for now.
Ask Margot Dukes Eddy, Partner and Head of Social Affairs at Acadia. “I think the most sophisticated marketers and influencers are spreading their content and their efforts long before this week,” she said.
This foresight extends to TikTok the first existential collapse of 2020when her American destiny was first questioned. So, when the drama flared up again – they were ready to turn around, dollars in hand.
Andrew Fingerman, CEO of PhotoShelter, pointed out that the ban/outage was a shock to the system, but certainly not the end of the road for brands and merchants using the platform.
“It gave them a chance to rethink how to reach their audience and prepare their strategies for the future,” he said.
The results have been mixed so far. Some marketers have restored spending to pre-drama levels, while others remain cautious, especially those burned by the TikTok saga of sudden shutdowns and shutdowns. In the end, it all depends on how much risk marketers are willing to take — and how long they believe TikTok can dance on the edge.
Some of Shamsul Chowdhury’s clients at JellyFish are back to normal on TikTok, while others are still hanging on due to the uncertainty of the current situation, EVP of paid social networks said.
Jack Johnston, chief social innovation officer at Tinuiti, is in a similar situation. He said his team saw around 70% of their brands return to TikTok within the first 48 hours after the shutdown, and that number is slowly rising.
“Brands are still considering using their contingency plans to diversify, but they are not completely getting rid of TikTok,” he added, without giving exact numbers.
Unsurprisingly, TikTok has been quick to steady the ship and work with merchants to navigate the latest turbulence. Whether that effort will be enough to keep advertisers on board — and spending — remains to be seen. But until then, TikTok proves once again that survival in the social media arena is as much about managing perceptions as it is about algorithms.
Johnston described TikTok as incredibly communicative leading up to the shutdown late on Jan. 18, but since the app was back online, things have slowed down. It’s almost back to business for TikTok, at least temporarily, as there have been no major hiccups since President Trump signed his executive order on January 20.
For now, it’s just a waiting game.
One US advertising executive spoke of an automated message he received from TikTok on January 19 after the app was back online.
“We’re excited to announce that starting today, TikTok will be available to most users in the US,” TikTok said in a statement. “During Sunday, it will resume running ad campaigns that include US audiences and deliver ads to US users, although live campaigns will have some limitations.
“While we have strengthened our infrastructure to minimize outages, we expect some temporary service instability that may affect advertising in the US.”
The US executive said anecdotally that about 20 clients who are on TikTok in the US were all back online with no lingering issues within the first 24 hours of the app coming back online.
JellyFish’s Chowdhury agreed, saying that the TikTok team has been communicative in recent days and has been working with its leaders to revive campaigns that were shut down due to the ban.
“On January 20th, our representatives let us know. [TikTok was back] and started working with us on how to relaunch the campaigns,” he added. “We have been in daily contact since Monday [Jan. 27] .”
That’s the reality for many marketers now: a mix of cautious optimism, constant pivoting, and campaigns based on the hope that the platform will last long enough to make an impact.
“It [TikTok] is an injured platform 1737972870”, said Matt Owens, Director of Design and Innovation and Founding Partner of Athletics.
Owens, like many traders, no longer has any illusions about an uncertain future. Uncertainty has sharpened their awareness and forced traders to move in the short term, where every decision feels like a gamble (albeit a calculated one).
“The plans are on wait and see,” Kohl said. “The truth is, you can take almost any platform out of the plan and start looking for a replacement for it.”