TikTok's Khartoon Weiss Looks Beyond the Pandemic

Khartoon Weiss knows there’s a disconnect between advertisers and Gen Z. It’s unavoidable from her perch as head of global agency and accounts at TikTok. Weiss views her role, which she started in August after a two-year stint at Spotify, like that of a translator between “predominantly 20th-century organizations” and the ultra-young users that dominate the social video app. For the first seven months of her tenure, she worked with brands and agencies to help them understand how their efforts can be “culturally relevant” to an audience that doesn’t care much for tradition. Weiss once wanted to be a doctor. “I like to caretake, and I like to fix,” she said, noting that while she didn’t end up going to medical school, she tries to apply that nurturing sensibility and problem-solving ethic to her work. The daughter of immigrants from Peru and Armenia, she was the first in her family to go to college and the first to hone a career. “Everyone else just had jobs and got by.” Her career crisscrossed the ad world, taking her from agencies Ogilvy and BBDO to an in-house role at Clear Channel as it became iHeartMedia. Soon after, she led Spotify's brand efforts as global head of verticals before moving to TikTok, another app where tech and music collide. “I’ve taken my career path as an education, not a series of jobs,” she said. “The goal here for me is how do I take that really holistic, empathetic view from the career and education that I’ve had” and apply that to TikTok’s business. TikTok is at an inflection point. While it has evaded a severe regulatory threat from the last administration, the company is readying for life after the pandemic. For TikTok, which has played a strong part in defining stay-at-home culture, the future is uncertain. “We incubated during the pandemic. We had the opportunity to have more time spent with our audience [in] the pandemic,” Weiss said. The answer, perhaps obviously, may lie with in-person experiences, Weiss said, noting TikTok’s recent sports partnerships with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and mixed-martial arts giant UFC. Whether brands and agencies have fully adjusted to TikTok is unclear, but Weiss’ next step involves bringing them along for the ride as TikTok—and its users—prepare to venture out into a new world. Big mistake While she has seen the industry from many different vantage points, Weiss wishes she “sat client-side” once in her career. She makes up for that one resume gap by asking marketers “powerful questions,” reading investor reports and patents, and trying to put herself in clients’ shoes. Lesson learned Weiss wishes she would’ve trusted her gut—or her “spidey sense”—more. “A lot of people end up being passengers in their own career because opportunities find their way to [them],” she said. “Just because something comes your way doesn’t mean it’s the right thing.” How she got the gig Weiss said that what got her to her current job was the “well-roundedness” of her career. “It’s been a master’s [level of] education, not a bunch of jobs.” Pro tip “Learn everything you can,” she said. “In this world of specialists, there are so few generalists that can actually sit and have holistic business conversations, that can sit and look at the industry from a bunch of different seats in the house.”

Leadership & Talent

Khartoon Weiss Translates TikTok for 20th-Century Businesses

Just 6 months into the job, she’s also readying for the post-pandemic future

Scott Nover

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Scott Nover