The Fishbowl: Joni Morriss, TikTok
The Fishbowl
The Media Leader’s interview series asks the media industry’s top salespeople 10 revealing questions, drawn from our fishbowl. The questions will be drawn at random and contain some tricky posers set by the commercial chiefs themselves.
This week, it’s Joni Morriss, head of agency partnerships at TikTok.
Morriss has held her current role for four years, joining the social media platform in 2020. Before that, she spent almost three years at Hearst UK, most recently as head of digital sales.
At over eight years, Morriss spent the longest tenure of her career so far at Digital Cinema Media, holding a variety or roles including trading and GroupM controller.
Why are you passionate about media?
I love, love, love media. What’s not to love? There is such a dazzling mix of amazing products and brilliant people. I have been extremely lucky over the last 20 years to work for some fantastic brands and every job I have had has given me the opportunity to work with really talented individuals and build up my skillset.
I am a real people person — I love to chat. And media is all about people, whether it is the audiences your product reaches and bringing that to life for brands, or our clients that we strive to deliver best-in-class work for, or the super-bright people in our teams.
I have had the privilege of leading some great teams over the years. At TikTok, it’s such a hugely talented bunch of people and it’s their passion and enthusiasm that drive me to keep doing the best I can.
If you could learn any new skill from scratch, what would it be?
I’m taking fitness inspiration from our TeamGB and ParalympicGB athletes and our “It Starts on TikTok” campaign.
Outside your own company, which sales team is doing really well?
Funnily enough, this has always been one of my staple questions when meeting with our agency partners: who are the ones to watch? So much so that our agency team motto for the last four years has been “#theonestowatch”, as our joint aspiration was to be that team.
I think the standard of sales teams within the UK media landscape is so high that it is really hard to stand out and consistently be called out. Can you tell I am stalling answering the question…
ITV has consistently had a positive reputation in media, built on relationships developed over many years, so it is always prudent to keep any eye on what it is doing. Speaking to the team, Nextdoor is gaining traction and, like TikTok, its purpose is around the power of the community in 2024, which I love.
How often are you in the office in a typical week?
Well, this is an interesting question, as it depends whether or not you are talking specifically about my office or somebody’s office.
Over recent weeks, I think I have managed about three days in my office, but in that time I have been to Cannes, a TikTok off-site in Dublin and multiple agency partner and client engagement days. It’s one of the reasons I love my job — no week looks the same and there is always somewhere to be.
That said, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks being in my office and spending time with the team, as we shape up for H2.
What are clients talking about this year that they weren’t last year?
Measurement is coming into sharp focus this year, with the upcoming roll-out of tracking protection in Chrome. Last-click measurement is no longer the singular source of truth for savvy marketers and we are seeing chief marketing officers looking to adopt a more holistic view of measurement, looking closer at incrementality, multitouch and multimedia attribution.
Clients are shifting to become more outcome-focused and my team are working with our agency partners to support them, identifying what are the true drivers of business success for their clients.
Who’s your best friend in the industry?
Ha, that’s an impossible question to answer when you have been in media as long as I have.
Over the last 20 years, I have made so many wonderful friends — this industry is bursting with seriously impressive (and funny) people. I have always felt very lucky to work in an environment where there is a lot of fun and laughter, and the vast majority of people are decent human beings.
The overall level of care and support for individuals in media is high and this was really noticeable in lockdown.
Now, if you asked me “What is your must-read WhatsApp chat?”, hands down it’s “DCM Legends”.
What’s a recent brand partnership or activation that stood out for you and why?
I recently saw Specsavers’ “Misheard” campaign win a Cannes Lion and thought that was such a good example of a simple creative idea — the fact that people mishear song lyrics, which then delivered enormous real-life impact.
Rick Astley fronted the campaign and recorded a new version of Never Gonna Give You Up using the most commonly misheard lyrics of his song, my favourite being “I’m going to run around with dessert spoons”. This campaign sparked a national conversation around hearing loss and saw a crazy increase of over 1,000% in hearing test bookings.
Sticking with brands using bespoke tracks, Lidl leveraged the popular Open Verse Challenge TikTok trend and the audience’s passion for nostalgia to launch on TikTok with a custom track, which was a reworking of N-Trance’s Set You Free. The track featured lyrics taken from consumers’ online comments and users were encouraged to duet the video, adding their own love for Lidl’s baked goods.
The TikTok community fell head over heels for Lidl’s bakery (106m views of #lidlbakery). Videos reviewing different products have received millions of views, with a vast array of comments from people declaring their love for the bakery aisle. This campaign won TikTok Creative of the Year.
What one bit of advice would you give someone starting their career in sales?
I’m going to be greedy and give three pieces of advice.
My first is work for a brand you can authentically feel passionate about. I know that I have been at my best as a seller when I genuinely love what I am selling and your clients will feel that passion when you are pitching.
My second piece of advice is work hard. My grandad always used to say “in for a penny, in for a pound” — I have always thrown myself into my roles and done the best that I can.
Lastly, back yourself. As a woman and a mother of two daughters, I see how much self-doubt women in particular carry around. Look up and see how many brilliant successful women there are in our industry. It’s always been such a great source of inspiration for me throughout my career.
So I would say know your worth. Celebrate that your talent and perspective is unique to you and that the company you work for is a better place for having you there.
If you weren’t working in this industry, what would you have done instead?
A criminal lawyer! Everyone that knows me knows I’m extremely competitive and I love a good debate (my husband would probably say argument!). I think I would thrive in the intense competition of two sides assessing the same evidence and facts, and crafting a narrative to convince a jury that their version of events is the correct one.
Read more Fishbowl interviews here and see what media’s top salespeople say about working in the industry and what concerns their clients. To suggest an interviewee, contact maria.iu@uk.adwanted.com.