Australian and New Zealand brands are putting TikTok at the centre of their international expansion, and the ad budgets are following.
TikTok says more than one in three major AUNZ advertisers now invest beyond local borders. Spending by these brands on TikTok ads in international markets rose 105% year-on-year, with the US, UK and Europe the most common targets. That is more than a budget shift: it suggests TikTok is becoming the default international infrastructure for consumer brands, especially where community and commerce overlap.
Three pathways to global growth
At a Sydney event this week, TikTok walked growing businesses through the routes to international scale:
- Consumer intelligence and culture. Read community feedback and behaviour to spot demand early.
- Demand generation into commerce. Use TikTok Shop to shrink the distance between discovery and purchase.
- Global marketing at scale. Run creative, commerce and measurement across markets without building a local team first.
Amy Bradshaw, GM for Global Business Solutions at TikTok Australia and New Zealand, described the platform as “a platform for international growth” rather than just another ad channel. The argument is that market learning, culturally relevant creative and measurable outcomes can now sit inside one system.
ZURU turned a fan trend into a product line
New Zealand consumer products company ZURU used TikTok signals to move from idea to market in roughly three months. When the TikTok community began customising ZURU’s Fuggler plush toys, the brand recognised a pattern.
CMO Brittany Oliver says viewers were “Baddiefying” their Fugglers. That insight led to the Baddies plush collection, a real-life consumer event and a cultural moment. The Fuggler brand generated 177 million US hashtag views in 90 days.
The strategic shift is the bigger point: community behaviour stopped being just engagement to optimise and became a product development pipeline.
Hismile uses TikTok Shop as a retail wedge
Australian oral care brand Hismile launched on TikTok Shop in 2023. It now operates in 16 markets and expects $50 million in GMV from TikTok Shop alone in 2026.
General Manager Justin Gaggino says TikTok Shop helped open physical retail doors in the US and the UK. Hismile claims its toothpaste became the number one top-selling oral care brand in the US on TikTok Shop.
That reverses the traditional sales pathway: prove demand online first, then use that proof to unlock retail distribution.
What to do with this
If your brand already has TikTok traction at home, the next test is a single export market. Keep the same creative engine, pair it with TikTok Shop and a small ad budget aimed at US or UK shoppers, and watch what the community remixes.
The brands winning here are the ones treating TikTok as market research, commerce infrastructure and creative testing ground at the same time.
Source: Campaign Brief
