Building TikTok for Business's first global social template system for a 30-person EMEA marketing team.
the brief
TikTok for Business was growing fast across EMEA and needed a way to show up consistently on social. The team was active across Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok — but had no shared template system to work from. Whatever was built had to be usable by the whole team, including people who had never opened a design tool.
what I did
I turned six defined content categories into a coherent visual system — working from TikTok's global brand guidelines and mapping how the brand's colour system, typography, patterns, and layout framework could be applied consistently across every content type. Every design decision was documented so the system could be extended without me.
Six template categories. Four aspect ratios each — 1:1, 5:4, 4:5, and 9:16 — covering every platform format the team needed. All templates were built in After Effects as animated, editable files. Copy, images, and video could be swapped without any After Effects knowledge.
the handoff
I ran a 1.5-hour interactive workshop with around 30 members of TikTok's EMEA marketing team — walking through each template category, asset replacement, and every edge case built into the system. The team could use it independently from day one.
scope & scale
6
Content categories: event promotions, platform insights, industry updates, client showcases, creative tips and tricks, data cards
4
Aspect ratios per category — 1:1 · 5:4 · 4:5 · 9:16
30
EMEA marketing team members trained in a 1.5-hour handoff workshop
4
Platforms in active use: Instagram · LinkedIn · Facebook · TikTok
the result
A team with no shared social infrastructure had a system they could operate and build on themselves. Templates went into active use across EMEA from day one.
