The One Club for Creativity has expanded its ongoing partnership with TikTok with the launch of the new Best Use of TikTok award as part The One Show 2026. As a special award sponsored by TikTok, there is no fee to enter.
The new award, established in recognition of the importance of short-form video and rise of creator content, will honor a brand’s exceptional use of TikTok, embracing the network’s native behaviors, creative tools, and storytelling styles to build cultural relevance and measurable impact.
Winning entries will meaningfully lean into one or more of TikTok’s core pillars:
Community – Showing up authentically to engage, activate, or celebrate a TikTok community and turning participation into momentum.
Discovery – Turning exploration and insights into ideas that resonate with people.
Sound – Leveraging or creating original audio or trending sounds to drive discovery and creative expression.
Co-Creation – Using duet, stitch, challenges, or other collaborative tools to spark user-generated content and invite participation.
Entertainment – Delivering joyful, surprising, or culturally relevant storytelling that feels native to TikTok’s creative ecosystem.
Impact – Creativity backed by performance, generating ideas that drive tangible business growth.
Best Use of TikTok entrants will be asked to provide a written description of the campaign background, creative idea, insights and strategy, execution, and results. Case studies are encouraged.
Entries should demonstrate cultural and/or commercial impact through engagement metrics, earned media pickup, video views or completion rates, brand lift, or sales outcomes.
“We’re excited to deepen our relationship with The One Club for Creativity by introducing the Best Use of TikTok Award at The One Show,” said Krystle Watler, Head of Integrated MarComms, NA, TikTok For Business. “Building on three years of collaboration through the ONE Creator Lab, this next chapter will celebrate standout campaigns from brands and agencies pushing creative boundaries and driving tangible business impact on TikTok.”
Judged by The One Show 2026 Social Media and Creator Content jury, the new special award competition is free to enter by the February 20, 2026 deadline, and open to entrants ranging from global brands to small business owners and creators. To be eligible, work must have launched between January 1, 2025 and February 20, 2026.
Finalists will be announced in early May 2026, with the Best Use of TikTok winner revealed on stage at The One Show 2026 awards ceremony on May 15 during Creative Week 2026 in New York.
The new award is the latest example of The One Club’s ongoing relationship with TikTok. This includes TikTok’s role as founding partner of the club’s ground-breaking ONE Creator Lab, the industry’s first and only free training program that helps creators get jobs at agencies and brands.
Established in 2023 and sponsored by TikTok to help agencies and brands fill the talent gap and meet the growing demand for relevant branded content, ONE Creator Lab cohorts in New York and Los Angeles have to date had more than 120 young creators pass through the program. Sessions are led by agency, creator, and tech industry experts, and curriculum continually changes as tech tools, platforms, and consumer habits evolve.
For more information about The One Show 2026 Best Use of TikTok competition and to enter, please visit the entry page.
The One Club for Creativity – home of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) awards, ONE Asia Creative Awards, Type Directors Club and competition, TDC Ascenders, ADC Young Guns, Young Ones Student Awards, Next Creative Leaders, ONE School, ONE Creator Lab, Where Are All The Black People conference and career fair, Portfolio Night, Creative Week, and more – is the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the success of the global creative community. Revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows goes back into the industry to fund programs that support industry access, creative education, up-skilling, re-skilling, and placement and enhancement of creative careers around the world.
