Media Sync for February 19, 2026: TikTok Shop’s new promotion program

Rise Media Sync is a regular column from Rise that quickly summarizes media and platform news of interest to marketers. Here are four key developments the Rise team is monitoring:

What’s happening: Meta is rolling out updates to Creator Marketplace designed to improve how brands discover and evaluate creators for paid partnerships.

What we know:

• The changes focus on improving creator recommendations based on prior interactions, surfacing creators who have tagged a brand, expressed interest in partnerships or previously engaged with a brand’s content.
• New discovery tools include a “Similar Creators” search based on past successful partners, along with badges highlighting creators with strong ads experience or predicted high ad performance.
• Meta has expanded access to Creator Marketplace to businesses globally, beyond the initial availability in 19 countries, alongside a redesigned homepage that clarifies why creators are being recommended.

Early indications and perspective: These updates suggest Meta is pushing Creator Marketplace toward a more performance-oriented, data-assisted buying environment. Besides helping to reduce discovery friction and potentially lower the risk associated with influencer investments, the added signals could influence how partnership budgets are allocated, favoring creators with proven or predicted paid performance (rather than reach or follower metrics). For agencies, this may move influencer strategy closer to media planning and optimization workflows, rather than treating creator partnerships as a separate discipline.

What’s happening: iSpot is rolling out SAGE, an agentic AI platform designed to accelerate how brands analyze TV and video advertising using iSpot’s creative, audience and outcomes data.

What we know:

• The new AI, which has been in beta testing for more than two years with a dozen major brands, offers a ChatGPT-like interface that’s purpose-built for TV and video ad analysis.
• The initial rollout includes two agents: a creative insights analyst agent focused on themes and storylines, paired with a creative planning assistant that provides real-time analysis and insights.
• The platform is powered by iSpot’s proprietary dataset, which the company says includes 2.5 million commercials, frame-level metadata and measurement across 185 networks and thousands of brands.

Early indications and perspective: By compressing weeks of analysis into near-real-time workflows, SAGE could impact how brands allocate resources between research, optimization and execution. The emphasis on agentic analysis signals a shift in thinking about TV measurement, from passive (post-campaign reporting) to active (input into media strategy and buying decisions). Over time, this approach could reshape expectations around speed, staffing and budgets for cross-channel measurement and optimization.

What’s happening: Smart Promotion, a new co-investment program for merchants in the TikTok Shop, is live now.

What we know:

• Smart Promotion, which replaces Co-funded Promotion, offers automated rewards, a flat fee structure (3.5%) and an ROI guarantee (5x), as well as “enhanced product exposure” via the platform algorithm.
• The new program structure sees TikTok and participating sellers both contributing to joint marketing funds, which the platform then intelligently allocates across promotions such as coupons and new customer discounts.
• Eligibility requires merchants to maintain a minimum Shop Performance Score (based on product satisfaction, fulfillment and customer service) and scale (a minimum of 30 fulfilled orders in the past 90 days).

Early indications and perspective: By centralizing promotion decisions within TikTok’s algorithmic system, the program may reduce operational complexity, albeit at the expense of maintaining direct control over spend allocation and tactics. The structure could also affect which brands or products qualify for scalable investment. For agencies supporting social commerce, it’s a moment to reassess metrics for success — and how merchant readiness factors into media strategy on TikTok Shop.

What’s happening: Bloomberg has launched a centralized video hub across its website and app.

What we know:

• This aggregates live TV, short- and long-form video, podcasts and original programming across Bloomberg’s website and app into a single centralized space.
• The hub includes a redesigned media player with improved streaming performance, dynamic ad insertion and contextual ad inventory for advertisers.
• In a company memo reviewed by Digiday, Bloomberg says that video has been a growth segment in its portfolio both in terms of audience (55 million unique viewers per month) and hours watched (up 25% year over year).

Early indications and perspective: Bloomberg is signaling a shift toward owned-and-operated video environments, where engagement matters more than raw reach, prioritizing time spent and subscriber behavior over traffic acquisition. The emphasis on centralized discovery and contextual targeting could affect how video budgets are allocated between open platforms and publisher-direct buys. For buyers, this approach may increase the importance of aligning video creative with editorial environments designed to sustain longer viewing sessions.

• “Twitch Introduces Pause-Screen Ads” (MediaPost)
• “Tubi, Nielsen Expand Measurement Partnership” (The Wrap)
• “Meta Tests a Standalone AI Video App” (Social Media Today)

If you made it this far, here’s a fun fact: The Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl since 1967, is handmade from sterling silver by Tiffany & Co., with a new trophy produced annually.