Ex-Fortune 100 exec and TikTok creator Timm reveals how authenticity, human connection, and innovative platform strategy reshape brands and future marketing.
In an era where authenticity reigns supreme and traditional marketing battles for genuine attention, a new breed of leader is emerging—one who uniquely bridges the corporate boardroom with the raw, relatable power of the creator economy. Meet Timm Chiusano, a former Fortune 100 executive from giants like ABC Sports, ESPN, and Charter Communications, who “responsibly fired” himself to redefine his impact in a bold and purposeful move.
Now, as a prolific TikTok creator championed by Night Media, Chiusano offers a singular perspective on modern brand strategy. In this exclusive interview, he unpacks how his cinematic yet deeply human storytelling, profound understanding of consumer psychology, and surprising approach to platform optimization are not just influencing but fundamentally reshaping consumer expectations and forging the future of brand-consumer relationships.
Full interview;
Your TikToks are cinematic yet deeply human, resonating with millions. How has your approach to storytelling influenced how brands should now think about emotional connection in the customer journey?
I wouldn’t say that my approach to storytelling has influenced, or at least not that I am aware of unless if was something I produced for them, but to the point of your question I think there is a ton any brand can learn from what I have seen, built and try to cultivate everyday which is the following:
I have to meet them where they are to get them to want to be engaged which for me is through adding some positive perspective to their day, being relatable because I’m storytelling based on where I know they will be when they see what I post, or providing as much free value that I can in some kind of mini-masterclass without asking for anything in return. But if any brand that is self-aware is truly empathetic to its customer and is willing to put that ahead of its own needs, then you can strike gold at any juncture of the customer journey.
You’ve built a brand rooted in realism and everyday relatability. How do you think this shift toward authenticity reshapes consumer expectations and what they now demand from brand content and customer experience?
It’s the new table stakes. Aspirational content can still work, but there needs to be a stronger and more relatable “why” to it. For brands, authenticity should be looked at in a few different ways:
- How much can you let the consumer behind the curtain, ie, how much affinity might you be able to grow just as they are developing awareness of your existence
- From a consideration perspective, this is about honesty and transparency regarding your value and why that should be considered.
- On the conversion side, brands that convert find the right time and place in addition to the right offering. If you can get this piece right in a way that is on-brand for you but also self-aware to understand where the consumer is, then you can create an “end-of-aisle display” for the consumer’s mind simply by showing up at the right time and place.
Also Read: What Does Modern Customer Experience Look Like in 2025?
As someone who lives at the intersection of enterprise content strategy and creator culture, what’s one key insight brands can learn from creator-led platforms like TikTok when building trust and loyalty?
You need to befriend the audience these days. If they are not building a parasocial relationship with you, then you’re doing something wrong. Super smart brands have been doing this for decades through their messaging or spokespeople. It’s how Duolingo won at TikTok, it’s why every major insurance company tries to create their character, it’s why even the OG spots like “wheres the beef” worked so well. Cute, funny, heartwarming, value driven; those are all great qualities but if you can get the audience to build a parasocial relationship with who and how your messaging is being delivered, then you have have exceptional opportunity to capitalize on the trust and loyalty through all kinds of sales tactics because there is an open, friendly conversation where the consumer is already highly engaged and invested in the relationship.
People often say your content makes adulthood feel less daunting. How does that kind of emotional resonance translate to brand strategy—especially for companies targeting next-gen or millennial consumers?
It’s probably my all-time favorite piece of feedback, and it’s been such a gift to hear it for years now from so many people and have it brought up here.
The next generation is highly skeptical of traditional marketing and brands that appear hollow. They can also sense when anyone tries too hard to speak like them, but not with them. Millennials, to a certain extent, as well, but not nearly as much as Z & Alpha. A few ways that any brand can tap into that kind of resonance as food for thought:
- Humanize your company. Being able to see and sense who a company is can have a tremendous impact on how brands can and will be seen. If you don’t overengineer it, there are so many ways to story-tell your brand journey and ethos every day.
- Hire from those generations and then ensure you’ve got the right leadership to help them be the best versions of themselves while learning your brand’s needs. Recruit and empower the right way; they will help you connect the dots in ways you probably never imagined.
- Make sure it is easy to sense why your brand cares and why it matters. This doesn’t have to be righteous, but it has to be something, and it should be that something in a proud way that an audience can appreciate.
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You’ve maintained a loyal community while experimenting with new platforms like YouTube. From a MarTech perspective, how do you think about platform-specific optimization versus brand consistency across channels?
Consistency means far less than optimization. They are all very different platforms with very different audiences. Think about how Coca-Cola products should appear in a gorgeous French restaurant versus your favourite local pizza joint. Probably glass bottles versus self-serve soda fountain. You can still offer the same product, but you need to know what fits best and why.
TikTok is very intimate, like FaceTiming a friend, and in a very cutthroat attention environment where you’ve got maybe one second before you could disappear for months from someone’s feed. That is where we should be raw, personal, highly curated on content types and formatting, but not too polished unless that is wildly entertaining or highly educational content.
Instagram seems to be a bit more fair these days relative to engagement, the fact that there is no “Instagram Shop” like TikTok means you probably have greater odds to show up where you can grow organically but to do this well you need very aggressive and fresh thinking that creates reasons for people to share your content or it needs to be episodic or, probably the most achievable, it needs to be highly useful. It could be a combo of all three, but brands can just lean into what they can do best and not try too hard to be all three.
Then there is YouTube. This should be your Master Class platform. If a brand can build a YouTube channel with a highly engaged audience, then it’s lights out for your competition. One YouTube follower is probably worth 1,000 on TikTok or Instagram. This requires investment and a very specific skillset, but would be well worth any brand’s time and efforts to do this the right way.
Put another way, TikTok is your top funnel unless you are hyper-focused on DTC or TikTok shop. Instagram is a bit older and closer to a consideration phase. YouTube is conversion, retention, and upsell.
You still edit your TikToks, giving you direct insight into engagement mechanics. What content performance signals—like watch time, comments, or shares—do you prioritize most, and how do you use them to refine your storytelling?
I edit and post all of my content. I’m proud to say I made about 1,500 pieces of content across all platforms off the side of my desk while still being a highperforming exec at Charter (I even published redacted versions of my performance reviews on DropBox for anyone to read incase there were people skeptical if I was really any good at my day job).
When I look (because I prefer not to let metrics drive too much of my decision making for myriad reasons, including mental health), I am very focused on trends across 10 or so videos to give me a sense of trajectory and how those videos compare to each other versus on their own. My gold standard metric is shares. That means someone had such a strong reaction to it (good or bad) that they had to share it with someone else. The person who does this is truly invested, and whether they intend to be or not, they fuel your growth. Of course, like any good marketer, I’m looking at every data point I can get my hands on from demos to propensities.
I recently did a barter deal with a small agency in Nashville called Lowtide to get me a full breakdown of everything under the sun and they delivered 27 pages of brilliant insights that are hevily influencing what I am building next which is more of a TV Guide strategy across all platforms based on a lot of what we have discussed so far about showing up where the audience needs to be met with a much heavier focus on helping them with educational content that surprises and delights.
Also Read: What If Your Favorite Recipe Could Shop for You?
You lead a Fortune 100 content development team, represented by one of the most progressive creator agencies, Night Media. How do you foresee the future of brand partnerships evolving between creators and marketing teams regarding tech, tools, and measurement?
I love how we are still in the very infancy stages of this. On the short-form side of things, this is maybe a four-ish year-old space. The potential is monumental. Here are my bets.
Long-term deals that include multiple points of overlap are coming.
- Creators are making their content, doing their usual thing with brands.
- Creators appearing in linear spots as cameos, if not as the stars.
- Creator integration into other touchpoints, from things like modelling to events.
- UGC is being baked into deals.
- More “category exclusivity” long-term versus short windows.
- These things are tied to longer-term attribution measurement opportunities versus one-off posts.
- Under the right circumstances, creators will be seen as extensions of marketing and product teams, and there is a ton of opportunity for this.
- The industry will consolidate measurement tools (my accounts are probably tied to 4 or 5 different measurement platforms for brands).
- I believe the industry needs to develop more streamlined review/approval tools that agencies can own from a process perspective.
Marketing teams were just catching up on social, and some had never contemplated in-house teams for creative, let alone strategy around these new creator opportunities. If I were building from scratch again, I’d make sure all creative and live in-house, and the oversight of the social channels reports into the same team with at least one dedicated headcount to creator opportunities and partnerships.
But since I’m not building anything from scratch, other than myself right now, if I was a brand out there looking for some direction and insight I’m going right to the heads of Night and keeping my fingers crossed that they have the time and desire to work with me on long term strategy and how to turn it all on. And that’s not self-promotion, that side of their business is completely separated from my day-to-day needs as one of their “talent”.
But I know those people well, as we met eye to eye as business needs long before I signed with them or left my job. They are truly the brightest in the business, and that only takes a couple of Google searches to corroborate. It’s a really fun and fascinating space to be in right now; it feels similar to what it felt like to be at ESPN in the mid-2000’s when cross-platform marketing really blew up. I feel honored to have a front row seat to it all, especially seeing it from day 1 and doing so in my mid to late 40’s with so much traditional experience under my belt.
Case studies are waiting to be written and will be brilliant based on the opportunity alone.
