TikTok Star Elyse Myers on Authenticity, Brand Trust & Why Virality Isn’t Everything
TikTok creator Elyse Myers, boasting over 7.1 million followers, detailed her approach to brand partnerships and content creation during an ADWEEK House: Austin session, emphasizing the importance of creative control and authenticity over the pursuit of viral fame.
Myers, who gained initial recognition for a TikTok video recounting a disastrous date where she was tricked into purchasing 100 tacos, has collaborated with major brands including Audible and Geico, according to ADWEEK. She explained that her success stems from a commitment to honesty in her online persona, a trait she’s maintained since the beginning of her content creation journey.
“I’m really passionate about being very honest in my relationships with people, and I never considered that that would be weird to do online,” Myers said, as reported by ADWEEK. “It was an unconscious decision that I have consciously decided to continue.”
However, Myers has established firm boundaries regarding her personal life, particularly concerning her children. She maintains a dedicated content creation space separate from her home and intentionally excludes her kids from her videos. This stance, while potentially limiting opportunities with brands targeting parents, is non-negotiable for Myers.
“When you have a very specific goal and a specific vision of how you want to show up, and you know that that’s a strong value of yours, it’s really easy to make decisions within that,” she stated to ADWEEK.
Myers’s criteria for selecting brand partners centers on the level of creative freedom afforded to her. She prioritizes collaborations where she can confidently stand behind the resulting content, using her husband, Jonas Myers, as a personal benchmark. “Jonas knows when I’m proud of what I do,” she explained. “I’m always going to come home and be like, ‘Can I show you something cool?’”
She highlighted Audible as an example of a brand that demonstrates a high degree of trust in her creative vision, allowing her substantial latitude in campaign development. “There’s really nothing I could say that they would be like, ‘no,’” Myers said. “There’s just trust. High trust breeds high creativity and great results.”
Myers expressed a skepticism towards the relentless pursuit of virality, arguing that it can distract creators from consistently producing quality content. She views herself as an “endless well of creativity” and believes focusing on that internal resource is more sustainable than chasing fleeting trends.
“If you’re waiting for all your content to go viral, you’re actually missing so much because that’s one video,” Myers said. “In the grand scheme of things, 3 million people on one video is nothing compared to 10 videos that perform consistently very well because they’re fine.”
Consistency in posting schedule is also a key element of her strategy, a practice she implemented early in her TikTok career. According to Wikipedia, Myers removed all content from her TikTok account in early March 2024, but remains active on other platforms like YouTube.