Is Your Brand Ready For TikTok?
What do paper towels, dalgona coffee, and the ‘Renegade’ dance have in common? For one, they’re all currently trending on TikTok. With over 1.6 billion downloads to date, TikTok has already overtaken Facebook, as well as Instagram and WhatsApp, to become the Apple Store’s most downloaded app. It really makes you wonder, are marketing teams also getting in on the action? But first, there are a few things to ask.
Where did TikTok come from?
It all started in 2014 with an app called musical.ly, a social media platform that let users create sort lip-sync videos to popular songs. The app was later purchased in late 2017 by ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) and relaunched under the name of Douyin in China. Douyin now co-exists (under separate networks of course, to comply with China’s censorship laws) alongside TikTok, the app’s international version.
Fast forward to 2020 and TikTok has sky-rocketed not only amongst US teens and Gen Zers who make silly karaoke videos, but increasingly so with celebrities, entertainers, artists, and brands wading in on the hype — hopefully, to overnight viral success.
How does it work?
Users can record 15-second clips (you can also string four videos together into a minute) of themselves set to music, often licensed from artists and record labels. You can also add different elements and filters to your content with an easy-to-use video editing tool. And like other social media platforms, you can then share your content so your followers can like, comment, and share. The more you engage on the app, the more it learns about your preferences, so your ‘For You’ feed will improve over time.
Is it a good marketing channel?
Given its massive growth, you can be sure that TikTok’s going to be a hot platform for years to come. Whether it is a suitable marketing channel for all types of brands and industries still remains to be seen — with a relatively new app like this, it’s hard to tell how it’ll evolve.
What we know for now is that the active user count currently stands around 500 million globally, with roughly 50% under the age of 34 with 26% between 18 and 24. Additionally, users open TikTok around eight times per day, with the average user spending a total of 52 minutes on the app. It’s estimated that only 7% of social media marketers are using the platform for their brands, but now that the app has launched advertising tools and hyperlinking capabilities on posts and profiles, I imagine the numbers are creeping up slowly.
Creative and fast-thinking brands who’ve successfully tapped on TikTok have already reaped huge brand awareness rewards, often with very little investment. One way to market on the app is to create a channel and upload relevant videos. Aside from posting their own content, brands like Crocs are launching hashtag challenge, encouraging users to film their own videos and use their campaign hashtags. The #ThousandDollarCrocs challenge was inspired by a Post Malone lyric, and led to a record number of sales for the footwear company.
Similarly, Ralph Lauren’s #WinningRL hashtag received nearly 750 million views, while campaign’s like Pepsi’s #SwagStepChallenge even spilled over to Twitter and YouTube. Then there are brands like Fenty Beauty, who work with influencers to spread their content to a broader audience. By enlisting the most famous superstar beauty content creators on TikTok, they became the first brand on the app with their very own creator ‘house’, #FENTYBEAUTYHOUSE.
While it’s surely challenging to get your content going viral like the big guys, TikTok could potentially be a fantastic tool for you to reach out to a new, more global, and younger demographic. If you’re raring to create a brand account now, first determine if it’s worth the resources and effort to get on the app. But remember: even if your current audience is not TikTok now, will they be on tomorrow? Plus, since marketing on the platform is so new, you can experiment with any strategy to see what works. You might just be the pioneer amongst your competitors.
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Gary Lim is a seasoned communications professional with a penchant for the travel, luxury, and F&B space. Specialising in content marketing, social media management, brand strategy, and data analytics, he most recently served as Deputy Editor for the lifestyle magazine City Nomads, where he managed and crafted lifestyle content that’s trusted by the community. Connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.