WHY YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT TIKTOK
There’s a new kid in town, and its more popular than all of its friends and foes. It’s called TikTok. Since the merger of two small networks (Musical.ly and Douyin) in 2018, TikTok’s growth has been meteoric. With 1.5 billion users already, it has outperformed Instagram’s record growth rate 4:1. Those users are one of the tightest demographics ever seen on social media; hugely geared towards the under 25s. However, things are changing and with organic development comes commercial possibility. But is part of its charm that its free of advertising and strategy?
We see this network as the cool kid who will encourage you to climb out of your bedroom window without your parents’ knowledge and go to a really cool party – and we’re unsure of whether or not this will lead to the best night of your life or being grounded for a month. It’s not for us to say whether to take the risk, but we’d go if it were us.
For those blissfully unaware, Tik Tok is a video-sharing social network where users can create and upload create-led content. The majority of this content is starting a creative challenge, which others respond to. These often consist of lip-syncing, singing, dancing, doing comedy skits and utilising the in-app features to add songs, effects, filters and stickers to the content. However, it’s blending into the influencer space at the speed of light – you only have to look at the platform’s partnership with IMG during New York Fashion Week; who picked three unconventional talent choices to report on the shows – producing talent the fashion industry would historically have shivered at. However, it’s worth noting that this partnership wasn’t paid, which in comparison to other Fashion Week brand projects is pretty astonishing.
If we were to try and compare this to anything the industry has seen before, it’s similar to an Instagram Live or IGTV, with as much of the screen as possible dedicated to the performer – it’s an immersive platform that does its very best to keep your attention (the average user spend x2.4 more time on TikTok than on Instagram – and is much less likely to be multitasking whilst absorbing the content, as the creativity requires your full attention.
First dismissed by many as the new Vine, the app’s success is largely down to its incredible simple user experience. You don’t need editing software to take part, the content parameters are more flexible (videos can be between 15 and 60 seconds), and you can’t repost other people’s videos to your own feeds – although you can ‘duet’ in response to someone else’s content. The inability to repost content is the first in the social media landscape; traditionally brands relied on sharing/regramming as a key means of increasing reach.
Commercially, so far the major “successes” for brands haven’t come from their own handiwork. Instead they’ve been led by their consumers – or better still their staff. Take Sephora, who on many lists come up as one of the biggest brands on TikTok. Look a little closer and 95% of that reach came from a video a former employee posted about “hacks” for customers. Starbucks has a similar story when their own baristas started posting themselves making their favourite drink. This resulted in the #TikTokDrink – which amassed a huge amount of content, and had those in the know walking into cafes across the globe making requests – none of which had anything to do with the coffee retailer’s own social media strategy.
In summary, TikTok is still a reasonably new space with ever advancing updates and the majority have no idea how to tackle it from a commercial standpoint. But with its high engagement rates and growing popularity Tik Tok isn’t going away any time soon. So here’s our September 2021 Tik Tok snapshot of the space and updates that we’re excited about…
How is it different from other social media platforms?
Content
TikTok is an authentic, vibrant, light-hearted and community-based form of content that’ll be a nightmare for any organisation with a strict brand bible. TikTok is colourful, fun and unscripted. Entertainment and collaboration are key, audience participation is key – and the unedited, rawness of your content is viewed as a way to validate your authenticity.
Features
TikTok already offers the kind of features that it took the other platforms much longer to develop, including a native creator marketplace, shoppable ads and ‘link in bio’. Ecommerce has been a huge expansion point for Tik Tok, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which forced many sales channels online. Features include, on-platform selling tools, with live-stream shopping events and an integration with Shopify to display product ads in-stream which have all been met with great success.
Functionality
TikTok uses AI to power the platform, rather than machine learning (prioritising how users are engaging with content) used by other platforms. As a result, while platforms like YouTube’s own algorithm is optimised to favour mature creators, the nature of TikTok means that any creator, no matter how big the following, can go viral and rack up millions of views. This means you don’t need to necessarily need a big scale or following to be successful. This is brilliant for new users, but a potential nightmare for anyone who needs to be able to plot their success (eg: an influencer who can usually give an existing engagement rate to warrant a fee on other platforms). But it is crucial to add that Tik Tok provide in depth analytics to content creators which is still beneficial when managing campaigns, and as with any form of social media, engagement rates always have their risks.
Users
It goes without saying that Tik Tok is currently a young person’s territory, but there are other interesting features of native users, including the fact that the gender divide on TikTok is 53% male, 47% female. This makes it tricky for some brands to get involved (alcohol retailers cannot advertise using under 25s) and incredibly attractive to others – it’s no secret that the male customer is a lot more difficult (and more expensive) to acquire.
Monetisation
So, the construction of the platform draws you in and the nature of the content keeps you there – what happens next? Tik Tok is clearly aware of this power and makes it super accessible – you don’t need to sign up to consume content so the impetus is on immediately getting drawn in. It’s only if you want to give videos “hearts” and “likes” that you’ll have to create an account. Industries like music labels can make money when popular videos lead to increased sales and streams of their songs – in fact the opportunity for the platform to support new creative talent is, for us, one of the most exciting aspects of Tik Tok, as you can literally fund someone’s early career and beyond.
The latest Spark Ads feature is described by Tik Tok as a feature that enables brands to ‘amplify existing organic videos that fit their campaign objectives’. They add an authentic spin on ads by enabling brands to reach out to creators and repurpose existing successful clips which can be immensely lucrative for creators. Arguably this could be seen as a lower risk investment for brands, but also continual performance could be questionable. Regardless, Tik Tok are consistently trialling ways to monetise the app from both the influencer and brand sides.
Opportunity
It is fair to say that in the last year Tik Tok has become fairly saturated with creators eager to collaborate and partner with brands to make money via the platform in light of its success. But a real opportunity remains to make it big on the app with its rapidly growing user count. Tik Tok is also making it easier than ever for brands to collaborate as further elaborated below.
What are the opportunities for brands?
The key opportunity for brands on Tik Tok centre around brand perception. It’s also a chance to change the way that a brand thinks about reaching their consumers. In our view it’s the social media equivalent to a cat lying on its back and showing its tummy-stripes. This has previously put off luxury brands afraid to show themselves, but we see it as very possible. Alley cats and pedigrees all have tummies. Hedi Slimane’s choice to make a Tik Tok star the new face of Celine says it all. However, that doesn’t mean a brand should force itself to produce content which goes against it’s DNA.
However, the magic of Tik Tok is that it’s quickfire, raw and real. Strategy, formula and conversion are not words that belong on Tik Tok, this platform requires a different approach to introducing and endearing consumers to a brand on social media. As we’ve mentioned, it’s great at retaining user attention – the nature of the content stream and personalised feed means that the platform does all it can to keep people there, and will send your content to audiences they know will like it.
Some of the most prominent brands on Tik Tok are those finding ways to incentivise their fans, with challenges to encourage users to recreate a specific moment themselves. The platform is specifically set up for this, with Hashtag Challenge integrated as a sponsored feature. Hashtag Challenge Plus adds a shoppable element to this customisable feature. This kind of content taps into the fact that viewers are most likely encounter the content on their favourite influencer’s feed than come across it organically.
But for the moment, the viral videos giving brands a boost are actually those that haven’t come from their internal comms departments – they’re unbranded, independent of a campaign, just like the aforementioned examples from Sephora and Starbucks.
Having seen their outstanding success for influencers and business, Tik Tok have just unveiled their new events for businesses, Tik Tok World. Whilst details are still yet to be disclosed, it’s likely that this initial event will unveil new eCommerce tools and further integration to help brands link up with relevant platform influencers. They are also looking to experiment further with longer-form video and advanced live streaming which can all be optimised for the benefit of influencer marketing. It’s interesting to see how the app is keeping ahead of the curve when it comes to upcoming trends in the digital world by prioritising brand partnerships as well as casual users.
What are the opportunities for influencers?
The world of influencers has completely transformed since Instagram came on the scene ten plus years ago, and there is no question in whether or not influencers need to be smart and reactive to new social media trends to retain and grow their audiences.
The relationship between brands and talent has become more formal and consumers know what to expect from branded content. This is seen by many as repetitive and predictable, losing credibility. Tik Tok is the very opposite of this – challenging both brands and established influencers to adjust the way the conceptualise and execute collaborations.
For a new generation of influencers, they’ll experience the skyrocketing followings that come with going viral, and it may take little more than just being ‘them’. It’s personality and humour driven, so this wins out over glossy, highly produced content.
The new feature enabling creators to allow Q&A’s with their followers deepens this personal relationship creators have with their following. Followers who feel more connected are far more likely to react as a result of influencers recommendations, which can prove lucrative for brands and influencers alike.
Moreover, Tik Tok has just hosted its very first IRL experience. The For You House made its debut at Westfield London from 22nd July- 8th August allowing fans to interact with influencers for just £5 a ticket, ultimately strengthening their connection. This shows the progression in terms of video and retail merging sparking real opportunities for strengthening of influencer/ consumer relationships.
As the most downloaded app in the App Store, Tik Tok has become increasingly worthwhile for brands, and by creating physical spaces Tik Tok is opening to even more new potential users. With things beginning to open back up again we could see more of a shift towards a merge in online influencer marketing and shopping IRL.
The Verdict
There is absolutely no question as to whether or not Tik Tok is something for brands and influencers to be aware of - it truly is one of the most viable commercial digital channels of the moment. Let it be user led, be ready to watch and learn from what the Tik Tok community say about you – as these are your future customers behaving in the way that’ll become standard practice. For influencers, find your niche and work on building that authentic community around you.