Unlocking TikTok in 2021
Brands need more than one key to succeed on TikTok argues Kelsey Docherty, a marketing and communications consultant specializing in TikTok strategy.
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In 2020, some people took up baking sourdough bread, others invested in a Peloton, and if you’re anything like me, you acquired a significant addiction to TikTok.
TikTok gained mass popularity in 2020 and it shows no signs of slowing down. TikTok is continuously creating exclusive moments to reel in their audience and keep them there; executing exciting virtual events, from the TikTok Tailgate Party for Superbowl LV, which brought global superstars to TikTok users all around the world, to partnering with TikTok star Brittany Broski and rapper Lil Yachty to host a New Year’s Eve celebration on the app.
This year presents an optimal time for brands to take a good, hard look at their TikTok creative goals, identify where they can develop and utilize strategy, and start taking action.
Social media professionals have mastered the art of navigating reigning social media platforms and understand the importance of creative intelligence, but TikTok is still widely underutilized, underestimated, and misunderstood by most brands out there.
Above: TikTok Tailgate with Miley Cyrus
Take Manscaped—you wouldn’t think that a men’s grooming brand would be one of the most successful brands on TikTok, but they are. Manscaped’s social team has their finger on the pulse of every single sound, trend, and effect that becomes popular on the app and activates quickly in the genres they organically fit into, including comedy.
Comedy is one of the top genres for TikTok users—a new UK study by VidMob recently found that users of all ages rank funny content the most popular of all on the app – and Manscaped’s smart, yet playful brand voice works seamlessly for their TikTok audience. The brand uses this to their advantage by creating trend-specific content and continues to build strong brand awareness amongst Millennials and Gen Zers alike.
It’s time to lose the ‘rinse and repeat’ method when building out your creative TikTok strategy in 2021 and start leveraging data, analytics, and insights to create a smart, effective content plan.
Tyler Wentworth, Director of Social Media at MANSCAPED™ says “The organic growth that brands like ours have achieved on TikTok is something we haven’t seen since the early days of Instagram. We have been able to cultivate a community of Gen Z grooming enthusiasts that had never existed within MANSCAPED’s social channels before. We’ve found this younger audience gravitates towards having familiar faces on their feed—which is why we lean into showcasing the personalities behind our business. That human connection is key to this unique set of users.”
Understanding the app and its unique differentiators (like looking at content through a comedic lens) gives Manscaped a huge leg up on the competition when creating organic and paid content. They know it’s in their best interest to make TikToks, not traditional ads.
This year presents an optimal time for brands to take a good, hard look at their TikTok creative goals, identify where they can develop and utilize strategy, and start taking action.
Brands that stay relevant on TikTok through fresh and engaging content win big. For example, a trend that became popular earlier this year was the “Passing the Phone” challenge, where you say something surprising about the person you are passing the phone to, creating a chain of hilarious (sometimes shocking!) anecdotes from each person. It was attempted in so many different, creative ways by individuals and brands alike and organizations like the Portland Trailblazers basketball team and Disney Parks who put their own unique spin on it, amassing millions of views on their videos.
Above: Trailblazers complete the Pass the Phone Challenge
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Remember #ShantyTok? Earlier this year (which seems like a lifetime ago), TikTok users tried their hand at creating their own melodies that mirrored traditional fisherman out at sea. It was started by Scottish postman Nathan Evans and to date, the hashtag has over 66 million views. Big names like Stephen Colbert even tried their hand at the trend.
Building notable brand awareness is key, but so is converting your audience. Luckily, TikTok has the tools for that.
It’s clear that monetising the platform for brands and creating a playground for social commerce is a top priority for TikTok. Their first order of business has been partnering with industry moguls, tech leaders, and mega-retailers, including Walmart and Shopify.
US super-brand Walmart has a pending deal to acquire a stake in TikTok and held its first “shoppable” US livestream on the app, where users could shop clickable “pins,” which would put items in their shopping carts for immediate or later checkout after the livestream.
Male Millennials demonstrate the highest levels of engagement on the platform in the UK, including live streams
In addition, TikTok recently partnered with e-commerce giant Shopify to develop in-app shopping features, including the ability to develop TikTok marketing campaigns in the Shopify dashboard and identify and track their consumer’s behaviors.
One way brands can use TikTok to understand more about their consumer base and reach a new audience is through a Hashtag Challenge Plus, which involves an actionable challenge paired with a paid-for hashtag that has its own landing page. There are several brands that have pulled this lever in their TikTok marketing campaigns, but let’s take a closer look at Moncler and their mega-successful #MonclerBubbleUp challenge. For this TikTok-specific challenge, they asked users to cuddle up in something that emulated Moncler’s signature puffy winter jackets and used TikTok’s editing features to turn it into an actual Moncler coat. The brand tapped huge names on the app including Charli D’Amelio and Bella Poarch to execute the campaign and the challenge hashtag has garnered over 2 billion views.
TikTok is still widely underutilized, underestimated, and misunderstood by most brands out there.
Other brands that have created unique trends via hashtag challenges include Gymshark with #Gymshark66, Gucci with #GucciModelChallenge, Nike with #MagicBoots, Netflix with #SelenaNetflix, and Amazon Fashion with #PajamaJam.
And what do all these brands have in common? They’re gaining serious traction on TikTok, amassing millions, even billions, of views and building strong brand affinity with a highly engaged Gen Z and Millennial audience.
Above: Ratatouille: The Musical, a native TikTok collaboration between out-of-work actors and performers
The VidMob study uncovered that male Millennials demonstrate the highest levels of engagement on the platform in the UK, including live streams. In fact, 1 in 10 men aged 35-40 join livestreams multiple times a day. They are also more likely to participate in hashtag challenges, frequently repost videos to other social platforms, and importantly for brands, makeup almost half (49%) of users that have made purchases after clicking on a TikTok ad. The app’s creative options could become an ideal route for brands wanting to reach this audience.
Gen Z leads the charge when it comes to heavy usage—we can all probably gather this from the amount of dancing teens on our “For You” dashboards – but the power that Millennial audiences hold on this platform is gaining significant momentum, with 27% of Millennial men and 16% of Millennial women planning to spend more time on the app in 2021. And of those who follow brands on TikTok, Millennials are more likely to do so than Gen Z.
Building notable brand awareness is key, but so is converting your audience.
Whether your target demographic is Alpha, Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, or all of the above, you need to know that one size does not fit all, and to make an impact with the TikTok consumer, you have to understand their habits and behaviors, meeting them where their eyes, ears, and thumbs are at.
So, it’s time to lose the ‘rinse and repeat’ method when building out your creative TikTok strategy in 2021 and start leveraging data, analytics, and insights to create a smart, effective content plan.
Brands that stay relevant on TikTok through fresh and engaging content win big.
In 2020, we saw the unauthorized version of Ratatouille, The Musical, attempted to make dalgona coffees, and tried our hand at the Renegade.
But as brand marketers, we learned that while social platform usage is at an all-time high, your musical-loving, coffee-drinking, Renegade-ing TikTok user expects certain types of content and experiences as they navigate from one video to the next.
The sky’s the limit for what we’re going to learn in 2021.
