Scion’s Top 5 Picks of Tik Tok Strategies Used By Brands

500 million monthly users

Downloaded more than 660 million times in 2018

Over 1.1 billion installs as of March 2019

Downloaded over 1.5 billion times on the App Store and Google Play

Top Most Downloaded App in the Apple’s iOS App Store in for Q1 2019 with over 33 million downloads

Tiktok is right now the world’s fastest growing app.  What began as a simple video sharing app in 2016, is today an internet sensation. 

Before we share our top 5 picks of tik tok strategies used by brands here’s a quick insight into one of the world’s most popular apps:

Tik Tok basically allows you to upload videos which are instantly accessible to millions of users worldwide.

It was initially used as any other mashup app where people lip sync to songs but that quickly evolved to talent showcasing, where skateboarders flaunt their skills, comedians share a joke or two, dancers show off their moves et AL.  Its high entertainment quotient is perhaps why 41% of its users are aged between 16 and 24-the Millennial Z. 

Slowly but steadily, the app is soon becoming a favourite marketing platform for many brands, and though it’s not as popular and established as Youtube is, it sure is getting there.  Although Tik Tok has been experimenting with ads since last year, it doesn’t yet have a formal profit-sharing system. But this hasn’t stopped brands from exploring this massively popular app for branding.

How Are Brands Using Tik Tok For Business?

So there are 3 main ways brands can market on Tik Tok

1. They create their own channel and share videos related to their product or service-this helps create awareness.
2. Influencer Marketing: Brands looking for conversions, will work with influencers to reach out to a wider audience.
3. They can pay to advertise – this is yet to pick up.

Tik Tok Hashtag Challenges

Hashtag challenges are the real show stoppers when it comes to Tik Tok campaigns. Jimmy Fallon’s #tumbleweed challenge that required people to share videos of them dropping to the ground and rolling around like a tumbleweed attracted 8000 submissions.  

Another example of a hashtag challenge that took Tik Tok by storm was Pepsi India’s #Har ghoont mein swag hai challenge a video featuring Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani and rap star, Baadshah encouraged users to share their versions of the ‘har ghoont mein swad hai’ hook step and within 24 hours the video had over 240 million views and 15000 user generated videos were shared to honour the challenge.

Here our top 5 picks of Tik Tok Strategies used by brands:

1. Influencer Campaigns: Calvin Klien’s #Mycalvins influencer campaign gave their cliche poster boy/girl photo-ops a break and took to Tik Tok to get celebrities to share some real, close-to-the-heart, no-filter stuff, like their dreams, inspirations etc. in a Calvin Klien outfit. Check out #asaprocky opening up about his ‘impossible dream’. 
2. Tik Tok Hashtag Challenge Campaigns: Hopscotch is an Indian kids fashion store and on Mother’s day they launched the #momrapchallenge which encouraged mom and child duo to share some fun content. This campaign attracted 4.8 billion views. and why wouldn’t it? The campaign took up a topical challenge of motherhood and gave their customer base an avenue to light up and flaunt their talent.  Cherry on top? 10 lucky winners get vouchers worth Rs 50000! They not only strengthened their customer base with this tempting offer, but also created engaging content.
3. Humour, behind-the -scenes, musicals: This paper played a role in bringing down Nixon’s government, but their current Tik Tok activity is really lifting spirits up and how! Washington Post’s Tik Tok activity is lit! Right from videos of an employee going crazy over Limited edition Pumpkin Spice SPAM  to a reporter lip-syncing to Adele’s ‘Hello’ to depict what’s it like to be on call with a source. Apart from behind-the-scenes videos, they’ve also come up with creative ways to talk about their product…as in the paper. For eg, an employee covered up entirely in the pages of The Washington Post poses like  a model and caption reads – ‘The Washington Spring Collection on the newsstand.’ 
4. Before & After : There’s not much on the paid ad front yet, but a German ad agency just set the bar high for companies eager to advertise on Tik Tok by attracting 2.3 billion views! The cosmetics company Mac became instantly popular among the Gen Z with a smart ad #youownit where a young woman standing in the streets, drenched in the rain, frustrated in an ill fitting blouse and jeans, magically appears in a slick, neon-lit shop dressed fashionably in a 1950’s – style dress, hair dyed red and with red lipstick popping out. She catwalks and blows a kiss on the screen. 
5. User Generated Content:Olx had a unique way of introducing their new logo. They invited users to put up their own versions of the #OLXdekhahai video using the brand music. The campaign attracted over 7.5 billion views. The campaign talks to the millenials who are looking for smarter options to upgrade their lives. It also gives them a platform to come out looking good in front of peers who would otherwise question their choices. 

These and many more Tik Tok  strategies used by brands  have set the ball rolling for companies waiting to explore Tik Tok as a platform for branding.