Tiktok 3 Why - MW New

Why marketers are spending and winning big on TikTok

An interest-based algorithm that fuels marketing success

Deciding where to allocate their hard fought budgets is a constant challenge for marketers, who not only need to see results and ROI, but creative new ways to reach audiences, and real overall value.

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One of the things that makes TikTok unique and highly valuable to brands is that it runs on a content graph, rather than a social graph. In layman’s terms, this differentiates it from social media as the content users see is not limited to that created by the people they follow or their social spheres. Instead, the TikTok algorithm serves content based entirely on users’ interests, and the videos they watch and engage with. Jennifer Lopez recently experienced the merits of the algorithm’s ability to rapidly scale content based on user interests at first hand. In March this year, the singer posted a video on TikTok, it received a staggering 161 million views from just 10.2 million followers. Why? TikTok can serve content to hundreds of millions of feeds based on what users like, rather than who they like. J.Lo’s follower numbers made no difference to the video's reach. This is excellent news for individuals and brands looking to build a presence on TikTok, as it makes reaching a mass audience surprisingly simple. As an open platform where anyone can be discovered, the flow of content is not slowed or obstructed by invite-only groups or the need for followers. The best way to get discovered is to create content aligned with your target audiences’ interests – gaming, beauty, fashion, education, comedy and sports are some popular ones. By playing to these categories a brand instantly becomes much more visible, as content tailored to a target audience’s interests scales naturally on TikTok. Another way to amplify your brand’s visibility on TikTok is to pay close attention to trends. Selfridges and GymShark both understand this. These brands create organic content that capitalises on the virality of trending hashtags (#OutfitChallenge or #10TouchChallenge) that appear on the discovery page, to put themselves in front of millions of eyeballs – a simple and effective way to create enormous reach.

Above all else, TikTok’s algorithm is built for discovery, delivering a perpetual stream of new entertainment direct to millions of individual feeds – users are only ever served content they enjoy. By creating such a consistently compelling experience, TikTok session times are long and engagement is high – the average engagement rate in the UK, for example, is an incredible 14.7%. Users don’t just consume short videos here; they’re also creating and sharing them. On TikTok, for every voice and every brand, there's an audience. The key to engaging audiences is to keep in mind that they’re not here to just watch; they’re here to get involved. Well-executed marketing campaigns are acts of co-creation with the TikTok community. User-generated content inspired by a new product or service becomes a brand’s commercial on the platform. Advertising campaigns that may have only had five executions can now have millions, with users often participating long after agreed flight dates are complete – bringing enormous added value for brands. A potent example of this co-creation, and the marketing power of TikTok’s fully sound-on environment, is #EyesLipsFace from e.l.f cosmetics. The brand wanted to increase awareness around the fact that 'e.l.f' stands for 'eyes lips face', so its Hashtag Challenge asked users to show their moves to an original track – 'eyes.lips.face' (feat. Holla FyeSixWun) by iLL Wayno – for a chance to win cosmetics. #EyesLipsFace quickly became the most viral brand campaign ever on TikTok. It is the fastest to reach 1 billion views and the first-ever to hold the number one trend spot. DJs played the track in clubs. When it was released on Spotify and iTunes, it racked up over 8 million streams and hit number four on Spotify’s Global Viral charts. People added it to 200,000 Spotify playlists. The content created (as always) spread organically across Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and Reese Witherspoon joined in, unprompted and unpaid, while the campaign also featured in Vogue, Rolling Stone, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Vox, Adweek and Forbes. #EyesLipsFace was a true pop culture moment thanks to the limitless awareness and engagement TikTok can generate.

TikTok boasts long session times and sky-high engagement

A consistent by-product of the high engagement and visibility brands are enjoying on TikTok is brand lift. TikTok’s Brand Lift surveys continually show double-digit increases across the entire marketing funnel. The platform is proving a powerful tool for brands looking to build awareness and affinity with new audiences. Take Mercedez-Benz, for example. Looking to increase brand awareness and brand preference with Gen Z and millennials, the car maker invited TikTok users to re-envision its famous ‘star’ logo and post the results using the #MBStarChallenge hashtag. By tapping the spirit of co-creation at the heart of the platform, the brand connected with this audience in a totally new and authentic way. A post-campaign brand lift study revealed that ad recall increased by 66.3%, while brand favourability increased by 18.2% and brand preference by 15.7%. Converse also enjoyed similar success with its recent #ConverseAllStar campaign, which aimed to grow brand affinity among London youth, with a focus on their new Pro Leather shoe. The campaign called on users to customise their shoes and post a video against the hashtag. It generated over 24 million total video views and 29.7 million impressions, with an engagement rate of 9.22%. A brand lift study revealed a 75% uplift in brand recall, thanks in no small part to the campaign’s innovative use of a TikTok ad product, alongside four well-known UK Creators and a live event that brought the campaign offline and into the real world. Needless to say, both brands are delighted with the results.

TikTok delivers industry-leading brand lift

A large number of unduplicated users is another quality that sets TikTok apart. The fact that a growing number of people around the world are choosing to consume video exclusively on TikTok is a huge opportunity for brands to connect with brand-new audiences. For marketers, the advantages of TikTok’s diverse and unique user base are twofold. Firstly, the platform is perfectly positioned to generate vital extra reach in large multichannel advertising campaigns. And secondly, in many cases, TikTok can carry a brand’s message further thanks to its growing numbers of unique users. In order to maximise the reach needed to launch their new Vodafone X student learning and experiential platform, Vodafone chose TikTok to help it connect with a large youth audience. The mobile network used TikTok’s premium ad format, TopView – an immersive, full-screen, 100% sound-on video served to all users on opening the app – to deliver their message to a tightly targeted demographic. In just one day, the Vodafone X TopView ad generated more than 1.7 million impressions and drove hundreds of thousands of young people to the Level Up landing page. With more than 350,000 clicks recorded during the one-day awareness campaign, it easily surpassed all TikTok and industry benchmarks for engagement. The campaign demonstrates TikTok’s ability to deliver immersive campaigns to a unique and specific audience, while, again, ensuring excellent engagement.

TikTok delivers audiences other platforms can’t

Finding new creative ways to reach audiences and generate real value is the holy grail for any marketer. That’s why short-form mobile video entertainment platform TikTok is a proposition too good to miss. Not only is it a place where quality content meets a huge audience, and highly engaged users are spending increasing amounts of time, it’s also relatively uncluttered with advertising, offering brands a more significant share of voice. Ads are entirely video-based, meaning they blend seamlessly with the app’s native content and never compromise the user experience. TikTok is fast becoming a must in many marketers' media plans. Here we explain why.

The platform is a never-ending stream of variety and fun that keeps people watching and engaging. New trends emerge constantly, and spiral as more people join in, perpetuating these phenomenal engagement rates.

Kris Boger Europe Lead, Product Marketing, TikTok

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