Reeses

How the most successful brands on TikTok drive performance through ground-breaking creativity

Inspire Creativity. Bring Joy. Build Brands.

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Earlier this month, the winners of the second-annual TikTok Ad Awards were announced: brands and agencies from across the UK that have excelled on the platform over the past year. So, what can we learn from their success? To rise to the surface campaigns must embrace TikTok's unique quirks and opportunities. "Tap into communities, and the many types of trends that feel 'of' the platform," advises Tim Pritchard, head of content and responsible media at MG OMD and part of this year’s judging panel. "Sound is crucial: in particular, we were looking for great uses of music or audio that were core to the creative idea."

Encourage participation

Cut through with creativity on TikTok

"Authenticity is what makes a brand go from good to great on TikTok."

— Sophie Drury, KitKat

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The TikTok Ad Awards European Grand Prix will be hosted in Amsterdam on 30 November, with competing campaigns from DACH, France, Italy, Spain, Nordics and Poland, to see who will be named the European GOAT. Could your brand win a TikTok Award? There are a host of tools and resources to help optimise your next campaign for the platform: check out TikTok’s Creative Center and Creative Codebook.

The Greatest Creative accolade went to Lidl's 'Ode to Bakery'. Boosting existing brand love for the supermarket's baked goods with a custom jingle, this interactive campaign embraced the Open Verse Challenge trend. Viewers could duet with performer Tricia McTeague, singing a tongue-in-cheek remix of N-Trance's 90s hit 'Set You Free', using reviews from die-hard Lidl Bakery fans as lyrics.

Shortlisted alongside Lidl for the Greatest Creative accolade was a campaign to increase awareness of iconic US confectionary brand Reese's in the UK, where it's still a relative newcomer. The strategy: tap into the passion and delightful weirdness found on TikTok.

Embrace the weirdness

"We built the idea on a core customer truth: that our bakery is loved," explains Jo Gomer, Head of Campaigns and Media at Lidl GB. "Then we celebrated it using a cult classic track and, together with our agencies, we worked directly with N-Trance using real customer comments." As Pritchard points out, joyful expression is at the heart of TikTok. Brands that tap into those feelings in an entertaining, shareable way capture people's imagination. "Sharing and involvement are rewarded," he says. "People come to TikTok to be entertained, and brands must do so to be successful." "We saw a raft of really varied entries excelling in the various aspects of the platform, from great creator partnerships, to branded effects, to viral content that broke out of the platform and into culture," adds Pritchard.

TikTok revealed its entertainment playbook for brands in July

To facilitate the Reese's campaign, Mother created an in-house, always-on content studio to respond to the stream of requests and suggestions. "This enabled us to deliver an endless pool of talking points, with space to flex, play and experiment," explains Ktori. Constant trend tracking and vibe checking helped maintain the campaign's momentum. "Using whip-smart community management to reply cheekily and wittily encouraged fans to not just watch but engage," he continues. "And more engagement meant more views, which meant more engagement." "By tapping into fast-moving microtrends, mirroring the formats, memes and language of the platform, and harnessing broader insight into Gen Z online behaviour, we set out to manifest a chocolate and peanut butter-filled movement," adds Ktori. "Our approach varied from ASMR to comedy skits, and even using the 'Reply to Comment' feature to make our fans' wishes come true, filling their requested chocolate objects with PB on demand."

Make time to engage

Glow For It won 'Greatest TikTok UK' at the 2023 TikTok Awards

Pritchard and his fellow judges reviewed and shortlisted a total of 269 entries independently, before discussing the top 20 as a panel – with beauty brand Glow For It winning ‘Greatest TikTok UK’. On 30 November, the campaign will go head-to-head with fellow top prize winners from DACH, France, Italy, Spain, Nordics and Poland for the TikTok Ad Awards European Grand Prix – or European GOAT. "Different voices around the table made a case for each project, until we reached unanimity – or as close to that as we could manage," he reveals. "There was particularly heated debate about what constituted the 'Greatest Creative', testament to the breadth of ways brands can show up creatively on TikTok."

Lidl's 'Ode to Bakery' won in the 'Greatest Creative' category

Reese's was shortlisted alongside Lidl for 'Greatest Creative'

"Whether it's Francis Bourgeois' love of trains or Corn Kid's heartfelt praise of sweetcorn, TikTok is a place where unapologetic passion is not only welcomed but celebrated," explains Mother senior content strategist, Ruby Ktori. "We harnessed the power of TikTok to build an army of Reese's superfans with a taste for all things chocolate and peanut butter. How? Through doubling down on giving Reese’s a nutty personality and spotlighting our love of putting peanut butter in absolutely everything." Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the surreal vibe of Reese's wider ‘Anything But Ordinary’ campaign, those objects were deliciously random. "We love all the requests from our community and have been trying to make as many as possible – from a suitcase to a gumball machine to a basketball hoop," reveals Ktori.

From his perspective as a judge, Pritchard could tell which brands had dedicated time to immersion in TikTok: it shone through in every detail of the winning campaigns. Lidl's 'Ode to Bakery' proves the power of a TikTok-native, sound-centric strategy: it drove almost 20 million impressions, with a view-through rate of 39% and a 32.3% uplift in ad recall. "Learn how your audiences use TikTok, explore niche communities and trends, check out the best-performing content on the platform, and explore the case studies from past awards," advises Pritchard. To amplify the Reese's campaign, several established TikTok Creators were given a topline brief and allowed to interpret it in their own way. "From @jayscotttttt and @lewbearbrown's avant-garde styling of official Reese's merchandise to @anouskaanastasia's sparkly orange manicure, creators have been a vital part of our awareness-driving mission, whether through seasonal campaign spikes or evergreen organic content," confirms Ktori. Reese's also smashed its performance targets, growing followers by 62.3% and organic reach by 306%, and exceeding engagement benchmarks by 765%. "Centre your community and create work they enjoy," is Ktori’s advice. "And don’t be afraid to get a little chaotic with it."

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