Tiktok 8

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In early July, Julian Bass, a 20-year-old theatre student at George State University, posted a TikTok video (below) that you could quite safely say broke the internet. Set to Harry Styles’ song ‘Watermelon Sugar’, Bass transforms into a Star Wars Jedi Knight, complete with a lightsaber, before morphing into Cartoon Network’s watch-wielding Ben 10 and finally becoming Spiderman, shooting webs from his wrists. He cross-posted the video from TikTok to Twitter, asking followers to retweet it to get him in front of Disney. Unsurprisingly, the impressive clip – and his request – snowballed, gaining 5 million views and 1.1 million likes on TikTok. Industry heavyweights like director James Gunn and Walt Disney’s executive chairman responded, while Andy Samberg’s comedy trio The Lonely Island forwarded it to VFX studio Industrial Light and Magic. Bass says several Hollywood figures reached out to him privately to discuss his future. Bass’s clip is a perfect example of how the short-form video entertainment platform’s selection of creative tools can be used to reach huge audiences and create content that’s so powerful it’s shared across all the major social platforms.

Within a busy feed that’s constantly updating, capturing attention instantly is essential, so as Jack Edwards, British university student and TikTok Creator (50,700 followers) explains, you always want to be giving a reason for the user to interact. “For example, social currency, trends, tapping into a higher purpose or the opportunity to continue the story,” he explains. “Music and sound effects are key to content creation – it’s super integral to the foundation of TikTok as a platform and TikToks are best enjoyed with the sound on.” TikTok Sounds Library, a live archive, gathers together thousands of up-and-coming tracks categorised by popularity, challenge and theme, while the platform’s Commercial Music Library comprises more than 7,000 pre-cleared, royalty-free tracks from emerging artists and top-tier music houses – from tunes by global stars like Megan Thee Stallion and Lewis Capaldi, to off-the-wall soundbites and even Branded Effects.

Music to their ears

From changing the background with GreenScreen to duplicating people with Multiplier, effects can take your video to another level. Using video recognition, some TikTok effects are triggered by different motions or facial expressions that people do when they shoot a video. The face tracking feature, which picks up and enlarges a face within the shot, has created a rabbit hole of TikTok challenges, with anyone whose face it lands on having to complete a forfeit. An awareness of those effects was perfectly parodied in Gucci’s #AccidentalInfluencer campaign, which saw London-based artist, director and photographer, Max Siendentopf set everyday scenes with seemingly identically dressed pairs – and Gucci’s Tennis 1977 sneaker. Low-fi though it may have been, it nailed the TikTok aesthetic, while channelling its own contemporary design. And virtuosos of the matchy-matchy aesthetic Young Emperors (AKA couple Nelson Tiberghien and Isabelle Chaput) are big fans of the effects in TikTok’s creative toolbox. “The great thing we feel, is that you don’t need any professional background to achieve a great look with the built-in tools,” they explain.

SFX made simple

TikTok’s in-app creative toolkit takes content to the next level

In the fifth part of our partner content series, which will explore the enhanced creative capabilities available within the TikTok app, we look at how Creators are harnessing the power of its toolbox and why brands don’t need to be editing experts to get involved – and go viral.

Six bite-sized tutorial videos hosted by Sophie Haboo, TikTok Creators and in-house experts are now available to the industry. You can learn everything you need to know about creating for the platform, get in touch with TikTok for Business to sign-up today.

TikTok Creator Julian Bass's viral video led to approaches from Hollywood executives

There are no hard and fast rules with TikTok – it’s all about spending time on the platform, working out what’s trending and how your message, or part of your message can riff on these and push it even further. It doesn’t have to be original footage shot specifically for the platform either – Red Bull posts existing clips, often of awe-inspiring stunts and extreme sports, but frames it using the full toolbox, especially trending music tracks. Gareth Leeding, We Are Social’s executive creative director, credits the power of a “proper ownable earworm” for the success of his recent work on the #PlaywithPringles campaign. “We recognised that during lockdown, people had loads of time on their hands and were lazing about in their tracksuit and wanted to be creative, to do something fun,” he explains. “The opportunity was there for playful transformation using the product in a native way to the platform.” The Hashtag Challenge, initially set to ‘Don't Stop Don't Stop’ by Paul Leary and Nait Masuku (an original track from the TikTok Library) sees people jumping into the Pringles can in their pyjamas, and popping out in a brand spanking new outfit. The challenge saw hundreds of millions of views across Europe, which amounts to a reach that’s completely unheard of on other platforms without a huge media buy. “Music choice and soundbites are key attention grabbers – the opportunity within TikTok is to create great, truly global creative ideas that don’t need language,” says Leeding. “It’s all about creative expression through movement and sound.”

Music and social currency are key to successful TikToks, says Creator Jack Edwards

Seventeen-year-old self-taught animator Ben Treat (@franticframes) uses the sound gallery to find music that adds to his animations. “I believe it can help maintain attention and can add meaning or more value to your work.” Whether it’s Billie Eilish tracks, upbeat original remixes or songs already going stratospheric on the platform, like Trevor Daniels’ ‘Falling,’ Treat loves the ability to make his animations relevant to trends and popular sounds on TikTok, “whereas on other platforms, I focus on my craft and expressing ideas”.

#PlaywithPringles was about users' creative expression, underpinned with a catchy soundtrack

Ben Treat says popular songs make his animations more relevant to a TikTok audience

From adjusting the pace of a video to up the drama or make it super-playful, to adding voiceover to amplify content’s storytelling power (a favourite for handy how-to TikToks), the options of the creative toolbox are limitless. Peter Browse, a creative at Wieden+Kennedy London, has been making the most of the toolbox as he experiments with different campaign types to “better understand the ingredients that go into making content that an ad-avoiding audience will engage with”. As he explains it, the creative toolbox “sets out a comprehensive template of making campaigns, and helps us understand what goes in to support a TikTok campaign. It’s all about focusing less around pure repurposing assets that were used for other social networks.” His advice? Start your creative process with TikTok in mind. But that’s not to say you can’t create assets unique to your campaign outside the standard toolkit – provided they can be used and riffed on by users – which brings us to the world of augmented reality (AR) and Branded Effects. “Branded Effects can supercharge a campaign. This hyperrealistic tech means that users can trial things like sunglasses, lipstick, hair dye even, to see what they would look like in real life,” explains Edwards. “It puts your product or brand in a realistic setting with real people, so they’re more relatable and, therefore, attainable.” Asos demonstrated the power of effects to engage users in its recent #AySauceChallenge campaign. Running in the UK and US, the activation – supported by a dedicated Branded Hashtag Challenge, In-Feed Ads, and an original music track – utilised a bespoke set of AR assets using TikTok’s Branded Effects. The #AySauceChallenge invited users to create videos showing off their three favourite outfits using the bespoke AySauce effects. Adding an extra layer of fun to the challenge, Branded Effects allow users to share their love for the brand while creating engaging content of their own. With the campaign amassing nearly 350m views, it’s clear that Branded Effects are an extremely effective way to creatively tap into TikTok’s global community.

Luxury fashion label Kenzo is another brand making interesting use of Branded Effects on TikTok. Using a specially designed Kenzo effect and bespoke music track, the brand launched an organic Hashtag Challenge (#KENZOsportchallenge) in France to amplify its new Kenzo Sport campaign. Running alongside two hero films, the brand used a motion-triggered animated Kenzo logo, inviting users to create videos celebrating movement and protection, the dual inspirations behind the new Kenzo Sport range. Driving user-generated content is the single most effective way to connect and engage TikTokers; Branded Effects are designed to do just this. Done right, they can produce phenomenal engagement – the Kenzo Sport Hashtag Challenge receiving more than 184 million views to date.

A Branded Effect can then also be used by other users and develop a life cycle completely separate from the brand. With some 82% of Gen Zers and 84% of Gen Yers trusting friends and family when deciding to buy a product or service, this relatability and accessibility is key. And while the pandemic has created hesitation around entering shops and trying on the goods, AR effects can not only help increase awareness and engagement on a global scale, but help consumers, quite literally, try before they buy. Creating content that’s so good it’s shared on other platforms comes with ease once you’ve got the hang of it. We Are Social’s Leeding finds it important to see TikTok as a social entertainment platform and play to that. “Put a challenge out there that people will not only want to recreate, but are able to put their own twist on to show their individuality. This is a platform for engaging, not telling.” So whether you want to make waves with font overlays (like Man City’s Learn Mancunian with Yaya Toure), nail the earworm credentials of challenges like Pringles or morph from superhero to superhero like Julian Bass, it’s all within your reach with the creative toolbox. So what are you waiting for? Dive right in.

Gucci's #AccidentalInfluencer campaign nailed the TikTok aesthetic in a self-conscious and humourous way

Asos’s #AySauceChallenge invited TikTok users to showcase their three favourite outfits with bespoke Branded Effects

Kenzo Sport used a Branded Effect to encourage TikTok users to engage with its Hashtag Challenge

Font overlays were central to Manchester City FC’s ‘Learn Mancunian with Yaya Toure’ series on TikTok

Affording a level of creativity that’s unmatched on other platforms, the suite of video and audio effects is essential for creating content that connects with TikTok audiences. They’re simply not there to be sold to. Recent TikTok data reveals users currently spend an average of 51 minutes per day making videos; people are there for one reason – entertainment. Becoming a dab hand with the creative toolbox is the fastest, most effective way to be discovered, capture and maintain attention. With little to no initial ad spend, brands that understand TikTok’s visual vernacular can immediately sit alongside the most popular and compelling content in the For You feed. The trick is to watch what’s trending, the styles of content people enjoy, and create videos to meet these criteria. In doing so, a brand’s content stands a very good chance of being included in the curated selection of each user’s personalised feed, which is based on their preferences and past viewings.

Unsurprisingly, the impressive clip – and his request – snowballed, gaining 5 million views and 1.1 million likes on TikTok. Industry heavyweights like director James Gunn and Walt Disney’s executive chairman responded, while Andy Samberg’s comedy trio The Lonely Island forwarded it to VFX studio Industrial Light and Magic. Bass says several Hollywood figures reached out to him privately to discuss his future. Bass’s clip is a perfect example of how the short-form video entertainment platform’s selection of creative tools can be used to reach huge audiences and create content that’s so powerful it’s shared across all the major social platforms.