TikTok: a new contender in the marketing mix for retail brands?

By Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO, Socialbakers

2019 was the year TikTok exploded on the radars of marketers across the globe. Released in September 2017, the platform recently hit one billion downloads and boasts more than 500 million monthly active users.

It is undoubtedly the platform to watch in 2020. But with its roots firmly in the Chinese market, should Western brands be taking advantage of the craze to reach and engage their online audiences or should they leave it to the kids?

For brands like Red Bull, whether or not to be on TikTok is a no-brainer. Red Bull’s jaw-dropping extreme sports clips are a natural fit for the platform, as is it’s target demographic. The same goes for a content streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, who’s highly visual content looks great in short clips set to music. But what if your brand is not a Red Bull, a Netflix or an Amazon, does opening an account on TikTok make sense.

According to data from App Annie, around 66% of TikTok’s users are under 30 years old. For many brands engaging the younger demographic is crucial for their growth today and tomorrow. Brands like BMW have already started using TikTok to engage with the socially savvy Gen Z’s, for example, via an extensive influencer campaign to promote the 1Series.

Using the hashtag #THE1challenge, the brand encouraged users to show off their dance moves based on a defined choreography to the music of Big Gigantic. Influencers with extensive reach pave the way with their own short videos in the typical TikTok style and inspired by the new BMW 1 Series. 

For beauty brands, TikTok is a great platform to reach and engage audiences with highly visual content in a fun and hip way. It is also the ideal platform for brands to benefit from user-generated content. MAC Cosmetics’ extremely successful #YouOwnIt hashtag challenge on TikTok notched up more than 2,3 billion views.

“Our advice to brands is don’t be put off by the focus of TikTok’s appeal being the younger demographic. Brands need to be thinking futureproof. Gen Z is the most connected, social-savvy generation and while the spending power may not lie with them today, they are the consumers of tomorrow”

While the campaign was kicked off with a clip produced by MAC the vast majority of the content that followed was user-generated, more than 30% of which was earned, according to Pulse, the agency who produced the campaign for MAC. 

It’s not only brands that work to stay relevant to the younger demographic, media outlets to too. German national news channel Tagesschau recently launched their own TikTok channel. By doing this they were able to show a more fun, relatable side to what is widely perceived to be a traditional TV news channel.

The Washington Post newspaper also has a very active TikTok account with almost 300K followers. Their content isn’t news related but focuses more on funny office-based interactions as well as their office pets. 

Burberry is a great example of a brand experimenting in this area. With 22K followers and just a few posts to date Burberry kicked off their TikTok presence with a highly-engaging challenge. The #TBChallenge, which celebrates the launch of the new Thomas Burberry Monochrome collection, encourages followers in the US and the UK to recreate the new Thomas Burberry Monogram motif with their hands to unlock a new lens.

It’s no surprise that Burberry is one of the earlier adopters as the fashion house has worked very hard in the last few years to translate social media engagement to sales. They recently announced that they would be partnering with Tencent to open a “social retail” store in Shenzhen, blending retail and social media to create digital and physical spaces aimed at attracting customers.

Our advice to brands is don’t be put off by the focus of TikTok’s appeal being the younger demographic. Brands need to be thinking futureproof. Gen Z is the most connected, social-savvy generation and while the spending power may not lie with them today, they are the consumers of tomorrow. 

So if you’re a brand who’s ready to shake off formality and get fun and authentic with your followers, TikTok should definitely be in your 2020 marketing plan.