In 2019, marketers and media analysts predicted that 2020 is the year where video content will thrive. As the rise in video content increased in 2019, it reached its ultimate peak in 2020 with Instagram and TikTok contents taking the lead.
“Although Instagram is still the number one social media platform, TikTok is fast on its tail.”
So what does it mean to marketers & advertisers? Its time to catch up and latch on the trend, of course!
TikTok – a video-driven content creating platform that mainly has Generation Z and Millennials as their target audience. The variety of contents – music, dances, how-tos, and many others – is what drives more and more users onto the platform. The short videos (<15s – 60s) are perfectly suited for Gen Zs whose attention span is only about 8-seconds average. TikTok currently has over 800 million active users hence why advertisers should be jumping onto the TikTok bandwagon.
Here, we will break down 3 of the best TikTok campaigns we found to show you the mechanics behind how to leverage on TikTok advertising to your advantage.
MYDIN MALAYSIA
What can we learn: Put a consistent face or style to your branded content
Mydin Malaysia is the first Malaysian supermarket to use TikTok as a marketing strategy – whether they intentionally started it or not, we’re not quite sure. But it is impactful! Their TikToks mainly feature Mydin’s managing director, Datuk Wira (Dr.) Haji Ameer Ali Mydin. This is a great example of their efforts in engaging with their younger audiences by giving a “face” to such a big corporation and adding a human touch. Mydin Malaysia made multiple TikToks using several trending audios.
As music/audios are a huge determinant of your TikTok’s virality factor, by using audios that are trending is how Mydin Malaysia was able to capture the attention of their audiences and garnered large amounts of audience reach.
One of their videos that performed very well was by using the “Wipe It Down” audio and adding their own twist to the viral challenge. Their participation in this challenge garnered more than 35K views per TikTok video and plenty of positive sentiments from the viewers. Contents such as these encourage talkability and proving so, Mydin had plenty of mentions on other social media platforms (ie. Twitter) where users reshared their content on the platform. The best part about it is that all the exposure they received is completely free! Knowing very well that the TikTok audiences were mostly Gen Z, this long term strategy of theirs could potentially influence Gen Z TikTokers to shop in Mydin. It’s a perfect example of how this new way of platform management could significantly improve a brand’s overall image.
BANG ENERGY DRINK (VPS SPORTS)
What can we learn: Consistent engagement of TikTokers are still key here
Bang Energy have been using influencer marketing to promote their brand for over 3 years now. The company employs hundreds of influencers in a long-term partnership to promote their product anytime and anyhow the influencer pleases to, provided they keep the content within the set guidelines.
Bang Energy began their KOL marketing on Instagram but have now transitioned to TikTok when the platform started gaining their target audience’s attention. As there is no wrong way to showcase Bang Energy in their postings, the KOLs are free to create content that they feel would resonate best with their followers. For advice on how to create TikTok ads read this guide from Upbeat Agency.
Therefore, with TikTok content using audio as the pulling factor, TikTok content creators who are part of Bang Energy’s partnership will create content for Bang Energy using different types of audio as there are no particular restrictions on how they should advertise the energy drink. Now, not only are Bang Energy sponsored posts visible on the creator’s page, but it is also visible to other TikTok users who want to use the same audio. This is equivalent to your brand’s posting appearing on Instagram’s explore page, over and over again (we all know how difficult this is to achieve). Engaging with influencers who are young, high energy, and trendy to become active loyalists helps Bang Energy create a strong marketing strategy that makes consumers feel cool to drink their beverage. This strategy has given Bang Energy a social edge and contributed to its growth in market share over major energy drink brands like Redbull and Monster Energy.
The above sees Bang Energy appearing under the various audio category that users tend to search for, such as WOAH-KRYPTO, Ah Eh Queen Zyon and Lion King sound clip
MCDONALD’S MALAYSIA – #RASAMCCAFE
What can we learn: The agile adaptation of trending styles for your brand
McDonald’s recent TikTok campaign, #RasaMcCafe is a competition based campaign where users are encouraged to create a video challenge with the required hashtags. Nuffnang observed that the idea was inspired by the recent “pass the brush” makeup challenge that gained popularity on TikTok and McDonald’s wanted to replicate the effect by passing a cup of McCafe’s coffee. Though the campaign mechanics are quite simple, it is an effective way to increase brand mentions across the platform. With the range of KOLs that were involved in the campaign, it further encouraged brand recognition for McCafe. The call to action for this campaign relied heavily on the hashtags where a link is attached to direct the audience to a page where they could purchase their drink immediately through McDonald’s website. The campaign’s overall direction is pretty generic – with an added bonus of an RM10,000 prize – but it was a good starting ground by McDonald’s to penetrate the TikTok audiences.
For someone who is unfamiliar with TikTok’s algorithm or the platform in general, it may be something that is intimidating because of the uncertainty of your campaign’s performance. We in Nuffnang like to believe that Gen Z are an interesting bunch and what works on Instagram, may in fact crash and burn on TikTok. Hence why we are at your service! In Nuffnang, we have different teams that specialize in each of the different campaign mechanics that makes a TikTok campaign successful.
