Is TikTok the right platform for your next promotion?
TikTok has become the fastest growing app on the planet with over 2 billion downloads since its launch in 2016. Under lockdown the video app’s appeal has spread from young to old as its playful mix of music, dancing, celebrities, and memes brings joy and connection to those searching for new outlets during the Covid-19 crisis.
TikTok is overtaking all the other platforms in popularity and inventiveness right now and we are seeing more and more brands take the plunge and create a presence on the platform. From our experience, social media competitions and prize draws can be an effective way to reach out to thousands of followers quickly and for relatively little cost – but is TikTok the right platform for all brands?
TikTok in numbers
- Available in 154 countries and 75 languages worldwide
- The no.1 app downloaded from the App Store during 2020
- 63 million downloads in August 2020 alone
- Roughly 1 million monthly active users
- Average user spends 52 minutes per day on it
- Average of 80 minutes daily usage for under 16s
- 83% have uploaded a video
Our Promotions on TikTok
Below are just a few examples of the promotions we have assisted in running on TikTok.
O2 Dancing Robot
To celebrate the arrival of its new brand platform, Bubl, VCCP helped O2 launched the O2 Bubl dance competition on TikTok. Fans had to perform a dance duet with the computer generated robot on TikTok using the hashtag #O2DanceDuet. Three winners were selected and then verified by our team and were then notified over TIkTok. We then delivered their prizes – £1,000 Samsung Galaxy Note20 5G mobile phones.
Formula E #FETalentCall Competition
Formula E ran a competition whereby would-be presenters submitted a video of themselves using social media, including on TikTok. The aim was to provide opportunity to under-represented groups in motor sport and the finalists were judged by celebrity judges including Maya Jama.
Open to 18-24 year olds in UK, France and Germany the competition whittled down hundreds of hopefuls down to 15. The final four contenders faced a series of live challenges to determine the winner. We ensured the promotion was compliant and safe to run.
Final Thoughts
These are just a small selection of the brands harnessing the power of TikTok’s popularity using promotions. Sponsored hashtags, brand takeovers, 3D lenses and stickers are other, more expensive ways for marketers to promote their brands. But our Point of View would be to first consider if the app is the right place to target your demographic. If it is not, users will be cynical about a brand that does not really ‘belong’ on such an irreverent platform. And remember that asking a follower to interact with a brand on TikTok requires more time and content creation than a Facebook ‘like and share’ – so prizes need to be higher value too. Most importantly, you promotion will require the careful planning and help of experts like PromoVeritas – from following the rules in your Terms & Conditions to help with extracting data.
Recently, there have been some significant changes made in relation to the data privacy of TikTok users, specifically for the youngest members of the platform. The outlet has opted to make accounts of users aged 13-15 years old private by default, with the effect of preventing the content from those accounts being downloadable. Moreover, only those who are approved by the account user as a follower will be able to view the content published.