Tiktok: The 15-second marketing opportunity
Alina Peon | Cool Nerds Marketing Intern
I can’t lie, these past weeks I’ve spent countless hours on TikTok like most teens and young adults my age. TikTok proves to be a relaxing activity and a couple laughs – a pick-me-up from my work and study routine during this long quarantine. The video app allows users to create vertical videos that run for 15 seconds before looping to restart. They feature music samples, filters, and clip cuts to make the videos engaging.
I started to realize that the app got me scrolling through the internet to find the products featured in many posts – from ads to influencer videos. TikTok has become the new, trendy and fast way to market and has established itself as a booming social media platform attracting millions. According to Business Insider and eMarketer, there are three main trends predicted for marketing and advertising with TikTok in 2020:
- Video advertisers funneling more money into social media
- Decrease of youtube content and a switch to a short video and live streaming platforms
- Competitors will test TikTok’s popularity
- A clear example is the chocolate confectionary company Godiva, which has started to become more eager and comfortable creating vertical short videos for the booming social media platform, as an effort to expand their customers to TikTok’s younger audiences.
Marketing and advertising on TikTok is showcased in different forms, but the most common is influencer marketing – or now “TikToker” marketing. Purchasing advertisements or promoting consecutive day advertisement challenges on TikTok comes at an expensive cost. Companies choose to build and create their own user profile on TikTok to promote their brand instead, just like on Instagram or Facebook.
- MAC Cosmetics, according to eMarketer, worked with three TikTok influencers in a hashtag challenge and ad campaign titled #YouOwnIt and over the six-day event, 635,000 videos were created with approximate 1.6 billion views.
TikTok is a challenge for modern advertising as it differs from longer Youtube ads and aims at catching the attention of it’s Gen Z users in the first couple of seconds – if it’s boring, I will just scroll down to the next video on my page. The best part about TikTok is the online word of mouth it creates, as users can share the videos they find interesting or funny with their friends via text message, other social media, or international messaging apps such as WhatsApp.
In addition, the increased hunger to ‘go viral’ or become ‘TikTok famous’ makes users more open to work with trends or become influencers, definitely, an advantage brand could use if smartly strategized.
For more information visit:
https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-marketing-trends-predictions-2020
