In 30 seconds:
- Going viral on TikTok isn’t enough to create meaningful brand awareness. To stand out for the right reasons, marketers must go further.
- How can you use the TikTok platform to grow brand reach whilst communicating brand identity – all in an engaging way?
- Our experts discuss ways to do this – plus, get more insights in our report.
In our recent Fanbytes LIVE event, we focused on how to maintain momentum and build a long term, consistent Gen Z marketing strategy on TikTok.
Part of our event was dedicated to using TikTok to generate mass brand awareness – and using this to attract target audiences, leave a lasting impression, and create genuine brand love.
In our first panel, we examined how brands can create a strong sense of their brand identity on TikTok, and utilise TikTok trends to grow brand reach whilst maintaining brand integrity. Afterwards, Fanbytes by Brainlabs’ Issy Selby and Tom Sweeney discussed how to take the right kinds of risks, and how to use awareness-boosting content to achieve commercial success.
Below is a snapshot of some of our top takeouts.
1. Identify the goal and positioning of your TikTok presence
Why is your brand on TikTok? If your answer is “because everyone else is”, you won’t stand out from the competition. Ella Light, Creative Content Manager, Wagamama explained, “the key point of Wagamama TikTok is to build brand love.” She explained its positioning is different from the brand’s other social media presences. “TikTok is the place where we showcase our personality. Twitter we use more as a customer service tool and Instagram and Facebook are where people get specific information.”
The way this message comes across will be different for each brand. Olivia Ter-Berg, Social Media Executive, Cineworld explained, “Cineworld is a very family friendly brand. It can’t be a sassy account like RyanAir. But there are so many other ways to be on TikTok.”
2. Lean into influencers’ strengths
When working with influencers for brand awareness campaigns, it can be tempting to impose the brand’s own style on the creator. However, allowing the influencer to create content in their own style gets better results. Pretty Munro, Global Marketing Director, Unidays said, “we always try to keep the content authentic to their style.” Olivia from Cineworld added, “you don’t have to post every creator’s video on your page. In one event we did, we had over 60 creators posting on their individual pages. Then we handpicked the best to post on our own page.” This is a great way to create content that feels authentic to influencers’ audiences whilst remaining brand safe.
3. Focus on native content
When capturing the attention of TikTok users, marketers should seek to use TikTok-native content. After all, users are on TikTok because they like TikTok: disrupting the experience is more likely to end up with the user scrolling away rather than being interested in your brand. Ella from Wagamama noted, “it’s definitely a platform where the more native the content the better it performs” and Pretty from UNiDAYS added, “humour is so key on TikTok. That’s the way to speak to the passion, pain points and shared experiences of our audience.”
4. Personify your brand to take the right risks
Marketers on TikTok know that riskier content can perform very well for growing reach, as users enjoy the humorous element and share it with their networks. However, very few risks are entirely brand safe. It can be difficult for brands to clarify where to take risks with their content – but Issy Selby, Senior Account Manager, Fanbytes by Brainlabs advised that taking a ‘personal’ approach will help. “You’ve got to view each brand as having their own brand personality – and if you put that personality in a person, no one person is successfully controversial about every single issue … Take the risks that are right for that person. The risks one brand makes will be different from another’s.”
5. Join the right trends - and always add to them
Brands must join TikTok trends early to ride the wave of their growth, and adding an original spin can make the video more memorable. Issy also described how joining the right trends and tying them back to a brand message in a creative way is becoming ever more important on TikTok. “It’s a crowded space – and no one’s more bored on TikTok than when you’re scrolling through every single post and they’re having the same ‘hot’ take”.
With TikTok trends, your competition isn’t just other brands: it’s other TikTok users. Brands need to examine what more they can bring. “What are you doing to subvert the trend? How is your take a fresh take? That’s when you’re going to perform a lot better.” Issy explained.
6. If you’re not joining a trend, create one
Exclusively waiting for a relevant trend to hop on certainly won’t meet all a brand’s commercial goals. TikTok marketers must create campaign-led content to support wider marketing activities; but, Issy highlighted, this should always be done with an eye to what could make this content trend. “When you are producing original content on TikTok, it also has to be a trend. Think like a creator – think ‘how do I start this trend? What can we do that other people might want to pick up?’ You’re not going to get it right every time, but when you do, original content has the power to be absolutely huge.”
7. Don’t underestimate the power of audio
Brands who aren’t using sound in their TikTok videos are missing an extraordinary opportunity. Users experience sound on TikTok as “fun” at a 66% higher rate than they do on other platforms, and 88% of TikTok users say sound is essential to the TikTok experience. However, using sound isn’t always simple for brands – especially when it comes to licensed music. Issy explained, “There aren’t many simple routes to turn around a music licence in the time it would take for you to jump on a trend.” However, Tom Sweeney, Head of Creative Strategy, Fanbytes by Brainlabs clarified useful alternatives: “use original sound audio posted by creators themselves on the platform” or “create your own custom sounds … I’ve got some musicians I work with to create original sounds, so that’s a great approach.”
Get more of our TikTok advice
TikTok isn’t just a great way to build brand awareness – it can supercharge your marketing campaigns across the entire customer journey.
Our event, ‘My Brand Went Viral on TikTok – Now What?’ covered awareness, consideration, conversion and advocacy, examining how brands can use TikTok to transform their relationships with consumers – and even be part of the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon.
Read the full event takeouts by clicking the button below.
Rethinking your TikTok marketing activities
TikTok has transformed over the past few years, with a wide variety of brands, content and marketing solutions available – and it’s revolutionised the social media landscape along with it. Not only are we seeing a widespread shift to short-form video as other platforms attempt to keep up with TikTok’s impressive engagement rates – TikTok has completely changed the way consumers view social media, too.
TikTok’s content recommendations are not based around your social network. It’s based on your interests. This means that the way users connect with brands is entirely different. Rather than being accessed as brand-first, personality-second, TikTok creates a space to connect via humour, values and experiences first, allowing brands a new access point to reach key audiences.
This is not the only way that TikTok is democratic: 83% of all TikTok users have created their own video, meaning that it’s a space for creativity as well as consumption. Amongst many other things, this means users can play a more demonstrative role in the consumer journey.
TikTok is enabling a new customer journey
Phenomena such as #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt and even trends like #BinleyMegaChippy, where TikTok users fell in love with a Chip shop jingle enough to visit the establishment in Coventry (causing sales to go “through the roof”) mean that brand love can take on a new meaning on TikTok.
We’ve unlocked this ourselves, including our TikTok influencer campaign for MAC’s MacStack Mascara, which led to the product becoming the best-selling mascara in the UK.
To truly create meaningful – and long-lasting – awareness on TikTok, all the ingredients must be in place to capture users’ attention and communicate who you are – but also take into account who your audience is, and how they engage with your content. This user behaviour is very different to other social media platforms: on TikTok, it’s more interactive and egalitarian.
But if you get it right, going viral won’t just mean short-term success: it’ll fuel long-term brand growth and revenue.
Now what?
Check out our event takeouts from ‘My Brand Went Viral on TikTok – Now What?’ for a fuller picture of our advice from the day.
Alternatively, get in touch to find out more about how Fanbytes by Brainlabs can deliver stand-out TikTok marketing for your brand, from influencer marketing services, to TikTok account growth, content creation and full-funnel TikTok marketing strategies.
Want to read more of our advice for growing your business on TikTok? Check out our articles below:
