Exploding in popularity among Gen Z in 2020, many businesses predicted the short video fad wouldn't last. Boy, were they wrong.
With a whopping 1 billion active users in the final quarter of 2022 and 36% of TikTok users between 35-54 years old, virtually all brands can find their core customers on the platform. Read more about why short videos are the future in our previous blog post.
Here's how brands are using TikTok:
Native content
Nothing beats building trust and loyalty through owning your platform. Through investment, consistency and patience, you can grow your own audience and build further connections with existing and new customers.
UGC collabs
Many brands sponsor existing TikTok content creators to maximise their reach as paid collaborators when looking for quick results and immediate access to a massive audience. The key here is choosing an artist (because this is art) whose audience aligns with your core customer.
TikTok ads
Part of TikTok's appeal is enhanced user experience through minimal exposure to ads. TikTok is finding loopholes to offer more options to advertisers, such as search ads, which are currently in beta testing.
Here are some examples of brands that cemented their place in the collective human consciousness known as TikTok:
Duolingo
While TikTok is not ideal for call-to-action marketing, it's more than perfect for creating top-of-mind associations. Duolingo, a mobile app for learning languages, has achieved mass popularity through native content featuring fun, authentic and wholesome educational videos. Duolingo gained brand awareness through TikTok, which contributed to becoming the #1 educational app in the Apple App Store.
Goldeluck's
Through the pandemic, Melbourne's doughnut brand Goldeluck's reached an Australian-wide audience to power their delivery service. TikTok's algorithm loves consistent video uploads, and Goldeluck's advertising team kept dishing out behind-the-scenes, order-packing and making-of-product videos like hot doughnuts. This sort of transparency builds trust with the audience while showcasing the brand's personality.
Since TikTok is constantly evolving like some alien lifeform, every new year brings new growing trends with a fairly easy-to-predict rise to popularity. Here are some ways you can stay ahead of the curve in 2023:
Pocket-teacher
The too-cool-for-school types have been tricked into learning through TikTok's short-form learning trend. App's researchers predict that microlearning will see a huge boost this year. Now is the best time to educate your audience about your brand or a topic relevant to your brand. If you sell chips, you could post videos about the rich history of potatoes. Do you own a pet food company? Show your followers how to teach their dogs to do tricks with your premium quality snacks.
Joy is making a comeback
Depression is so 2020! According to TikTok's 2023 trend report, 50% of TikTok users said the platform makes them feel happy and more than a third said brands have to lift their spirits to motivate them to make a purchase. So ditch the Nine Inch Nails and slap some pop music onto your potato video.
Possibilities are limited only by imagination.
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