7 Key strategies for leveraging TikTok to expand your brand - Part II
With the year 2024 right around the corner, there's a unanimous consensus that TikTok is no longer exclusively for young audiences—it's a platform for everyone. It is imperative for marketers to harness it to avoid missing out on its potential.
In this publication, we delve into the most discussed TikTok trends that have piqued the curiosity of marketers. We share our proprietary research and analysis, coupled with our recommendations on how brands can position their TikTok strategies in the coming year and beyond.
4. Longer Content = More Revenue
Competition for attention in the digital world is high, and TikTok is raising the bar every day.
As Meg Jing Zeng, a TikTok researcher at the University of Zurich, points out, the shift towards longer-format videos on TikTok has potential to be particularly lucrative in 2023.
As some platforms transition to shorter-form videos, TikTok is extending its time limits in order to capture as much attention as possible. Starting with 15-second videos, the platform quickly moved to 60-seconds, then to three-minutes, and now 10 minute-long videos. By allowing for more ads to be shown within longer videos, TikTok can attract more traditional advertisers, generating significantly more ad revenue.
Additionally, longer videos may help TikTok increase its market share, setting itself apart from competitors with shorter video formats, and potentially attracting a new demographic of users.
What does all this mean for brands?
There will be an opportunity to create more interactive, immersive ad experiences through quizzes, polls and other elements, as well as utilize longer videos to tell more in-depth, informative stories about products or services. The TikTok algorithm will be able to serve longer videos to users based on their interactions, potentially allowing for more permutations in content variety.
[ 7 key strategies for leveraging TikTok to expand your brand - Part I ]
5. TV Ads Disguised as TikToks
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, TikTok is certainly singing a happy tune, because even big production TV ads are starting to look a lot more like TikToks.
TikTok’s bite-sized content and raw storytelling has proven to be so engaging it looks like the next phase in this content revolution is bringing the edgy, vertical screen format to more traditional broadcast and OTT placements.
Once upon a time, the perfected aesthetic of glossy commercials and ads were the gold standard in the creative world. New forms of media challenged this traditional “creative ideal” when they popularized the raw and unfiltered content style, redefining the media landscape with “the TikTok aesthetic” and changing the way we think about culture.
This shift represents a broader cultural shift, as we see brands such as Paycom and Tractor Supply Company producing their own TikTok-style ads and commercials for TV. Advertisements featuring the same elements of authenticity, nostalgia and humor have gained significant attention and success, such as Frito-Lay's Super Bowl ad featuring dancing animals set to Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It."
As we see “mainstream” media embracing what’s once considered an online subculture for kids, there’s a sense that TikTok has arrived.
6. TikTok + Instagram Reels: The Crossover You Didn't Know You Needed
The one-two punch provided by TikTok and Reels has become an asset to creators and brands alike. After TikToker @1corporatemillennial (@elly__manuel on Instagram) cross-posted a TikTok video for one of Popcorn Growth’s client on Instagram Reels, the video was organically boosted by Instagram’'s algorithm, resulting in a video with 17M organic views despite having only around 45k followers on the platform. The same video on TikTok has 2M views, where she has 84.4k followers.
Why should brands take advantage? For one reason, the Instagram algorithm boosts Reels more than any other type of content. Case in point: the NFL teams' Reels generated 67% more engagement than their traditional Instagram videos. This is a prime opportunity for brands to amplify the success of their TikTok videos, establish leadership in new areas of growth and engage with a wider audience.
Join forces with TikTok and Reels and see where the magic happens!
[The inside scoop from DSN’s first Inside Beauty Forum]
7. TikTok Reigns, Short-form Video Rules
At the end of the day, the secret sauce behind TikTok’s success is made from the same ingredients behind every other platform rushing to emulate them: short-form video content.
Short-form video content is set to dominate, across all media platforms. Trends get set and content goes viral on TikTok; the content gets shared on Instagram, where Millennials go to watch TikTok videos. Eventually, the content lives into perpetuity in the abyss of Youtube.
The goal is to meet consumers where they are, with the short-form content they long for. Whether that’s through DOOH advertising, television, or in the palm of their hands, it’s all about catering to the audience.