Creativity at the service of brands on TikTok

With 800 million monthly active users, TikTok is breaking records for Gen Z downloads (but not only), even though the app, owned by ByteDance, has also found itself in the middle of a trade war. between Beijing and Washington and is the target of consumer complaints questioning its practices.

The platform, whose popularity is skyrocketing, of course attracts professionals, who want to take advantage of its virality and its panel of influencers, looking for another way to interact with their community.

Today it has become a very relevant channel for reaching the youngest Internet users. Marketers cannot ignore this if they want to target new consumers, and those of tomorrow.

Merci Handy, hygiene and cosmetics brand partner of Shopify, is one of TikTok’s “early adopters” in France, using it since 2019 in its social commerce strategy. “We are more on a content strategy, and we seek to have organically strong audiences,” explains Louis Marty, CEO and co-founder, at ZDNet. The content created can be related to brand news, or relate to a challenge.

Vybe, the neobank for adolescents launched just a year ago, has also quickly relied on TikTok to reach its core target. Its managing director and co-founder Vincent Jouanne admits that “it was not that easy to understand the trends” on this 100% video platform. Vybe calls on “ambassadors” to produce original content. The influencers selected have between “10,000 and 200,000 subscribers” to avoid targeting the biggest, less close to their community, says Vincent Jouanne.

Profitability at the rendezvous

Vybe sometimes also pushes some Ads when one content performs better than others. This technique is specific to the platform, because it is not always easy on TikTok to understand the success of a video. Hopes for an advertising campaign can quickly fade, as long as the formats do not match the spirit of the platform. “The cost of producing videos is very accessible, the risk is moderate”, relativizes Louis Marty.

Overall, it remains a very profitable social network for brands that are just getting started. “TikTok is very profitable, like Snapchat in its infancy,” confirms Vincent Jouanne. “CPMs on TikTok are very low today, because the platform encourages brands to get started. “

The platform’s success is also based on its algorithm, which adapts the content according to what each user is watching on their “FYP” feed (page for you). For Quentin Lemonnier, managing director of digital marketing agency Blinked, what really differentiates TikTok from other social networks is the notion of user generated content. To use TikTok, you have to put yourself in a “different mindset”, he argues. “On TikTok, creation represents 70 to 80% of the work. This medium is relevant as long as the content is suitable for the platform. “

Instagram aesthetics have no place

Unlike Instagram, TikTok users seek less aesthetics, but are fond of discoveries and entertaining content, more imbued with realism. “If you want to have a very polished image of your brand, it’s a very risky platform”, emphasizes Louis Marty.

To stand out, brands can also choose to place content in “Top View”, which remains a privileged location on the platform.

“At the start, there are extraordinary opportunities,” agrees Louis Marty. In the future, he observes that “competition and advertising saturation will necessarily increase prices”. The next wave, according to him, will be that of new formats, such as live commerce. “In France, we are late compared to what is being done in China. This is the new generation of teleshopping, ”he comments.