TikTok Campaign Critique

TikTok Campaign Critique

Introduction 

The purpose of this paper  is to analyze Tik Tok's biggest-ever advertising campaign (TikTok 2019), which is a campaign to celebrate and highlight the impact that TikTok's community has had on culture and society, by becoming a ubiquitous part of everyday life, and for bringing joy, entertainment, and humor to everyone. Various avenues, including TV, radio, online, and social media channels, including events, were utilized for the campaign, which began on 18th August 2019. Having started in August 2019 in the United States, the campaign then expanded to countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, as well as Canada over the next few months. This campaign critique will be conducted following TikTok's recent debate on the government's ban on national security concerns (Williams 2020). Since its launch as Douyin in 2016 in China (Mohsin 2121), TikTok has become the #1 rated video-sharing social media app, enabling users to create short videos with sound effects, music, filters, and stickers. Although TikTok and Douyin use the same software and maintain separate networks, both companies comply with Chinese censorship restrictions (Mohsin 2021). Nevertheless, Republicans and Independents are currently involved in more disputes concerning TikTok, while Generation Z, X and baby boomers oppose its ban. In this regard, TikTok (Davis 2020) raises distinct questions about how private business and politics align in China. Therefore, I will present a critique of the design of ‘It Starts on TikTok,’ evaluating how successfully it built a positive brand image among the target public, as well as analyzing how the mixed communication methods TikTok uses allow for effective relationship marketing. 

As part of the "It Starts on TikTok" campaign’s goals and objectives, the TikTok community was celebrated as an influential part of American culture, and their impact was celebrated to entice more users to the platform (TikTok 2019). In addition to developing its brand identity and aligning it with its image, TikTok set out to maintain its fun, creative and authentic image. The campaign was designed to showcase TikTok's untold stories of people who have become influential through the application (Spangler 2020). Thus, TikTok intends to reach a much broader audience by highlighting some of the most recognized online trends, as well as demonstrating the role TikTok plays in bringing people together and will continue to play in the daily lives of hundreds of millions of users. 

Target Audience 

Campaign target audiences were all members of the TikTok community, from creators, live streamers, and fans, to commenters (TikTok 2019). The arrival of TikTok has also given rise to a new generation of social media influencers that no longer exclusively target the young, showing that TikTok is an app for everyone. Using the hashtag #ItStartsOnTikTok as will be discussed in this critique, TikTok utilized direct online marketing to appeal to this market through effective brand communication and online social media marketing. 

The TikTok campaign was planned to be executed across TV, digital, online, and social media channels to help raise brand awareness, as Armstrong (2020) noted. Similarly, TikTok was executing television commercials during prime time to ensure a wide reach of consumers by spreading potential impressions throughout the country. According to TikTok's own description, 'Celebrating You' (TikTok 2019), they target a segmented market of TikTok creators. As part of this campaign, each newsroom for TikTok's different versions published an article targeting this particular audience. 

Strategies and Techniques Used 

Campaign participants broadly segmented their audience into existing TikTok users and new potential users. TikTok hashtags were used to target existing users while television commercials, digital video advertisements, out-of-home and digital out-of-home advertisements, and social media advertisements (Green 2020) were used to target new users. With this segmentation, TikTok reached the greatest number of users possible, which aligns with its goals.  Localized campaigns such as  “It Starts on TikTok” are examples of global campaigns (Davis 2020). TikTok initially rolled out the campaign in the United States by creating a 30-second video to promote its brand anthem, "Celebrating You". Later TikTok expanded its campaign to global markets, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. 

To localize the campaign, other TikTok versions utilized the marketing strategy of the TikTok global brand, including the banner advertisement and the video, as well as the local song and artists to adapt the TikTok branding. Two key tactics employed were implementing the hashtag #ItStartsWithTikTok throughout TikTok's social media accounts in all countries, including TikTok's official account, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (Spangler 2020) and streaming TV commercials across television networks. TikTok chose to show the commercials during prime time to maximize audience reach. Aside from partnerships with radio stations and streaming services like Spotify, the campaign also made use of out-of-home displays. 

Execution 

In the execution of the “It Starts on TikTok” campaign, TikTok used the tools of advertising, hashtag challenges, and public relations. 

• Advertising 

 TikTok used a variety of forms of advertising in the 'It Starts on TikTok' campaign. A 60-second anthem was the main advertising feature, which is a video advertisement that runs for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and finally 60 seconds. Soundtracked with the song "Sing to Me" by Walter Martin featuring Karen O, the brand anthem summarizes stories of TikTok stars as well as popular songs and trends of today's most popular internet culture (Spangler 2020). YouTube, Hulu, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, as well as TikTok's official accounts, streamed these advertisements. Secondly, to reach local audiences, TikTok ran TV commercials on ABC, NBC, TNT and other major networks.  Commercials for TikTok can be seen during prime time, giving TikTok a unique and creative opportunity to reach new users. 

Third, TikTok has partnered with radio stations such as iHeartMedia and Radio 1Xtra (TikTok 2019) to reach audiences and promote the brand. Finally, TikTok partnered with a PR firm Proof, public relations firm Known, and brand experience company AKcelo (Cheik-Hussein 2020) to provide media planning services to local TikTok creators. Consequently, the campaign was made known through video advertisements to existing TikTok users, while potential users heard about it through television, internet, and radio advertising. 

• Hashtag Challenge

 Users of TikTok are encouraged to create and share content through hashtag challenges, which in turn promotes user engagement. “It Starts on TikTok” has the same hashtag as the campaign's name, however, this campaign is different from the standard hashtag challenges in which users must follow the official challenge content. Instead, users can create their content by only using the official hashtags. Due to the fact that TikTok didn't limit the content of the videos under the hashtag challenges, they ranged from memories of happy moments to videos about family love. During a given period, a banner was placed on Tiktok's "explore" page, where all video clips with the hashtag were found (Eisenbrand & Peterson 2019). As such, TikTok continues to interact with and reach out to current users while exploring new opportunities for prospective users without restricting their interests. 

• Public Relations

 TikTok's official website issued a press release that attracted the majority of news coverage about the campaign. Among the agencies that covered the press release were Proof, Known, AKcelo, Mobile Marketing, and Variety (Total readership 120K), and Insider (readership 660K) in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. 

Effectiveness 

In my opinion, I believe “It Starts on TikTok” was moderately successful, because it was the company's first advertising campaign, and downloaded numbers ranged from 55 to 66 million per month (Business of Apps 2021). In order to raise its brand awareness and increase its user base through this campaign, TikTok employed various advertising tools effectively during the campaign. As such, TikTok prioritized social media, streaming platforms, TV commercials, radio broadcasts and media releases as brands' contact points, engaging users online and using hashtags to connect with them in a way that strengthened users' impressions of the campaign, as these helped to cement users' experiences of the campaign. 

Another feature that set TikTok apart was that it localized the campaign in each city. TikTok was able to integrate itself into local pop culture with the help of local artists and local songs, giving its users a sense of belonging, and allowing users to appreciate the fact that it had taken their preferences into account. There was a lot of positive media coverage of the campaign, with headlines such as: 'biggest-ever ad campaign', 'new integrated marketing campaign', 'biggest ad campaign so far', 'love letter', 'commitment to nurture an environment where talent, ideas and creativity can flourish', 'I love the creative direction', and 'I am interested in the unique approach to advertising being taken'.                        

References

Cheik-Hussein 2020, TikTok rolls out first brand campaign in Australia, including primetime TV ads. AdNews. (2020). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.adnews.com.au/news/tiktok-rolls-out-first-brand-campaign-in-australia-including-primetime-tv-ads 

Davis, R. (2020, August 15). Donald Trump's ban on TikTok: What you need to know about the controversy. Variety. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/donald-trump-ban-tiktok-bytedance-1234731011/ 

Peterson, R. E. & S., & RE&SP Author Roland Eisenbrand & Scott Peterson Author Roland Eisenbrand & Scott PetersonAll Articles of Roland Eisenbrand & Scott Peterson. (n.d.). Inside the most successful ad campaign ever on Tiktok: #YouOwnIt. Daily EN. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://omr.com/en/daily/tiktok-hashtag-challenge-youownit/ 

Powell, C. (2020, November 2). Tiktok launches First Canadian Ad Campaign. The Message - A new voice for a new age of Canadian marketing. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://the-message.ca/2020/10/09/tiktok-launches-first-canadian-ad-campaign/

 Spangler, T. (2020, August 18). Tiktok launches biggest-ever ad campaign as its fate remains cloudy. Variety. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/tiktok-advertising-brand-campaign-sale-bytedance-1234738607/#! Tiktok launches 'it starts on TikTok' via Akcelo, first local campaign in Australia. 

Campaign Brief. (2020, September 21). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://campaignbrief.com/tik-tok-launches-first-australian-campaign-it-starts-on-tiktok-via-akcelo/ TikTok. (2019, August 16). It starts on TikTok. Newsroom. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/it-starts-on-tiktok 

Tiktok revenue and Usage Statistics (2021) - business of apps. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from http://www.idundke.com/index-217.html 

Williams, R. (2020, August 20). TikTok debuts US ad campaign, while survey finds most Americans support ban. Marketing Dive. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.marketingdive.com/news/tiktok-debuts-us-ad-campaign-while-survey-finds-most-americans-support-ban/583837/