While youngsters were captivated by Snapchat , one of social media’s rising stars has carved out a place for herself in their virtual reality. In fact, at this time last year, TikTok had recorded more than a billion downloads. Mainly used by Generation Z, do brands see an opportunity to insert themselves into these platforms by trying to adopt their codes?
A young app like TikTok with such success holds huge potential for brands. This new way of offering content encourages them to be creative and often to collaborate with influencers who are already popular or who have become so on the new platform. To tell us about it, Laura Bélanger , digital media strategist at Dialekta and Maude Perreault , strategy co-president at the Nellie Marketing agency .
Two platforms, two measures
From the outset, brands have every interest in understanding the limits of each of the two platforms: “ Snapchat is mainly used for posting daily stories and exchanging content between friends. Through this application, users follow up on an already established conversation. As for TikTok , its main feature is entertainment. Moreover, its ability to filter content according to tastes and interests is one of the strengths of its algorithm, because the user can stay connected to it for a very long time,” explains Maude . As proof: while Snapchat users spend an average of 26 minutes a day there, those of TikTokspend an average of 52 minutes on the app daily.
Although TikTok is reaching the masses and Snapchat is more about interpersonal relationships, the two platforms have a common main objective: to generate engagement: “On Snapchat , advertisers have different options. For example, advertising can fit between snaps , but that’s kind of intrusive, which doesn’t work very well with Gen Z. Otherwise, brands have a choice to thrive on the Discovery page, which turns out a more natural experience for the user,” says Laura .
Good use of platforms
Brands that already use influencers on Instagram and YouTube have the potential to migrate users to TikTok and we’re seeing this happen more and more. Especially since the platform has developed a video creation tool offering a variety of templates to create videos from existing images and therefore allowing brands to create less polished and more spontaneous content,” says Laura . In doing so, to stay in the loop, in influence as well as in the media, the advertiser must act quickly between planning their tactics and putting them online,” says Maude .
TikTok and Snapchat are inherently better for brand awareness, although Snapchat offers relevant formats for conversion and has performance-specific campaign objectives. For their part, Facebook and Google have well-advanced algorithms that allow you to optimize specifically for conversion. In short, the first two have work to do to join the ranks of the other two giants in their marketing efforts.
The liability of advertisers
Maude reminds that advertising must not be intended for children under 13 or be presented with a concept addressed to them. Also, advertisers must make sure to respect broadcasting standards: “ TikTok is self- regulating. In this way, the limit is not fine between what passes or not. The platform systematically removes content considered inappropriate, such as any political reference from near or far, even if there is no clear opinion. Laura adds: “The platform is very strict. An ad approved on Snapchat could be rejected by TikTok ”.
Finally, advertising rules and conditions may change, especially on TikTok where advertising is still very recent. This also makes this platform a perfect place for advertisers who want to experiment.