By Uwin Lugoda
TikTok has seemingly exploded from nowhere, becoming one of the most downloaded apps in the world. Released in 2016 as a video platform where people could share and edit videos that are between 15 and 60 seconds long, the app is currently present in over 150 countries, with over two billion downloads in both Google Play Store and the App Store.
Most recently, one user, US influencer Charli D’Amelio became the first person on the app to gain 100 million followers, just only a year and a half after joining the platform. The 16-year-old beat some of the biggest celebrities in the world, including Hollywood actors, YouTubers, and NBA (National Basketball Association of America) players; and showcased that almost anyone can become famous through the app.
As the newest social media trend, the app boasts an impressive 800 million monthly users worldwide and average daily usage of 52 minutes; the platform is almost on par with longstanding social media platforms like Instagram and has now caught the attention of brands and social media marketers.
This has led international brands to consider TikTok as a viable marketing tool to reach younger audiences. Fast food brands like Chipotle, a US-based franchise with a target market predominantly of 35-year-olds and above, used the app to make videos targeting a younger audience. The franchise has now gone to become a regular content creator on the platform, attracting a whole new target market.
The app has also spread across Sri Lanka like wildfire, with it penetrating several markets and districts in the country. The biggest surge in TikTok downloads in the country came last March following the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, as of November 2020, monetisation of the app is still not available for Sri Lankan users.
However this has not stopped local brands from getting in on the trend, as seen by Dettol, which initiated the “Dettol Handwash Challenge” with the hashtag #handwashchallenge, using local celebrities to make the challenge go viral. This eventually garnered the challenge, and indirectly the brand, over 118.1 billion views as of today.
“TikTok has become a social media sensation and is probably the seventh largest social media platform in the world. Since it doesn’t require high-resolution images or content made with high expenses, advertising on TikTok is an easy yet a tricky marketing tool,” said Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Executive Director Sanath Senanayake.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Senanayake stated that despite this, closer scrutiny may be required to recognise the platform as a credible source for brand building. He explained that small and medium-scale players who cannot tap into mainstream media can now use this platform strategically to promote their brands.
He stated that as TikTok is most popular among Millennials and Gen Z, it is an ideal platform to approach those who live and breathe social media.
“If your brand wishes to go viral, this buzzy app is one of the best ways. TikTok boasts more than two billion downloads from the Apple and Google App Stores and the users claim to be spending approximately 80 minutes on TikTok daily.”
Senanayake stated that the platform has attracted a huge community of content creators, and they come up with uniquely creative content that sets new trends on social media. In Sri Lanka, the popularity of TikTok has grown rapidly with various content that went viral during the recent past. With this growing usage of the platform, there’s a tremendous potential for brands to use TikTok as one of their brand communication platforms, with a twist.
According to him, apart from having the ability to create profound engagement, brands can curate user-generated content to elevate brand awareness. Moreover, brands also have the potential to generate more traffic and leads from a new audience.
“TikTok is a social media platform with the most opportunity to go viral and thus, it’s an advertising haven for brands. It is a platform which encourages simple yet engaging content created with a little or no budget, and does not require expert creative marketing or expensive equipment to generate content for TikTok, which makes this platform a great tool for any business irrespective of their financial capabilities.”
Senanayake explained that since people from across the country are active in the sphere of either creating content or watching content, TikTok can be used to approach both urban and rural niches, which sometimes are untapped. However, he stated that it is not right for every brand; while it is perfect for businesses that aim to reach a young digital-savvy audience, the brand personality should go hand in hand with light-hearted content without diluting brand equity.
“If you are open to something new and your products and services can easily be demonstrated through a short video, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try it out on TikTok as an advertising tool. The key point is that TikTok isn’t a weighty platform, but it works wonders for brands that create fun and visually pleasing content while following popular trends among the users of the platform.”
Finally, Senanayake advised local marketers to keep close tabs on online trends such as TikTok and to make use of them to strengthen the online presence of their brands. He explained that in many ways, digital marketing has proven it is indispensable to today’s marketers, and it is moving the marketing industry in a new direction filled with innovative technologies, social media connectivity, and limitless possibilities.
“During a time when a ‘fingertip society’ is emerging, and almost anything is just a click away, digital marketing has become a part and parcel of marketing. Digital marketing isn’t an option but a necessity in today’s dynamic world.”
"TikTok is currently the fastest-growing platform in the world right now, and products and services ideally targeted at the Gen Z and Millennial market, who are aged between 14 and 30, can have much better traction there than on any other social media platform" Blendmedia CEO/Co-founder Nipun Liyanapathirana [/caption]
Speaking to us, Blendmedia Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Co-founder Nipun Liyanapathirana stated that the reason people use TikTok is because it’s a short video-based platform, where they can create content in any way they like; they are only limited by their imagination. The app is all about promoting everyone to become a content creator; brands can use this as a new way to put themselves out there.
“TikTok is currently the fastest-growing platform in the world right now, and products and services ideally targeted at the Gen Z and Millennial market, who are aged between 14 and 30, can have much better traction there than on any other social media platform.”
He explained that the current digital advertising sector is used to a lot of scripted advertisements and high-end commercials, which consumers in that age group do not always relate to. He went on to point out that this is where TikTok stands out, as it is more raw and authentic for the consumers.
“Even if you take social media advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you see a lot of brands put out advertisements similar to what they would put out on TV. What this app has done is disrupted this social media advertising landscape, and now brands can activate themselves to a massive audience which is very young, at a much lower cost.”
Despite TikTok in Sri Lanka not being able to run ads, Liyanapathirana stated that the platform’s organic reach and engagement is really good for brands here. He stated that Tikable has already begun working with several brands in Sri Lanka such as Burger King, Spa Ceylon, and The Concept Store.
As of 18 November, TikTok has hit 1.5 billion total downloads across the App Store and Google Play, according to data from analytics site Sensor Tower. The platform hit one billion downloads in February of this year, and has raked in 614 million downloads so far this year.
This makes TikTok the third most downloaded app behind WhatsApp and Messenger, beating both Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, the marketing potential is immense. Will Sri Lankan brands pick up on it?
As the newest social media trend, the app boasts an impressive 800 million monthly users worldwide and average daily usage of 52 minutes; the platform is almost on par with longstanding social media platforms like Instagram and has now caught the attention of brands and social media marketers.
This has led international brands to consider TikTok as a viable marketing tool to reach younger audiences. Fast food brands like Chipotle, a US-based franchise with a target market predominantly of 35-year-olds and above, used the app to make videos targeting a younger audience. The franchise has now gone to become a regular content creator on the platform, attracting a whole new target market.
The app has also spread across Sri Lanka like wildfire, with it penetrating several markets and districts in the country. The biggest surge in TikTok downloads in the country came last March following the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, as of November 2020, monetisation of the app is still not available for Sri Lankan users.
However this has not stopped local brands from getting in on the trend, as seen by Dettol, which initiated the “Dettol Handwash Challenge” with the hashtag #handwashchallenge, using local celebrities to make the challenge go viral. This eventually garnered the challenge, and indirectly the brand, over 118.1 billion views as of today.
“TikTok has become a social media sensation and is probably the seventh largest social media platform in the world. Since it doesn’t require high-resolution images or content made with high expenses, advertising on TikTok is an easy yet a tricky marketing tool,” said Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Executive Director Sanath Senanayake.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Senanayake stated that despite this, closer scrutiny may be required to recognise the platform as a credible source for brand building. He explained that small and medium-scale players who cannot tap into mainstream media can now use this platform strategically to promote their brands.
He stated that as TikTok is most popular among Millennials and Gen Z, it is an ideal platform to approach those who live and breathe social media.
“If your brand wishes to go viral, this buzzy app is one of the best ways. TikTok boasts more than two billion downloads from the Apple and Google App Stores and the users claim to be spending approximately 80 minutes on TikTok daily.”
Senanayake stated that the platform has attracted a huge community of content creators, and they come up with uniquely creative content that sets new trends on social media. In Sri Lanka, the popularity of TikTok has grown rapidly with various content that went viral during the recent past. With this growing usage of the platform, there’s a tremendous potential for brands to use TikTok as one of their brand communication platforms, with a twist.
According to him, apart from having the ability to create profound engagement, brands can curate user-generated content to elevate brand awareness. Moreover, brands also have the potential to generate more traffic and leads from a new audience.
“TikTok is a social media platform with the most opportunity to go viral and thus, it’s an advertising haven for brands. It is a platform which encourages simple yet engaging content created with a little or no budget, and does not require expert creative marketing or expensive equipment to generate content for TikTok, which makes this platform a great tool for any business irrespective of their financial capabilities.”
Senanayake explained that since people from across the country are active in the sphere of either creating content or watching content, TikTok can be used to approach both urban and rural niches, which sometimes are untapped. However, he stated that it is not right for every brand; while it is perfect for businesses that aim to reach a young digital-savvy audience, the brand personality should go hand in hand with light-hearted content without diluting brand equity.
“If you are open to something new and your products and services can easily be demonstrated through a short video, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try it out on TikTok as an advertising tool. The key point is that TikTok isn’t a weighty platform, but it works wonders for brands that create fun and visually pleasing content while following popular trends among the users of the platform.”
Finally, Senanayake advised local marketers to keep close tabs on online trends such as TikTok and to make use of them to strengthen the online presence of their brands. He explained that in many ways, digital marketing has proven it is indispensable to today’s marketers, and it is moving the marketing industry in a new direction filled with innovative technologies, social media connectivity, and limitless possibilities.
“During a time when a ‘fingertip society’ is emerging, and almost anything is just a click away, digital marketing has become a part and parcel of marketing. Digital marketing isn’t an option but a necessity in today’s dynamic world.”
Local agencies
According to Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Digital in Sri Lanka Business Director Jason Wijesuriya, TikTok is great for advertisers, because of the way content gets discovered. Unlike other social media platforms, TikTok users do not need to have a large following to get their content seen by a lot of people. “TikTok also has a much better interaction rate between users thanks to its duet feature, which is a great advantage for clients looking to get their content shared organically across multiple people,” said Wijesuriya. He stated that he does not think that everyone in Sri Lanka still truly understands how to best utilise the platform as it is quite new. He explained that this is due to it only becoming truly urbanised and more popular islandwide during the initial lockdown in March. However, he expects people and brands to utilise it better as time goes on. “It’s exciting! It’s definitely interesting when new tools/technologies/platforms become more mainstream which leads to fresh concepts for brands. It’s also always fun to analyse the difference in consumer mindset across each channel and curate relevant content for it.” We also spoke to a newer agency, Tikable, which is Sri Lanka’s first TikTok-centric marketing agency dedicated to using the platform as a marketing tool to help brands reach out to Gen Z and Millennial consumers. The agency is an arm of Blendmedia, a marketing start-up that launched in 2018, that caters for 30 brands in both digital and traditional marketing. [caption id="attachment_87095" align="alignleft" width="300"] "TikTok is currently the fastest-growing platform in the world right now, and products and services ideally targeted at the Gen Z and Millennial market, who are aged between 14 and 30, can have much better traction there than on any other social media platform" Blendmedia CEO/Co-founder Nipun Liyanapathirana [/caption]
Speaking to us, Blendmedia Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Co-founder Nipun Liyanapathirana stated that the reason people use TikTok is because it’s a short video-based platform, where they can create content in any way they like; they are only limited by their imagination. The app is all about promoting everyone to become a content creator; brands can use this as a new way to put themselves out there.
“TikTok is currently the fastest-growing platform in the world right now, and products and services ideally targeted at the Gen Z and Millennial market, who are aged between 14 and 30, can have much better traction there than on any other social media platform.”
He explained that the current digital advertising sector is used to a lot of scripted advertisements and high-end commercials, which consumers in that age group do not always relate to. He went on to point out that this is where TikTok stands out, as it is more raw and authentic for the consumers.
“Even if you take social media advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you see a lot of brands put out advertisements similar to what they would put out on TV. What this app has done is disrupted this social media advertising landscape, and now brands can activate themselves to a massive audience which is very young, at a much lower cost.”
Despite TikTok in Sri Lanka not being able to run ads, Liyanapathirana stated that the platform’s organic reach and engagement is really good for brands here. He stated that Tikable has already begun working with several brands in Sri Lanka such as Burger King, Spa Ceylon, and The Concept Store.
As of 18 November, TikTok has hit 1.5 billion total downloads across the App Store and Google Play, according to data from analytics site Sensor Tower. The platform hit one billion downloads in February of this year, and has raked in 614 million downloads so far this year.
This makes TikTok the third most downloaded app behind WhatsApp and Messenger, beating both Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, the marketing potential is immense. Will Sri Lankan brands pick up on it?