After the sudden surge in downloads during the 2020 lockdown and the infiltration of TikTok trends into other social media apps (and even everyday lingo!), the addictive short-form video app is officially here to stay. With over 700,000 New Zealanders downloading TikTok in 2021 and over 60,000 downloads in January 2022 alone, TikTok opens up a significant new consumer audience for brands to reach and engage with. WeAreTENZING has a range of talented TikTok creators who have spent time developing their craft and growing an engaged audience, and here’s how to best utilise TikTok creators to take your influencer marketing campaign to the next level.

Establish a presence on TikTok

First things first – before diving in head first to working with TikTok creators, ensure you have set up and established a branded account on the app, linking to other key brand channels (e.g. Instagram and website) and uploading regular content. This creates a clear pathway for your target audience on TikTok to discover and interact with your brand, and allows influencers to understand the brand voice.

Be selective in who you work with

The key to success with any influencer marketing campaign is to ensure you are working with the right creators who best align with your brand and target audience – as with any other social media platform, work with creators whose content, not just reach, amplifies your brand voice and values. Are you wanting to create entertaining and comedic content to increase positive brand perception? Torrell Tafa, Rebekah Randell, Lewis Clareburt and Louis Davis are known for creating hilarious skits that have the potential to go viral. Keen to reach a younger audience? Jazz Thornton, Jackie Cheng, Judah and David Jones have their finger on the pulse for all things Gen-Z. Danni Duncan creates relatable everyday content, and Jess Quinn uses her platform to normalise different bodies and build supportive communities. No matter your campaign objectives, WeAreTENZING can help you find the right influencer to align with your TikTok content strategy.

Trust the creator

TikTok is one of the fastest growing and rapidly changing social media platforms, with new trends emerging and dying each and every day. When it comes to planning influencer content, allow a comfortable level of flexibility for talent to create content that fits within the current trends and their unique style. With TikTok, gone are the days of planning content themes weeks in advance – you need to be prepared to pivot and allow the creator to create content that their audience will best respond to, working alongside them as the experts to create original TikTok content.

Jump on the trend bandwagon

While it feels like an impossible feat to know what will crack the TikTok algorithm, content is more likely to go viral and reach a wider audience when trending sounds, dances, hashtags or pop culture moments are used. TikTok content should be engaging and entertaining, so don’t be afraid to leverage trends to get your key messages across and make them stick. Jazz Thornton recently teamed up with Unite Against Covid-19 to share the message of staying home and getting tested over summer to prevent the spread of Covid-19 – this was effectively communicated to Jazz’s younger audience through a video of Jazz dancing to a trending Rod Stewart song that was a hit with the target audience at the time.

Approach TikTok uniquely

Brand content performs best on TikTok when influencers have been specifically briefed for the platform – repurposing campaigns that have been developed with TikTok as an afterthought runs the risk of the content not translating well. Influencer campaigns on TikTok need to be approached with a standalone strategy that utilises the style, trends and content production style that is unique to TikTok. Don’t be afraid to base campaigns off culturally relevant topics, and embrace the style of simplicity that TikTok is known for – the best campaign briefs should allow room for creativity and originality.

Need support with identifying talent for your TikTok campaign? Check out our talent here, or contact [email protected] and someone from our team will be in touch.