How Can Brands Use TikTok Well?

Kicking off the second day of talks at the D&AD Festival 2023 was a panel based around the social media platform of the moment, titled: ‘TikTok’s Easy. Stop Overthinking It’. Joining the moderator, Amar Chohan from purpose-driven brand builder Moonshot Inc, was TikTok’s project director Stephanie Hulbert-Thomas, The Elements Music’s head of creative partnerships, Dann Liebermann and Whalar’s EMEA SVP of brand solutions, Olivia Stephens.

Amar led the conversations with the question, ‘How can brands use TikTok authentically?’ - resulting in a tongue-in-cheek groan from panellists and audience members alike. ‘Authenticity’ seems to be the industry’s current buzzword of choice, but despite the evident resentment for the term, it is a particular focus for marketers when discussing how to make a product or message connect with the consumer.

However, TikTok’s Stephanie Hulbert-Thomas believes that a different, reinvented mindset is required when brands use TikTok. “I hate the word authentic,” she said, “what TikTok offers is perspective.” Highlighting the myriad niches and communities on the platform - from ‘BookTok’ to ‘BeautyTok’ and beyond - she advised brands to “throw away the old playbooks”.

Building on this, Olivia added, “It’s not just the creator economy, it’s the community economy.” To succeed with the rise of the ‘community economy’, she said that brands need to forget about spreading one dilute message across channels and instead meet the consumers where they are - and where they are, is on TikTok, interacting with creators and their like-minded communities. “Creators are the vehicle, they are your key,” she said, explaining that brands can’t simply ‘fake it’ by dipping their toes in the medium when they like. Rather, they must live and breathe the trends and culture of the platform, utilising the existing two-way dialogue between creators and their audiences.

This was a point that The Elements Music’s Dann Liebermann reiterated, saying that advertising people and brands “have to spend time on the platform” in order to use it effectively, and to find the right talent to collaborate with. Agreeing, Stephanie added that exploring the platform for as little as five minutes to engage with the content and learn new trends is important - "It’s as simple as playing around.”

For Dann, the key is to be proactive and not reactive, a lesson learned after witnessing brands trying to capitalise on existing trends and popular formats on the app, only to find consumers tire of these quickly. Concisely summarising her preferred strategy, she said, “Find the right talent, empower and trust them.”

‘Letting the talent lead and trusting them’ is part of Dann’s favoured “talent-first” approach when working with creators on TikTok - as opposed to the alternative, and more traditional, “brief-first” strategy. Describing it as “unpredictable alchemy”, she said that it’s the responsibility of the brand’s creative partner to loosely shepherd the talent, but ultimately allow the brand to “go on a journey” with the creator and their audience.

Giving examples of this process in action, Stephanie shared how IKEA created a Swedish pop song for a TikTok campaign that went platinum, and she discussed a similar campaign for the 2020 Euros football tournament that involved creating a remix which also hit the charts. From her experience, the winning factors shared by all of these projects, from the aforementioned tracks to the much-discussed resurgence of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ following its use in ‘Stranger Things’, have been a combination of sound, culture, a relevant moment in time, and the right talent to work with.

And it's this final point that really stood out for all of the panellists - finding the right talent. 

Olivia said that it’s imperative to use talent as “creative directors” and “creative visionaries” - rather than finding TikTok influencers to be your “content machines”, and instead realising their power as “cultural communicators and translators”. She suggested that creators with aligned passions and values with the brand should be brought into the boardroom and the creative teams, as they know what’s currently trending and working on the platform, whether it be a hip new song or a growing trend. Stephanie even went as far as to say that TikTok has given rise to a new era of non-traditional creative, democratising the process and allowing anyone to create content customised especially for a specific audience. 

When searching for talent, Olivia added that it’s wise to look for people with loyal fanbases that engage in their content; commenting, sharing and stitching their own videos. Once the creator is on board, she said, it’s vital to give them creative freedom and add their own “tail-end personalisation” to the content, so it connects with the target demographic (for which the creator is an expert).

With the TikTok creator’s creative input - and not just their platform and voice - Dann said that a brand’s presence on the platform can be described as: “your brand on the weekend”. Explaining how the focus should be on engaging people in an entertaining way above all else, she said, “Don't think of it as selling at all. It’s by chance you sell a product." 

Steph elaborated, “If there were no rules, what would your brand do? How would you react to things?” Pointing out how the airline Ryanair and supermarkets Aldi and Tesco have adopted a “cheeky” and more informal personality on TikTok - to great effect - she continued, “Anybody can do that - test the waters and break down those boundaries to see how their audience reacts."

To push the envelope like these brands have and be effective on TikTok, Olivia said that brands “have to be intentional and sound-on”, stating that they need to do something unpredictable and memorable to succeed. The route to this, Dann agreed, is for brands to be intentional and identify their message first, then use that to influence which creators the campaign collaborates with - rather than “putting the talent in a box of what you want to work”. 

Stephanie concurred with her fellow panellists, saying that timid brands who struggle to overcome red tape will be left behind as TikTok and other creator-focused social marketing continue to progress. “Brands that do it well are fearless and risk-takers. People are afraid to take risks, but the ones succeeding are the ones taking risks." Taking TikTok creator partnerships, like Francis Bourgeois’ Gucci x North Face collaboration, as an example, she said that TikTok’s limitless creative potential allows brands to surprise consumers where they already exist. “Those unexpected moments of joy are what's important, the ones that don't embrace that will be left behind."

These perceived ‘risks’ are where companies like The Elements Music, Whalar and creative agencies with a “a safe pair of hands” come into play, added Dann. “To take risks and feel brave, you need the right talent and someone to shepherd you… someone who has the language to speak with artists and partners.” With experts experienced in communicating and negotiating with major label talent and high-profile creators, she explained that a trusted creative partner makes a brand’s journey into the world of TikTok a smoother and more effective process. “You don’t have to go it alone!”

Closing out the panel, Olivia doubled down on the necessity for brands to lean on their creative partners, as well as the TikTok creators themselves, to shape a campaign that resonates with the platform’s users and the specific niches they’re targeting. “Think culture-first and transcend old-school thinking.” To finish, Stephanie concluded with a call for brands to “be fearless” and to appreciate the power of a carefully curated, creator-led TikTok campaign.

“Not all trends become mainstream culture, but all mainstream culture starts as a niche trend.”