Numerous brands have stepped outside their typical audience groups to reach communities with niche interests who found homes on TikTok. In 2022, for example, Gucci went beyond high fashion by collaborating with TikTok trainspotter Francis Bourgeois.
And for last year’s Super Bowl, CeraVe partnered with actor Michael Cera—who is not on social media—and influencers outside of skincare, like podcaster Bobbi Althoff, to build buzz weeks before its ad even aired.
Moving at breakneck speed
The ability to go viral on TikTok instantaneously has led to an endless cycle of fleeting trends that marketers must keep pace with by speeding up the creation process significantly.
“The hype cycle got faster and faster,” Archer said. Over a handful of weeks last year, Brat Summer gave way to Demure Fall, forcing brands from Verizon to Zillow to move at breakneck speed to produce relevant TikTok content.
To enable this faster way of working, Henry said he and his AMV BBDO colleagues set up WhatsApp groups with their clients and corporate affairs teams “to be able to react to something in two hours versus two weeks.”
“[Before TikTok], brands’ systems were a bit slower, and there was a lower threshold of risk that they were willing to tolerate,” Walters said. “[Since TikTok], a lot of brands and CMOs have loosened up and put more trust in their teams.”
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the ban, some marketers overwhelmed by the pace and amount of content they need to feed a presence on TikTok may breathe a “sigh of relief,” Walters said.
