The brand

marketer’s guide
to making a splash
on TikTok
Every day, TikTok becomes a more important platform for brands to be on. It’s
no longer just a way to gain recognition from a younger audience -- TikTok has
proven itself as a vehicle to propel a company into the zeitgeist.

With that, brand marketers and retailers alike are trying to figure out their best
way in. There is no one size fits all model, but there are some clues about best
practices. This guide looks at some tactics used over the last year, analyzing
what made them work on the TikTok platform.

In this guide, Modern Retail will:

Map out how brands go viral on Provide case studies diving into
TikTok, looking into the various what made certain posts/campaigns
elements that helped a certain resonate with millions of viewers
campaign really work

Look at how bigger brands Analyze how TikTok is

retailers are changing the TikTok professionalizing the platform,
strategies -- including behemoth making it less of destination to get a
retailers like Walmart company’s name out there and more
of a place to sell products

01
Introduction:
The evolution of TikTok
as a marketing and
commerce platform

Last April, during the height of the Facebook and Google. But TikTok has
pandemic Levi’s decided to take a emerged over the last year-plus as Earlier this year, a performance
chance on a then-burgeoning social a way to not only get more eyeballs, marketing agency said that it
platform: TikTok. The apparel brand but also increase sales. allocated 5% of its advertising
decided to run some shoppable ads, spend to TikTok, compared
trying to reach TikTok’s core users of In this Modern Retail guide, you will to 75% toward Facebook and
Gen Z. learn about the evolution of brands’ Instagram. But, this agency
TikTok strategies. What used to be a added that if the app continued
Levi’s ran posts featuring influencers simple playbook -- go viral and hope investing in e-commerce
filmed at a pop-up even held at the that leads to sales -- has become a advertising features, that number
time. Each ad included a shoppable more nuanced approach. Brands are would increase to 20%.
link. At the time, Levi’s said that both trying to engineer their own
product views for each of the items shareable moments, as well as work
listed on the campaign doubled. with influencers to find the best to
reach new audiences. TikTok’s Chinese counterpart
“If you were to compare TikTok Douyin hints at the possibilities.
to Instagram to Snapchat — you This comes as TikTok continues to According to eMarketer, between
would see very different consumer grow. In October of 2020, the app 2019 and 2020, the value of
journeys,” Brady Stewart, managing recorded more than 732 million products sold on Douyin tripled
director for Levi’s U.S. direct-to- monthly active users, with over 100 hitting $72.44 billion.
consumer business, told Modern million coming from the U.S.
Retail at the time. “The brands that
are doing it well … are figuring out TikTok specifically is a platform
how to create unique experiences on retailers are keeping a close eye
each channel.” on. Particularly as the app, which
is owned by the Chinese company
This test was emblematic of a brand ByteDance, has been making
marketing strategy shift. Before, commerce and advertising inroads
the channels that mattered were over the last year.

02
With this growth has come cultural than 70 million views. As a result, engine. The company, said Ocean
acceptance and ubiquity. Perhaps Fleetwood Mac’s music downloads Spray CEO Tom Hayes, is now “trying
the best example of TikTok’s power skyrocketed and people reported to move the brand to be a little
comes from Ocean Spray. A user cranberry juice flying off shelves. more edgy, and to be a little more
of the app, a man named Nathan attractive to the younger consumer.”
Apodaca, took a video of himself Ocean Spray responded to this
riding a skateboard while drinking sudden entrance into the spotlight, This shift is industry-wide. Read on to
Ocean Spray cranberry juice by making videos with Apodaca, learn how brands are handling it.
and listening to Fleetwood Mac. even giving him a car. And it is now
Apodaca’s video accrued more treating TikTok as a real growth

How brands For Ocean Spray, the virality was a

surprise. The company itself didn’t
their own virality. It’s a difficult code
to crack, but becoming a more
even make the video. But other important part of the marketing
go viral in brands are actively trying to make
their own shareable content at scale.
playbook. Below are a few examples
of brands seeking out their own

TikTok Indeed, a growing number of

virality.

companies are trying to engineer

03
Case Study: A mental health-themed card game
may not appear to be the most
million likes. A recent analysis of
how DTC brands use TikTok from
shareable type of TikTok content. the newsletter Nexttbrand ranked
We’re Not But that’s just what We’re Not
Really Strangers has been doing.
WRNS as the 21st most popular
company in its ranking — behind

Really The game over the last year has

much more established names like
Colourpop and celebrity brands like

Strangers become a TikTok darling, amassing

3.3 million followers and nearly 118
Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics.

There are a few

themes to the way The company focuses on the WRNS has figured out a way to get
shareability of the content, not on its name out, despite the fact that
WRNS approaches
promoting its own products. The the product itself isn’t tailor-made
its content: tone is ephemeral and universal. to go viral. A growing number of
A recent post that amassed over brands -- from WRNS to the candle
216,000 views plays a Lana Del Rey company Homesick -- have focused
song, shows a couple kissing and on crafting content around a feeling
asks in text “how would u describe or theme, hoping to tap into a more
the feeling of being in love in one universal zeitgeist. Much of WRNS’s
word?” The video received over content is around mental health
2,300 comments. and self-care -- both of which are
popular topics on TikTok.

Spontaneity is key, according to While the content doesn’t usually

the company. The company told link to a product, that doesn’t
Modern Retail that it doesn’t have mean items don’t sell. According
a quota or set amount of videos it to WRNS, one viral TikTok video
comes up with. The game’s small catapulted sales of a particular
social team is constantly supplying product up 950% compared to the
the posts. While at times they day before.
might informally solicit and pitch
ideas for the next batch of videos,
Jessica Potts, the company’s VP of
digital and e-commerce said that
often their posting ideas arrive on
their own schedule. “Sometimes
it’s at midnight and I get a text like,
‘okay, I have an idea,’” Potts said.
“We flesh it out together really
quickly, and then it’s up.”

04
How Beyond making home-grown
content, brands are increasingly
the apparel retailer was bringing
the item of clothing back. What’s
partnering with creators and more, the company also launched
brands use influencers as a marketing strategy.
Gap, for example, recently did this
a crowdsourcing campaign, asking
TikTok users to vote on the next piece

influencers with a campaign focused on a ‘90s

brown hoodie. The company saw
of apparel to resurrect.

on TikTok that this product -- which hadn’t

been sold since the early ‘00s -- was
“We’ve been responding in real time
to Gap product trends we’ve seen on
gaining traction on TikTok. In fact, TikTok,” Mary Alderete, global head
the #gaphoodie hashtag received of marketing at Gap, told Modern
more than 5.8 million views to date. Retail. “When we reposted Barbara’s
original photo of her rocking the
To ride this wave, Gap partnered ‘90s Vintage Brown Hoodie, we saw
with influencer Barbara Kristofferson amazing feedback from our followers
-- who originally posted about and the media.”
the hoodie -- to promote that

Case Study: But that’s not the only way to

use influencers. Some brands are
Over 500 employees are part
of the Spotlight program, and
making social media stars out of Walmart asks them to post on
Walmart their own employees. Walmart, for
example, has been building out an
social networks like TikTok. Some
of the posts promote the retailer’s
army of its own TikTok employee services, like its subscription
ambassadors through a program program Walmart+. Others are
called Spotlight. on the sillier side, like videos of
employees taping their store
manager to a pole.

Walmart grows its employee The retailer doesn’t compensate all

ambassador base with its own of its influencers, but does reward
internal marketing. The company top performing ones for certain
has programs like podcasts that campaigns.
interview other employees and
talks about the growing social
program.

05
With that, Walmart is increasingly While Spotlight still remains a small
using Spotlight participants for program, Walmart has hinted that
brand partnerships. Last November, it has big ambitions for it. “We very
Walmart introduced a partnership much want to continue to grow
with action figure brand Funko: and evolve [the Spotlight program],
Spotlight influencers were asked to and one day make it available to
make posts with Funko products, all 1.5 million associates,” said Jeff
according to Orlick, and the top Zilberman, the vice president of
10 posts (based on an algorithm client services at Brand Networks,
that measures engagement) on one of the retailer’s intranet
received $200 each in cash. Other podcasts.
challenges are higher paid. For a
new challenge that Walmart posted
with the hoverboard brand Hover-1,
the top prize is $1,000.

Walmart’s TikTok strategy is unique thin air. That’s why other companies (Provided answers include: “I want
from other retailers’ playbooks in are making their own portals to to experience as much as possible
that it tries to build its own talent recruit TikTok influencers rather throughout life and embrace the
from the ground up. It has a leg than rely on third-party agencies. unknown” and “Life is trial and
up from smaller competitors given West Elm’s latest influencer portal error. Don’t fear learning and
its employee base of millions of seeks to find more niche social sometimes failing in the process”.)
people. But what makes Walmart’s media users with rabid follower
Spotlight program even more bases. While brands are taking different
interesting is that it begins as an approaches to recruiting their
internal morale program -- a way The Williams-Sonoma-owned own talent, the aims are the same.
for employees to share what they furniture retailer told Modern Retail They are looking for people who
like about the company. Then, it that it was specifically looking for can speak authentically to their
becomes public facing -- giving “everyday creators” to rep its brand. audiences and have the ability
these enthusiastic workers a That is, West Elm is hoping to tap to go viral in unexpected ways.
platform to post about their job. into micro-influencers to post about As TikTok continues to invest in
specific facets of its brand. shoppable ads and e-commerce,
Walmart isn’t the only brand seeking that makes it possible for them to
out employees for TikTok posts. For West Elm, how it figures out tie commerce with reach. “We’re
Dunkin, for example, has what it which creators to use depends a lot seeing a blending of big media
calls a Crew Ambassador program on whether the tone and culture programs and a blending of
that enlists workers with large social match. For the influencer program’s traditional influencer programs,”
media followings to post about their self-serve application, the company said Igor Vaks, founder and CEO of
job. asks potential partners to connect the influencer marketing platform
their social media accounts as well CreatorIQ.
Of course, not every brand can as answer questions like “What
create employee influencers out of mantra accurately describes you?”

06
How the
business
dynamics
are changing
While brands begin to figure out the biggest users promoting these from a demographic, it’s increasingly
their TikTok strategies, the platforms hashtags have inked deals with becoming a way to facilitate
aren’t remaining static. Over the brands or retailers to get a cut of the purchases. In short, the platforms
last year leading social media apps commerce revenue. This has been are adding a new monetizations
have made huge changes to better a well-trod playbook for years. On element to retailers’ and brands’
facilitate commerce -- and these Instagram, services like Linkinbio marketing strategies. “There is
upgrades have big ramifications for were created so that influencers huge untapped potential in social
brand marketing. could easily link out to products they commerce for retailers and creators
recommended. across the spectrum,” said Natalie
Perhaps the most important shift Silverstein, chief innovation officer
is the number of platforms trying But now, platforms like Instagram at the influencer marketing agency
to facilitate commerce inside the and even TikTok are trying to keep Collectively.
apps. Before, a TikTok campaign was the commerce inside their own walls.
often focused on simply making an Instagram, for example, has been For now, most brands are still in their
impression with users, or getting building out its own affiliate network experimental phase with TikTok,
a user to click a link to buy on a whereby influencers can get a cut but concrete strategies are forming.
marketplace like Amazon. The for products they promote so long as And taking lessons from the big
strategy was to go viral. they’re purchased inside Instagram. names like Dunkin, Walmart and
And TikTok has been playing around Gap, marketers are rethinking the
For example, some influencers with its own marketplace-like way they launch TikTok campaigns.
are using their TikTok accounts features, but most remain in beta. Over the next year, the platform
to promote Amazon affiliate will continue to grow -- and the
links. A number of hashtags have But all of these new dimensions commerce possibilities will continue
become very popular, including make for big changes in the brand to expand.
#AmazonFinds, #FoundItOnAmazon playbook. Instead of thinking of
or #AmazonMustHaves. Many of TikTok as a place to get exposure

07
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