Brands are starting to appreciate the impact that TikTok influencer marketing can have on their businesses. This is why even big brands such as Target and Walmart are not being left behind when it comes to creating and promoting hashtag challenges on TikTok.
If you are still on the fence then read on as I break down different case studies of Tiktok influencer marketing by big brands that have been successful on the platform.
1. Walmart
Walmart started a challenge #DealDropDance that featured shoppers dancing in the aisles of Walmart stores with a chance to win $100 gift card.
To ensure the success of this hashtag challenge, Walmart hired 6 prominent influencers:
- Lizzo
- Terry Crews (former NFL star and actor
- Drea Knows Best
- Montana (singer
- BDash (dancer
- Kidrl
- OurFire
The aim of this campaign was to express how Black Friday savings at the store made them feel.
Effectiveness of the Walmart’s campaign:
The posts by the 6 influencers reached over 17 million followers on TikTok, resulting in normal people filming themselves dancing in the aisles of Walmart.
The hashtag #DealDropDance had over 2 million impressions and even one Walmart employee, CameronFromWalmart was discovered on TikTok due to his #DealDropDance video
2. Doritos
Doritos is known for creating sensational ad video campaigns that tend to resonate well with their customers. Most of their promotions have done well on TV. So, when the time came for them to take on TikTok, they didn’t lower their gut.
In one of their 2020 campaigns, Doritos worked with Grammy winner and Oscar-nominated western actor, Sam Elliot to create a funny dance battle over Cool Ranch tortilla chips.
The 60-second ad featured Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” song
Results:
The campaign saw the video garner 6 million views on YouTube. Doritos also started a hashtag challenge that saw almost 3000 users creating dance videos using the challenge’s sound clip and ending with the hashtag #CoolRanchDance
3. GymShark
Fitness is a niche that can really do well when it comes to influencer marketing. Taking advantage of this, GymShark started its 66 Days: Change Your Life Challenge. To participate in the challenge, users had to set a personal goal and commit to it for 66 days, while sharing their progress.
To take this challenge to another level, Gymshark worked with 6 influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers each, totaling 19.8 million following. To ensure diversity, each of the influencer represented a different niche and all of them were from different countries. The challenge featured dance, fitness, comedy, challenges, fashion, and beauty categories.
Results:
Gymshark’s influencer marketing campaign was so effective, videos reaching 122 million views, 2 million likes with 11.11 % engagement rate. The hashtag #gymshark66 was viewed 45 million times.
4. Toofaced
With makeup tutorials storming TikTok, it’s not surprising that cosmetics brands are embracing the platform. TooFaced, a beauty brand partnered with TikTok Influencer, Kristen Hancher to promote its branded hashtag challenge, #toofacedpartner. Users would post videos of themselves doing makeup routines featured before and after transformations
Kristen’s promotion amassed 1.8 million views, 2219 shares, and over 1800 comments. Since running the ongoing campaign, TooFaced has brought in 4 other influencers on board: Victoria Lyn, Ewa Zawada, Chloe Rose and Laurie Elle.
5. F’real,
F’real, a popular milkshake brand in the United States and Canada worked with Haueter Family to create funny family videos that helped promote the milkshake in a humorous manner. The video didn’t talk about the milkshake, but instead made use of it in a way that would leave a lasting impressions in the minds of the viewers
As a result of this promotion, F’real has been able to reach 524.7K followers on TikTok and their videos garnering over 120million impressions. The hashtags such as #freal and #frealmilkshake are also starting to get popular as more users continue to add videos to the platform using them.
6. Target
Target is another brick and mortar store that is making use of TikTok influencer marketing to attract more people to their stores. Target worked with Victoria Bachlet on a back-to-school campaign. Victoria is a TikTok influencer whose followers consist mainly of teens and young women, thus making her an ideal influencer for the campaign.
The video clips showed Victoria visiting Target stores and buying Vera Bradley self-care products which she then used at home to prepare for the new year of school
7. Guess Jeans
Guess Jeans, a fashion brand ran brand takeover ds to promote their branded hashtag challenge #InMyDenim. The main goal of the campaign was to increase the brand’s awareness of the hashtag campaign while boosting the presence of the brand on the platform.
To participate in the challenge, users were required to upload videos showing their fashion styles in denim using the #InMyDenim hashtag. In just 6 days of running the ad campaign, over 5,500 users created the challenge videos, reaching10.5 million views with 14.3% engagement rate and 2000 new followers
8. Universal Pictures
In 2018, Universal pictures created a hashtag challenge dubbed #CreateYourMagic to promote a new release; The House with a Clock in Its Wall. Users would create their own magic tricks videos, post on their walls and include the hashtag in their video descriptions
To promote the challenge, Universal Pictures partnered with 10 different influencers and the campaign became quite a success, with over 1 million video likes and 11000 new followers on their TikTok account.
Conclusion:
These case studies of TikTok influencer marketing shows that it works and is here to stay. To harness the power of influencer marketing on TikTok, focus on finding the right influencers; those whose audience are more likely to resonate with your brand, instead of chasing over vanity metrics such as the number of followers that influencers have.
