Storytelling on TikTok

• #How To
• #Influencer
• #Social Media

How marketers successfully advertise on the platform

You hear it again and again: dull advertising is out, storytelling is in. In the Instagram Stories of many influencers, you can see again and again how they don’t just hold products up to the camera, but integrate them authentically into their everyday lives in order to promote them. But how does that work on TikTok? We’ll explain it to you.

Advertise on TikTok

TikTok is primarily known for its very young target group. However, this has changed in the last year. Now it’s no longer just teenagers who can be found here, but also many young adults. The advantage for marketers? The purchasing power of the slightly older target group is much stronger. This therefore means that advertising on TikTok has become a thoroughly sensible and, above all, lucrative marketing measure. As part of this, influencer marketing has also become increasingly important on the platform. Creators with many followers advertise for brands.

Storytelling on TikTok

TikTok is probably the fastest moving social media platform on the market. The For You page displays an endless number of clips that users can scroll through for hours. If a video is not convincing from the first second, it is skipped directly. It is therefore all the more important that advertising companies convince with a good concept, otherwise they will lose potential buyers again with just one “swipe up”. To avoid this, it’s the first few seconds that count.

Another “culprit” is the very short attention span of the young generation (at least in social media), which means that videos have to be convincing IMMEDIATELY, otherwise they will be ignored. One measure to avoid this, as already mentioned, are popular influencers. When users see familiar faces on their For You Page, they are more likely to stick with it first. Another option is important features provided by the platform itself. These include the ability to work with short cuts, time jumps, and unexpected transitions.

So one way that advertising always convinces – especially when combined with the popular creators – is storytelling. This means that in the context of marketing, not just plain advertising is placed, but that products are authentically and meaningfully integrated into the everyday life of the person doing the advertising. In this context, the individuality of the creators should also be used. Many of them represent certain themes or characteristics that companies can use to the advantage of their advertising to integrate this into the storytelling. The advantage on TikTok: The sounds that keep trending. On no other platform does audio play such an important role as on TikTok. The “ear-catchers” generate emotionality and virality and help companies spread their advertising even further organically. These sounds can also be used for successful storytelling.

Don’t make ads, make TikToks

With precisely this credo, the platform itself exemplifies how it envisions successful advertising. After all, TikToks thrive on storytelling, and if companies have internalized this for themselves, their success will certainly be much higher. Storytelling is therefore essential, especially on a platform as dynamic and fast-moving as TikTok.