By Chantal India, on 12 March 2021
TikTok burst onto the social media scene in a big way in 2020. With short, engaging videos TikTok achieves a remarkable engagement rate and was one of the most downloaded applications last year. While some argue it’s only for a Gen Z audience, TikTok is becoming a powerful social media marketing platform across different demographics and industries.
Sometimes we all need a bit of marketing inspiration to get started or refresh our approach. So if you’re planning to start a TikTok marketing strategy or are in need of some inspiration, we’ve put together 10 accounts to jumpstart your strategy.
10 TikTok Accounts to Inspire Your Marketing Strategy
1. Chipotle - Creative Challenges to Drive Engagement
Chipotle does one thing exceptionally well on TikTok: challenges. And what do challenges generate? Engagement. Chipotle’s guacdance challenge now has over 1 billion views and their flipthelid challenge has garnered over 300 million. These are big numbers! If your goal is to generate more engagement and spread brand awareness, take a page out of Chipotle’s TikTok challenge book and develop your own creative challenges.
2. Washington Post - Humor and Personality
The Washington Post probably isn’t a company you’d think of when you imagine successful TikTok brands. Yet the WP has become one of TikTok’s runaway success stories by putting a face to their brand—Dave. This was a genius move from a print media brand who has reinvented itself using humor and personality. Instead of presenting news stories in the traditional and predictable way, the WP has cleverly changed the way news is delivered. Adding a face to your TikTok strategy develops a personality people can relate to and connect with.
3. Elf Cosmetics - Viral Songs
Elf cosmetics went big on TikTok by having a song made specifically for their marketing strategy. Elf started by partnering with influencers to spread the reach of their song “Eyes, Lips, Face”, which Elf stands for, and it now has 7.3 billion views! TikTok is well-known for music and dance, and incorporating these mediums into your TikTok strategy can pay off big. Just ask Elf!
4. Fortnite - Contests to Drive Engagement
Fortnite is an uber popular video game made by Epic Games that has made quite a splash on TikTok. By creating dance contest challenges, Fortnite has achieved incredible engagement from their audience. Challenges like their EmoteRoyaleContest ask followers to come up with a dance that has the chance to be featured in the game itself, an opportunity Fortnite fans simply can’t resist. Try getting your followers engaged with contests that involve them in branded content or, even better, product creation.
5. NBA - Consistency is Key
The NBA has 12.4 million followers on TikTok and they generate a LOT of content. And with all that content you’d think the quality of that content would suffer. Think again. Consistent high quality content that gives an inside look into players off the court and encourages followers to join in, has made the NBA one of the most dynamic accounts on TikTok. Consistency is key to building a following and keeping fans engaged.
6. Netflix - Caption Power
A combination of previews, highlights, star appearances and custom content has allowed Netflix to build a following of 12.7 million on TikTok. Netflix’s best content is likely their use of dynamic captions in combination with show highlights. These captions bring pop and presence to short clips making them even more visually engaging. Try adding well timed captions to keep your audience interested and engaged.
7. Fenty - Creator House
Creator houses are an interesting trend becoming more and more popular on TikTok and YouTube. The idea puts influencers in a mansion together where audiences can follow their interactions and the drama that ensues. Rihanna’s beauty brand, Fenty, created the Fenty House which was one of the first creator houses. Due to COVID-19 the house was forced to close but the housemates still contribute remotely. Creator houses are a powerful way for brands to take influencer partnerships to the next level and bring viewers in.
8. Kaja Beauty - Content is Queen
Kaja is a Korean cosmetics brand that was created in partnership with Sephora. And while beauty brands are both wildly popular and successful on TikTok, Kaja stands out because of their product based content. High quality and colorful videos draw followers in as products are beautifully displayed and applied. They are also cruelty free. The takeaway: make your content visually undeniable!
9. Lush - Regional Audience Targeting
Lush is a cosmetics brand that’s had huge success because of their fun and playful branding. They’ve continued their fun-filled antics on TikTok. Founded in England in 1995, Lush has nearly 1,000 stores around the world in 49 countries. To reach and connect with those varying cultures they target their customers based on regions and languages. They have TikTok accounts in both France and Spain, for example.
10. Safeguard Soap - Pandemic Dance Moves
You wouldn’t expect a soap company to have much success on TikTok, yet Safeguard encouraged users to show off their hand washing moves with their genius safeguardsplash challenge. The hashtag has 1.8 billion views and has turned a simple soap brand into a marketing sensation. This light hearted approach to tough times has done wonders for their branding and changes how consumers perceive them.
TikTok continues to grow and as more and more industries jump on board, it’s becoming hard to ignore. Many brands don’t consider TikTok because of its Gen Z audience and dance centric focus. Yet as we’ve seen, even hand soap and newspaper brands can have massive success by putting a playful spin on things. How can you get creative, break the mold and build your brand on TikTok?
