Influencer Marketing in Asia: An Interview with Aaron Brooks
Aaron Brooks
April 21, 2017
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TikTok has quite literally taken the world by storm in recent years. What started out as a fun platform for teenagers has fast become a leading way for businesses to generate income and for creators to reach and attract millions of followers in an incredibly short amount of time.
Home of the viral video, TikTok is redefining how brands advertise their products and services, and influencer campaigns are playing a big part in their success. In this article, we’ll delve deeper into the world of TikTok and share how to get started with TikTok influencer marketing in five easy steps.
TikTok is a social media app that enables users to create and share short videos. TikTok has gained immense popularity globally, with millions of active users creating and sharing content every day.
Since its launch in 2016, TikTok has quickly risen to become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 1.5 billion users as of 2023. TikTok’s viral nature has contributed to its rapid growth. The app’s ability to make users famous overnight has led to viral trends, challenges, and memes that have captured the attention of users of all ages across the world.
TikTok’s explosive growth has made it a major player in the social media landscape, and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
TikTok videos can be up to 10 minutes long, but most users prefer to create content that’s less than 60 seconds. The app uses an algorithm to curate content based on user preferences and engagement, which means users are more likely to see videos that they’re interested in and want to watch for the duration.
TikTok’s success can be attributed to its ease of use, entertaining content, and wide variety of features. The app’s editing tools enable creators to add filters, effects, and text to their videos, making it easy to create professional-looking content without any formal training.
The app has also been praised for its ability to democratise content creation, allowing anyone with a smartphone and a good idea to become a viral sensation. This has also led to rapid growth in the world of influencer marketing, as becoming an influencer with millions of followers has never been more accessible. In fact, one of the top TikTok influencers, Charli D’amelio, who started out by just sharing dancing videos, now has over 148 million followers on the platform.
While TikTok initially gained popularity among younger users under the age of 18, the app has increasingly attracted and seen significant growth in users of all ages. This incredible reach across generations means that it’s an incredibly powerful platform for brands and marketers to get in front of their ideal customer and an already captive audience.
TikTok is a versatile platform that allows for a wide variety of content, but there are certain types of content that tend to perform particularly well on the app:
There are several approaches that you can take for a TikTok influencer marketing campaign, depending on your product, goals, and budget. Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular TikTok influencer marketing campaign types:
Sponsored content: The most straightforward approach to TikTok influencer marketing is to pay influencers to create sponsored content that promotes your brand, product, or service. This could include product reviews, unboxings, or demonstrations, and can be a powerful way to generate buzz and increase awareness of your brand among the influencer’s followers.
Branded challenges: Another popular approach to TikTok influencer marketing is to create a branded challenge or trend that’s launched by an influencer and encourages users to create and share their own videos using your brand’s hashtag.
Influencer takeovers: A unique approach to TikTok influencer marketing campaigns is to have an influencer take over your brand’s account for a day or a week. This can inject fresh content into your account and leverage the influencer’s existing following to generate engagement and interest in your brand.
Collaborative content: You could collaborate with influencers on creating unique and creative content that showcases your brand or product in a fun and engaging way. This approach can be more involved and time-consuming than the other methods, but it can also be a powerful way to create truly unique and memorable content that resonates with TikTok users.
TikTok users are highly engaged with the content they consume on the app, with videos often receiving thousands or even millions of views and interactions. Creators who create engaging and entertaining content build trust and loyalty, which can have a significant impact on their followers’ opinions and buying decisions.
TikTok also has a wide variety of content niches, with users creating videos on everything from beauty and fashion to gaming and sports. This means that influencers with a strong following in a particular niche can be highly effective at reaching a targeted and engaged audience.
And of course, TikTok’s unique format and editing tools provide creators with a wide range of creative opportunities to showcase a brand or product in a unique and engaging way. This means that creators who are able to think creatively and push the boundaries of what’s possible on the app can create truly memorable and impactful content.
With thousands of successful creators on the platform, it can be tricky to know where to start when you’re trying to find the right person for your TikTok influencer marketing campaign.
It’s best to choose someone who aligns to your brand, has a good reputation, an army of loyal followers, and the creative power to create scroll-stopping content. As an official TikTok Creative Marketing Partner, we can make the process of finding and working with creators to optimise and boost your TikTok campaigns much easier.
When you’re ready to start working with a TikTok influencer, there are some great examples of successful campaigns to give you some inspiration.
Starting with a campaign created through the Vamp platform (of course), we have Duolingo who show the power of humour. They enlisted a squad of eight creators to join in on their April Fool’s Duolingo Toilet Roll prank. The campaign amassed millions of views and allowed content creators to produce videos in their usual, humorous style – leading to highly engaging and native content.
@kyronhamilton #ad There’s no longer any excuse to miss your @duolingo class, #DuolingoRoll ♬ original sound – Kyron Hamilton
Challenges can work really well for brands. Gymshark ran a TikTok influencer campaign called 66 Days: Change Your Life. It asked users to set a personal goal that they were committed to achieving within 66 days. Gymshark partnered with six creators with high follower counts. And the result? The campaign hashtag, #gymshark66, achieved an impressive 45.5 million views.
@nellagrabowski #gymshark66 day 34 @gymshark ♬ original sound – <3
If you want to get started quickly, you’ll be pleased to hear that the simplest campaigns are often the most successful. Too Faced partnered with TikTok influencer Kristen Hancher to promote its new mascara.
The incredibly simple video had just one transition, and was less than 20 seconds long, but was a hugely successful campaign engaging Kristen’s millions of followers. They’ve also struck up a long term relationship with Kristen, leading to plenty of other just as simple, but just as effective collaborations.
@toofaced @kristenhancher looks like a #toofaced DREAM in our limited edition Christmas products!😍💕🎄🎁 #makeup #christmas #glam ♬ original sound – Too Faced
Now we’ve taken a deep dive into TikTok influencer marketing, here are the five easy steps to get started with your own TikTok influencer campaign:
Create your ideal customer avatar for the product you’re promoting and go into as much detail as you can, as this will help you pinpoint the type of influencer who would be best for your campaign. If you also map out interests, habits, and the times spent on TikTok, it will be easier to define your hashtag strategy and content, and to decide on your posting calendar.
Before embarking on your TikTok influencer marketing campaign, it’s best to have a clearly defined strategy in place so you know what you’ll do, how you’ll do it, the metrics you’ll monitor, and the goals you want to achieve. A good strategy will also make it much easier to brief your chosen influencer.
Once you know your target audience and your campaign objectives, it’s time to decide what type of campaign you want to run with an influencer. Will it be a review, an unboxing or collaborative content? In this step, it’s also beneficial to consider your brand personality when defining the campaign type. For example, if your brand is light-hearted and fun, then a comical video could work really well.
With thousands of influencers keen to work with brands, you’ll have many to choose from. Influencers want to work with companies who make things easy and enjoyable, which you can do by working with a creator platform where you can easily create, manage and report on all your influencer marketing. Vamp can help you to find the best TikTok influencer marketing brands in minutes.
Although it’s best to have a defined strategy and to know the type of campaign you want to run, when it comes to the detail of the campaign videos, the influencer will be your secret weapon. They know what their followers like and respond to, and they know their own strengths and talents. Involve them in the video-planning process and you’ll get content that feels authentic and engages TikTok’s users.
To measure the success of a TikTok influencer marketing campaign, focus on metrics like engagement rate, reach, and impressions. Engagement rate includes likes, comments, shares, and views, indicating how well the content resonates with the audience. Reach measures the total number of unique viewers, while impressions count the total views of the content, including multiple views by the same user.
Other important KPIs include follower growth, click-through rates (CTR) on any links provided, and conversions or sales attributed to the campaign. Using tracking links and promo codes can help attribute sales directly to the campaign. Additionally, monitoring brand sentiment through comments and mentions can provide insights into the audience’s perception of the brand.
Contracts and negotiations with TikTok influencers should include clear terms regarding deliverables, timelines, compensation, content rights, and exclusivity. Start by defining the campaign goals and identifying suitable influencers. Discuss and agree on the scope of work, including the number of posts, types of content (videos, stories), and any specific messaging or branding requirements. Compensation can be negotiated based on the influencer’s reach, engagement rates, and the complexity of the campaign.
It’s essential to outline payment terms, whether it’s a flat fee, commission-based, or product exchange. Ensure the contract covers content usage rights, specifying if the brand can use the content on other platforms or for future campaigns. Exclusivity clauses might prevent the influencer from promoting competitors for a certain period. Finally, include clauses for campaign performance expectations and confidentiality to protect both parties.
Examining failed TikTok influencer marketing campaigns can offer valuable lessons. A common issue in unsuccessful campaigns is misalignment between the influencer’s content style and the brand’s image. This can result in content that feels inauthentic to the influencer’s audience, leading to low engagement. Another frequent problem is inadequate communication of campaign goals and expectations, causing influencers to produce off-message content.
Additionally, neglecting to vet the influencer’s past behavior and reputation can lead to backlash if any controversial content surfaces. Poor timing and lack of promotion can also undermine a campaign, as even well-crafted content needs visibility to succeed. The lessons here are to thoroughly research and choose influencers who align with the brand, clearly communicate expectations, vet influencers’ backgrounds, and ensure the content is strategically promoted.
We’ve given you a complete rundown of TikTok influencer marketing in this guide, but if you’re still hungry for even more TikTok knowledge then we’ve got just the thing with The Everything Guide to TikTok for Marketers. We’ve taken our learnings as an official Creative Marketing Partner, and the countless campaigns we’ve run for brands like Adobe and Estee Lauder, to bring you this best practice guide.
If you’re ready to plan an influencer campaign with predictable outcomes, then take a look at our platform, which enables you to create, manage, and track all your influencer marketing campaigns in one place.
