Is TikTok the perfect home for luxury brands?

It's no wonder that luxury brands are seeing the power TikTok has among younger generations and that they're beginning to include TikTok in their marketing strategies to build engaged, purchase-driven audiences.

Influencers

As with all social media platforms, working with influencers can help get your brand in front of a relevant, wider audience, thus increasing your brand awareness. Not only this, but many who follow influencers see them as a great source of inspiration, and recommendations.

According to the latest insights, eight out of 10 consumers have purchased something after seeing it recommended by an influencer. This is likely because we tend to trust our favorite creators' recommendations.

Ensuring you’re working with an influencer that suits your brand image and values is essential so that the relationship feels organic and believable. Not only does working with influencers increase your brand awareness and sentiment, but it also creates an extra pool of content that can be used on your own channels or for paid advertising.

Challenges

Trends and challenges are what make TikTok. Challenges encourage participation and brand interaction, both of which are appealing to gen Z. In fact, 74% of gen Z dislike traditional ads, so brands must take a more experimental and engaging approach: blending fun with sponsored content.

The idea of a hashtag challenge is to ask your audience to do something (like a dance), and to share doing so using the proposed hashtag. This will gain traction from their current following, and beyond. It also poses the opportunity of trending and going viral.

When Mercedes-Benz launched the #MBStarChallenge, it encouraged users to re-envision its logo in their own unique way. Any creative outlet was welcomed, from dance to drawings; Mercedes wanted their users to ‘let their star shine’, the best entries being featured on official Mercedes-Benz channels.

Paid campaigns

It seems like an obvious choice, but it’s worth investing in paid campaigns on TikTok to get your brand in front of the correct audience. Combining TikTok-worthy visuals with strategic audience targeting can provide excellent exposure and results for luxury brands.

In the paid space, you’ll discover branded augmented reality (AR) which allows companies to create custom-branded filters, lenses, or even stickers for users: an excellent way to engage potential new customers.

Optimize for shopping

A key strategy for any e-commerce brand is to optimize your profile for shopping. It’s fairly new to TikTok, but there’s certainly more to come. Shoppable campaigns speed up the consumer journey from ad to purchase.

TikTok Shop enables merchants, brands, and creators to showcase and sell products directly on TikTok through in-feed videos, lives, and the product showcase tab.

React to organic traffic

TikTok is all about trends. That’s what makes the platform so unique; everyone has the opportunity to go viral. Most viral trends start off organically, and if you join in at the right time (with a trend that is appropriate for your brand) you can propel your brand to the forefront, without it feeling disingenuous.

An excellent example is the #HarryStylesCardigan trend. This trend started when Harry Styles wore a JW Anderson rainbow cardigan. The oversized cardigan inspired a crocheting craze on #DIY. The brand hopped on this trend, publishing details of the color pattern, posted a tutorial video, and gave advice on how best to recreate it. This propelled the brand to a whole new level and built up the hype for their SS22 show.

TikTok is still new in the world of social media. But its newness provides luxury brands with a fresh new outlet to make their mark on gen Z, millennials, and beyond.