TikTok is not only one of the fastest growing social media networks, but one of the fastest growing brands in the world. So it comes as no surprise that brands are looking for ways to capitalize on all that growth. But most companies — including some of the biggest — aren’t having as much success as they’d like. Why is that?
To answer that, let’s look at two brands that are doing a great job on TikTok — Duolingo and Ryanair. Looking at their content, it doesn’t look anything like what most other brands are doing. It’s absurd, irreverent, and incorporates popular memes. It doesn’t look like advertising content at all. And that’s precisely why it’s successful.
What Duolingo and Ryanair are doing so well is they are speaking the language of the platform. They’re making content that looks just like organic, user-created content, making the exact same stylistic and tonal choices. Instead of making content that looks like it’s from a brand, they’re making content that looks like the successful content ordinary users are making. If the best performing TikTok content tends to lean toward the silly side, it only makes sense to emulate that.
Duolingo and Ryanair have even collaborated on content (https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanair/video/7041970783974870277?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1), something you’d never see in traditional advertising. But we’re living in the social media age — the traditional way of approaching advertising simply doesn’t work as well anymore.
One of the biggest mistakes brands make on any social media platform is to be monotonous, with all the content looking the same, feeling too “corporate” or inauthentic. Users on social media expect content to look and feel a certain way, and when your brand meets those expectations, you’ll start seeing more success. So don’t be afraid to indulge in the absurd and be a little weird on TikTok — speaking the language of the platform will help you stand out.
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