November 14, 2022

"Many advertisers have concerns about TikTok and its Chinese owners....But companies keep flocking to the app... because it appears to have reach and cultural cachet..."

"Unlike other social media platforms, TikTok has ads appear like any other full-screen video on the platform, so they aren’t always immediately discernible as ads. The app has pushed brands to work with its content creators, making ads seem even more natural. It has told brands: 'Don’t make ads, make TikToks.'...  Last year, the men’s fashion company Swet Tailor posted a TikTok video advertising the same shirt, in different colors, being thrown onto a rotating man. The video garnered 5,000 views, far more than most TikTok videos posted by the company, which has fewer than 300 followers. In two weeks, Swet Tailor sold 35 percent of its inventory for the shirt, when it normally would have sold 5 percent. By contrast, Facebook and Instagram ads 'barely moved the needle,' said Adam Bolden, the clothing brand’s chief executive.... Still, advertising on TikTok is not necessarily straightforward. That’s partly because brands have to avoid becoming, to cite a meme frequently seen on the platform, a middle-aged, skateboard-carrying Steve Buscemi saying, 'How do you do, fellow kids?'"

From "TikTok Builds Itself Into an Ads Juggernaut/The Chinese-owned video app’s ad business is thriving, even as a digital advertising slump hurts Meta, Snap and other rivals" (NYT).

On TikTok, you don't just get views, you garner views.

Here's the Know Your Meme article on "How do you do, fellow kids?"

 

And here's that terrible Subway effort at inserting a celebrity — Russell Wilson — into a TikTokky TikTok:

@dangerusswilson Duet this. IF YOU DARE. And get my Dangerwich @Subway #SubwayVault #PassTheSub #foodtok ♬ original sound - Russell Wilson

9 comments:

Tom T. said...

There's nothing new about advertisers wanting to appeal to teenagers and struggling to do so. The concern about ads displaying full-size -- like every TV commercial for the last 75 years -- seems like silly scare-mongering.

Joe Smith said...

Ban it.

Only an R politician could do it.

But do it only after you've won an election...

n.n said...

Labor and environmental arbitrage sooth all things Green and green.

Gen-Rebel is looking for the novel trick recycling the old.

We all live in an Ouroboros model.

PM said...

'Don’t make ads, make TikToks.'
1. Um, they're ads.
2. Eventually, if not currently, a new venue for production companies.

Humperdink said...

Not to worry, the Chi-Coms have our best interests at heart.

gilbar said...

Tom T says...
There's NO difference between today's tech, and the tech from 75 years ago, so Don't Worry!

Earnest Prole said...

The apex of the old media was Vogue which at its peak was able to charge advertisers close to $200k per page to appear in its September issue. In September 2008 the magazine sold 725 pages of advertising, which dwarfed the number of editorial pages. How did Vogue pull this off? Its advertising was so compelling that readers did not distinguish between it and the magazine’s editorial content.

mikee said...

Still banned in India, right? Hmmmm.

Ted said...

I no longer watch any TV or video platforms that involve unskippable ads -- my time, attention, and desire for less annoyance in my life are all too valuable. Are "the kids these days" so used to being overwhelmed by advertising that they no longer notice it or care? In any case, this is yet another reason TikTok isn't for me.