TikTok has, in the last few years, gained global fame for its viral dance trends, challenges, funny videos, and other entertaining content. This has seen the social media platform, sorry entertainment platform, attract over one billion active users and become a marketing goldmine for brands looking to reach a younger audience. It is the reason I got off my back side and created our First Free TikTok strategy training webinar. The popularity of the platform also got me to push my team to create our own TikTok channel that told a story about who Prohibition was and you can check that out here.
The platform also offers a range of unique features which enable brands to create successful campaigns to connect with their audiences creatively and meaningfully.
Are you still curious about how to launch successful marketing campaigns on TikTok in 2023? Then hopefully my article below is for you.
We’ll take a deep dive into five successful TikTok campaigns, uncover the key strategies that made them a hit, and offer valuable insights into TikTok as a marketing tool.
Let’s get started!
1. Gymshark #gymshark66
Gymshark, the now famous fitness apparel and accessories brand, launched a 66-day fitness challenge called #gymshark66. The goal was to encourage people to stay fit and active during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Participants chose fitness goals, documented them, and shared them on TikTok with the hashtag for 66 days.
The campaign featured weekly challenges throughout the 66 days. Some of these weekly challenges included #ActiveEveryday66, #PowerHouse66, #EducateYourself66, #HealthySwaps66, #SomethingNew66, and #SupportLocal66.
Key factors that contributed to its success
The TikTok campaign offered a tangible goal, a TikTok community that kept participants motivated, and a sense of accountability through its branded hashtag.
It also offered relevant rewards to the challenge participants. The main winners of the #gymshark66 campaign received exclusive Gymshark outfits for every month of the year, while the rest got gift cards or one-time apparel prizes.
Gymshark also leveraged TikTok influencers and fitness experts that create original content that resonated with its young target audience. This included popular influencers like @eloraagummerson and @Cameronisaiah.
The influencers have a large following on TikTok, compared to other social channels, which enabled them to create videos that went nice and viral.
Results achieved
#Gymshark66 has dominated the brand’s TikTok campaigns for the last few years.
It has generated more than 300 million views and 140,000 user-generated videos and significantly helped the brand secure over 4 million followers which is a nice bit of work. 👊
Lessons learned
Consistently partner with TikTok influencers who resonate with your target audience and post creative videos to provide credibility and inspiration.
In Gymshark’s case, they used fitness enthusiasts and influencers, which helped gain the audience’s trust while popularizing their campaign.
Creating a challenge or competition with a branded hashtag can effectively engage audiences on TikTok. It also helps you get your content on the For You page, and the discover page–if it’s trending. That earns your brand more visibility and a higher return on investment for your campaign.
Also, offer rewards that help you convert and retain customers even after the campaign like Gymshark did.
2. ASOS #AySauceChallenge
ASOS, an online fashion and beauty retailer (where I spend far too much of my money) with over a million TikTok followers, launched a campaign called #AYSauceChallenge. The campaign encouraged people to showcase their unique style and creativity using ASOS products.
The challenge ran for three weeks and required participants to post three of their best outfits styled with ASOS products, which helped boost brand awareness and engagement.
Key factors that contributed to its success
ASOS worked with 25 popular TikTok creators in the UK and the US, including @abbyrartistry, @estare, @elmo, @noahbeck, and @lorengray. They had a combined following of over 219 million. This boosted the challenge’s popularity.
In addition, the brand used an original song track, which encouraged more user-generated content–beyond the influencers’.
They also co-created unique Augmented Reality branded effects with Byte that were activated by hand gestures, making it entertaining for users. This motivated more users to interact with the branded effects while creating content using the hashtag #AYSauceChellenge.
Finally, the brand also ran In-Feed ads to get on their target audience’s For You pages.
Results achieved
The ASOS campaign recorded over 1.2 billion views in six days, with 488,000 videos and 167,000 users participating. This helped the brand engage its users on a large scale. The hashtag #AYSauceChallenge currently has over 2 billion views.
In addition to the high number of views, the brand achieved a 15.79% engagement rate and a 25% increase in aided brand awareness. Also, a 10% increase in the brand being seen as “trendy,” which is key considering the brand mainly targets a young audience.
Lessons learned
Celebrating individuality and creativity and allowing users to embody this in their content can be a powerful way to connect with audiences on TikTok.
Also, partnering with popular content creators with a great and loyal following can help increase your campaign’s performance and overall brand engagement.
3. Boohoo #itsfromboohoo
Boohoo is mainly seen as a Gen Z and millennial fast-fashion retailer. The brand launched a campaign with the hashtag #itsfromboohoo, which featured a custom song and popular influencers showing off Boohoo’s clothing range.
The brand encouraged users to choreograph their dances and lip-sync the custom audio, which made the challenge fun.
Key factors that contributed to its success
The campaign’s success can be attributed to Boohoo’s strategic use of Influencer marketing. The brand collaborated with various Gen Z influencers with a big TikTok following, including @denisemmercedes, @noahbeck, @iamkelianne, and @sarati.
The influencers provided social proof, a great asset for any social media PR strategy that helps boost brand awareness and engagement.
The branded hashtag and custom audio were also a factor since they encouraged participation from general TikTok users, further increasing the campaign’s popularity.
Results achieved
The campaign generated around 147 million views, and the custom audio was used in over 14,000 videos on the social platform.
The challenge also helped increase Boohoo’s followers, who are currently over a million, double where the brand stood before the challenge.
Lessons learned
Great collaborations with influencers play an important role in ensuring the success of a TikTok campaign. But always ensure the influencers’ values and content resonate with your target audience.
Also, a little fun never hurts when it comes to TikTok’s campaigns. The more entertaining your content is, the more impact it’ll have.
4. PrettyLittleThing #PrettyChallenge
Pretty Little Thing (PLT), owned by the Boohoo group, is a UK-based fashion brand that has effectively used TikTok to reach younger audiences and increase brand awareness.
The brand has done this through various campaigns and challenges, including the #PrettyChallenge. The campaign encourages TikTok users to share videos of their bold PLT fits with their choreography and transitions.
Key factors that contributed to its success
First, the brand partnered with TikTok for a sponsored takeover, ensuring it was the first thing PLT’s target audience saw throughout the campaign’s active period. This was TikTok’s first sponsored takeover of a fashion brand.
In addition, PLT partnered with the artist Will.i.am to create an exclusive audio track for the challenge, encouraging more user-generated content.
Considering the brand was also pushing a bold outfits theme, they also collaborated with young TikTok influencers like @hollyh, @laurieelle, @olivianduffin, and @hanamartinx.
While the influencers focused on the choreography, most also provided key styling and fashion tips, enabling them to easily grab TikTok users’ attention.
Results achieved
Thanks to the brand’s collaboration with TikTok and leading influencers, the challenge quickly gained views, which stand at almost 45 million today.
This helped boost the brand’s reach and follower base, which is at 1.9 million today.
Lessons learned
It’s vital to give your audience more than entertainment on TikTok. Provide quality content as PLT does and encourage influencers you partner with to do the same.
In addition, branded effects audio and filters are an underrated hack when promoting a brand on TikTok. They make it fun for users to create content.
5. River Island #imwearingri
The other brand that has been successful in using TikTok to reach younger audiences and increase brand awareness is River Island, a UK-based fashion retailer.
The brand launched the #imwearingri campaign on TikTok, which encourages users to create content around River Island fits and share with the hashtag to this day.
Key factors that contributed to its success
River Island has partnered with several well-known TikTok influencers, including @thesharptwins, @matthewandryanuk, @laurieelle, and @byollieb, who introduced the brand to larger audiences.
The influencers’ content is also creative with transitions, trending audio tracks, and other social media trends, which make it easier for users to find the content.
River Island also uses TikTok to promote in-feed ads, which target a larger group of users by showing up on relevant audiences’ For You page.
The vouchers also incentivised users to check out River Island’s page and make purchases.
Results achieved
The #imwearingri challenge is currently at 37.1 million views on TikTok.
The challenge has also helped the brand grow its TikTok page to over 75k followers and 640.5k likes.
Lessons learned
Use relevant hashtags for your TikTok campaigns that remain current despite how much time passes.
For instance, River Island has reused the #imwearingri hashtag for multiple years and various campaigns. This helps a brand provide solid and timeless social proof for users, which boosts your campaign’s success and brand sales.
Also, partner with influencers who understand and share your values and brand style and can create great challenge videos to promote your products. Make sure the fit is correct and it can really help your brand fly.
Finally, people love gifts and discounts, so ensure your campaign offers users incentives like vouchers or gift cards.
To wrap up
These successful campaigns demonstrate that TikTok is indeed a brilliant marketing channel you should consider using to boost brand awareness and sales.
The best strategies for your brand’s effective campaign can range based on your brand’s nature and marketing goals. But a few techniques remain effective regardless of your goal.
For example, creating challenges, celebrating individuality, using branded hashtags, and collaborating with influencers can work for virtually all campaigns.
Follow the success factors and lessons discussed above to create TikTok campaigns that help you increase reach and engagement. Good luck with your TikToks and if you are struggling feel free to sign up for our free TikTok webinar or drop me a line. 👋
Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.
