For anyone over the age of 30 (just kidding), it’s an innovative and free-to-use app which lets users produce bite-sized content. Its latest genius feature, the ‘For You’ Page (FYP), curates a stream of content based on what its users have previously engaged with... from dances, livestreamed sports and court cases, to cooking and lifestyle videos.
As a platform, TikTok allows brands to communicate with users at a speed like no other. It reflects today’s current climate where brands don’t have long to engage with consumers. TikTok generates and satisfies a need for more. More content. More often. Rather than amplifying quality, it’s often quantity that wins out. And having overtaken Google’s 15-year reign as the world’s most popular web domain, TikTok is showing that the way we find information is changing too.
‘Flicker, Flash & Flare’ is a tactic TikTok advises brands, marketers, and strategists to adopt when creating content for its platform. ‘Flicker’ is intended to stimulate the reactive nature of marketing, such as participation in trends. ‘Flash’ is part of a series of proactive and planned content, and ‘Flare’ is interactive content, like large-scale campaigns.
The app’s algorithm means that content can be shared with anyone. Due to this unknown and broad visibility, viral-ability can happen instantly, with brand awareness skyrocketing almost immediately. Little Moons, the now-famous mochi brand, sold out globally and went viral within two months of joining TikTok. Applying the Flicker method, they inspired 15,000 Little Moons-themed TikTok videos from fans, reaching over 500 million views and increasing Little Moons’ sales by a whopping 2,000%.