In the Philippines, TikTok is known as the trendy app where the youth share song and dance videos. It’s known to be entertaining, young, creative, and a bit shallow. However, it doesn’t register to many, especially for the older market, as something that’s authentic.

For their 2020 Christmas campaign, TikTok wanted to show how authentic they can be by showing how real connections can be created through TikTok. And how ultimately, it’s more than just “a song and dance” app.

We needed the market to see us as authentic so we had to tell real stories.

The Philippines is one of the countries COVID-19 hit the hardest. Even with the world’s longest lockdown (that we are still experiencing up to this day), a lot of Filipino families experienced the loss of a loved one.

Our story authentically connects to this reality. We wanted to show how TikTok shares in the pain, but is still able to reassure that Love Lives On.

Inspired by the stories of many Filipinos who lost a family member during the pandemic and are now unable to spend Christmas together, we were able to tell an authentic story a lot of people can relate to wherein TikTok plays a role in preserving their loved ones’ memories.

LOVE LIVES ON is a campaign that celebrates the strong bonds of Filipino families, especially during a challenging year like 2020.

It told a familiar story, with TikTok at its core, as a platform that helps bring families closer even during a challenging time.

The video also makes use of a popular Filipino Christmas song, Pasko Na Sinta Ko (It’s Christmas Now My Love), updated to fit the story to help express the feeling of longing for a loved one.

The online video was aired weeks before Christmas, across different social media platforms. This was then supplemented by a TikTok live stream event plus an in-app mobile web page that puts Filipino Christmas in the spotlight.

The campaign received a total of 86.1 million hashtag views and 70 million total impressions across all platforms.

It also received positive reviews from viewers—amounting up to 74.4% positive social sentiment—as it reminded them of their own grandparents and how they celebrated Christmas as a family.

TikTok users also created user-generated content inspired by the “duet” in the online video using the song we had remade for the spot.