TikTok has amassed a huge active user base in a short amount of time. But despite this rapid growth, a number of people have rejected the platform due to its reputation of being an app for Gen-Z trends like lip syncing and dancing.

And thus our brief was simple: Get these non-users interested in TikTok and show them that the app is so much more than a place for dancing and singing.

TikTok users will stop at nothing to tell people about their fave TikToks. Oftentimes they’ll describe a TikTok that’s so amazing, it makes people curious enough to download the app. So for our 2021 campaign, we attracted new users the same way our users do: by describing TikToks instead of showing them.

Insight | Users were describing their fave TikToks to their friends.

To create this campaign, we leaned into a real TikTok cultural behavior. Basically, when users describe their favorite TikToks, they talk about them passionately, in a way that sounds more like they’re ranting about an amazing TV show, rather than a social post. Their descriptions are often hilarious, exaggerated, sometimes confusing, but always entertaining and intriguing. So intriguing, in fact, they make non-users curious as to what they’re missing out on.

Research also showed us that when non-users actually take time to experience the platform firsthand, they become users.

Strategy | Make TiKTok the new must-see TV

To get more people interested in TikTok, we recreated this unique, word-of-mouth behavior that was already familiar to both users and non-users. This helped us stir up intrigue and curiosity around all of TikTok’s must-see content, as though it were must-see TV.

We turned hours upon hours of viral TikTok content into intriguing descriptions on billboards, television and podcasts. Each one of them was created specifically to get new users to stop in their tracks and say “OMG, I have to see that TikTok.”

We even gave people the chance to wear their fave TikToks by designing a line of limited edition t-shirts featuring those same descriptions.

Every ad (and tshirt) also included a QR code that took curious new users directly to the content on TikTok, making every placement an opportunity to instantly engage with the platform.

In one week, positive sentiment increased to 66%, beating prior benchmarks by +35pts. Overall, the campaign improved TikTok’s likeability (+ 8 pts.) and relevancy (+ 6 pts. ) with non-users - all without showing a single TikTok.