Reply To: Tik Tok & Reels

[Janet]

I love this question, Stephen! Companies are always looking for new ways to get their brands discovered by a new audience. However, the bigger the organization, the more risk-averse they are (typically – there are always exceptions). These brands watch and wait, to see what new channels emerge as “winners” on social media.

It’s become very clear that TikTok is a game-changer,so brands will try to jump in, just as they have for Facebook and other channels. The same holds true for Instagram Reels. What’s most interesting is seeing how each brand goes about doing this. They’ve created short videos for decades (think about TV commercials); the question is, if they’re creating their own content, how they tailor the content to each channel.

One way to get noticed quickly is to find stars/influencers, and to work with them. Again, nothing new here: they’ve been signing celebrities for years, to help sell their products.

How successful they’ll be is yet to be seen. The smaller players are typically better about understanding their audience and adapting to new channels, to fit in. But how I feel about this? There’s nothing to stop this from happening again and again. Whenever there’s a new channel, brands will try to use it to their advantage. That’s the nature of marketing. And some will always do better than others.

What about you? How do you feel about this? …