Fashion on TikTok and fashion for TikTok

The key are short, spontaneous videos. The application is the third most frequently downloaded application in Poland (after Messenger and WhatsApp). The number of its Polish users is 2.5 million. All over the world, TikTok is regularly used by half a billion people – most of them are 13-25 years old. Teenage users create a huge network of contacts for brands, even more attractive because the most popular of them have millions of followers. Companies try to reach them thanks to, among other things, hashtag challenges with rewards. TikTok's users reactions to these posts exceed their wildest expectations. Although it is still difficult to examine the direct impact of the platform on sales, the presence on TikTok certainly leads to anchoring the awareness of the brand in users' memory.

TikTok is a competition for, among others, YouTube, which over the last several years has revolutionized the approach to videos on social media. Video is the key to the subconsciousness of potential customers. There is no denying that both YouTube and TikTok are based on advertising. However, today, YouTube actually bombs its users with an advertising message. Ads on TikTok are not so aggressive. They are based on four formats: Brand Takeover – which appears just after opening the app, In-Feed Video – full-screen video appearing in "For You" section, Hashtag Challenge – the challenge created by the brand has a separate page and is promoted on the list of popular hashtags, and Branded Effects – which give brands the opportunity to create their own 2D and 3D filters (which can be used by users to create their own tiktoks). In addition to the these advertising formats, the application also includes product placement and influencer marketing activities, well known from other social media platforms. However, a medium as TikTok brings the collaboration with social media opinion leaders to a whole new level. Brand activity on the platform is often considered as a tool supporting "traditional" influencer marketing, but it should be taken into account that it enables to generate much more engagement and consequently – much higher profits.

American company Ralph Lauren is a perfect example of TikTok power. Its debut on the platform during the US Open in August 2019, made it the first to use TikTok to create a hashtag challenge (#WinningRL) so closely related to such a popular sport event. Ralph Lauren produced a series of short videos featuring tennis player Diana Silvers, who shared her tennis tips and tricks with TikTokers. The brand encouraged users to record similar videos and tag them with a hashtag. The activity of the brand itself, as well as the activity of those responding to the challenge, generated over 700 million views. To compare – materials with the same content, but professionally recorded and edited, published by Ralph Lauren on YouTube gained only 8 thousand views and did not manage to engage the audience to interact.

Fashion giants such as Nike, Calvin Klein and Guess have also decided to create their official accounts. Although on @nike and @calvinklein profiles you will not see more than 50 videos, the number of tags linked to the brands is impressive.

Guess efforts are also worth a note. This American clothing company became famous on TikTok already in 2018, when it launched an interactive campaign promoted with hashtag #InMyDenim. Guess invited popular TikTokers, who, with their short videos with fashion makeovers using the brand's jeans, encouraged the audience to join the challenge and share their styles.

While analysing the activities of the fashion industry we cannot forget about Adidas. Although it does not have an official international account, it used TikTok only to promote the Adidas Neo collection on the Chinese market, the company's presence within the application is manifested by the numerous influencer marketing activities and challenges. The three most popular hashtags associated with the brand are #adidas – 513.1 million views, #adidasgirl – 24.5 million views and #adidaschallenge – 4.1 million views.

Adidas used TikTok (known in China as Douyin) to promote the NEO line for teens. The @adidasneo account, established in January 2018, included videos featuring popular influencers (Yiyang Qianxi and Dilireba) who simply had fun wearing clothes from Adidas NEO collection. As a result, in the first month, the @adidasneo account was observed by 1.21 million people, and the total number of user interactions was 2.8 million (followers, likes and comments).

Polish fashion brands still do not fully benefit from the potential offered by the app. The report „Polish TikTok user” created by Open Mobi revealed that Polish TikTokers most often wear Sinsay (1st place), New Yorker (2nd place) and House (3rd place). Among these brands only Sinsay keeps a hand on a smartphone and is present on TikTok – however the number of posts and followers indicates that the brand is taking its first steps in this medium, most often by publishing shopping hauls.

The numbers clearly show that while we care about effective promotion of the brand in social media, it is also worth taking care of its presence on TikTok. According to analysts, keeping the character of TikTok is crucial for the attractiveness of brands present on it. TikTok undeniably creates the rules of constantly evolving digital marketing, not being directly focused on sales, but on building customer relations. However, such an effortless form of supporting brand promotion can have a significant impact on profits, and those who see a huge potential in TikTok can see it. TikTok is therefore a platform that should interest fashion brands – and not chains for teenagers. More luxurious brands also do not have to worry that they will not find their recipients on TikTok – there are more and more millennials fascinated by the app. The leading fashion houses have already appeared on TikTok – @gucci account is followed by 242.2 thousand people, popular models and celebrities also join TikTok – @kyliejenner profile is followed by 3.4 million people. Hashtag #louisvuitton, which has no official account yet, reached 398.5 million views.

Reaching the target group chosen by a particular brand will certainly be possible due to improving the advertising tools offered by application developers. All this makes the presence of the fashion industry on TikTok obligatory, although it may have seemed different until now. If you are engaged in the promotion of brands belonging to this field, we advise you to create an account on TikTok, create a strategy and act quickly and decisively.

It is difficult to predict how the community gathered on TikTok will be affected by the growing popularity of this application and its commercialization. We are not sure if TikTok will not repeat the scheme we observed during the development of Snapchat, but we know for sure that it is worth to take an interest in this medium and extend the communication channels with it. The presence on this platform requires from brands a bit more efforts related to adapting the laid-back nature of the content published on TikTok to their communication, but a well-designed campaign can guarantee high levels of involvement, unique materials created by natural ambassadors and even a completely new group of influencers. Do not miss a chance and make sure your brand joins this rapidly growing TikTok community. The fashion for fashion on TikTok continues – and it is happening now.