Situation:

TikTok, #1 global app, wanted to encourage its users to give back during the holiday season, but TikTok’s user-base, primarily made up of Millenials and Gen Z-ers, don’t just want to give for the sake of giving. With nearly every brand seeking a hand out, generosity can quickly turn into clutter.

Brief:

TikTok wanted to change the way charitable giving was done powered by its platform during the busiest advertising season of the year. TikTok sought to inspire its users to give back in a way that fits their lifestyle and to causes that were important to them.

Objectives:

Primary - Leverage the holiday spirit to drive traffic and app downloads

Secondary - TikTok has a younger demographic of users (under 18) and we want to draw in more users along the 18-24 age range and dispel the public stereotype that TikTok is “only for kids.”

Instead of monetary donations, TikTok flipped the script and instead asked for creativity from its fans. To inspire and engage users, TikTok gathered a diverse group of 11 influential celebrities who most resonated with TikTok’s audience, are involved in charitable endeavors, and have massive reach. Then TikTok aligned with three charities the TikTok user-bases love: Best Friends Animal Society, Oceana, and DoSomething.org. All users had to do was pick a charity and make or share a video with the #CreateforCause. They did the creating, TikTok did the monetary giving.

Data gathering:

In-house consumer research including studies from:

Accenture

Boston Consulting Group

Eventbrite

Target audience (consumer demographic/individuals/organizations):

18 - 30 years old; active Facebook, Instagram and YouTube viewers

Relevance to social platform:

Recognizing that all giving is not created equal we handpicked three charities to appeal to our audience: Best Friends Animal Society, Oceana, DoSomething.org. Our range of giving options ensured all Gen Zers had relevance to a cause.

Approach:

TikTok tapped into the motivations of its Gen Z audience who are socially aware and have an altruistic mindset; who feel that social validation is better than currency and FOMO is real. We selected celebrities to help spread our message of doing good by not giving a single cent - just 15 seconds of creativity. We ensured our message didn’t get lost in the holiday clutter through targeted media placements at destinations our audience frequent.

Implementation:

TikTok gathered 11 highly influential celebrities that resonated with TikTok users - Nick Jonas, Halsey, Nina Dobrev, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Slim Jxmmi, Swae Lee, Peyton List, Serayah, and Ashley Benson. TikTok also aligned with three key charities that were important to its users: Best Friends Animal Society, Oceana, and DoSomething.org. Supported by their #CreateforACause videos to kick off the campaign, each celebrity created their own videos to inspire users to give back and #CreateforACause.

Timeline:

Concepting - 1 week

Celebrity Outreach / Contracts - 2 weeks

Celebrity Content Development - 1.5 weeks

Post Production - 1 week

In-Market - 5 days of holiday cheer (Dec 21 - Dec 26)

Placement:

Digital OOH

LAX Airport Los Angeles)

JFK Airport (New York City)

Paid Digital Video / Display:

Hulu

Vevo

YouTub

Pandora

Twitch

Oath

Uproxx

Vice

Apple News

Bleacher Report

Scale:

US National

Reach:

Not including paid media, the campaign message our celebrities help spread was seen by over 21 million Instagram users - reaching a highly sought after audience, on one of TikTok’s competitor apps, Instagram.

Engagement:

People all over the U.S. got excited and wanted to participate helping create 1.4 million TikTok videos for charity. And it didn’t stop there, our celebrities spreading the word not only exposed 21 million Instagram viewers to our do-good message but also drove some serious engagement with 3 million likes and 23,000 comments.

Sales:

$2 million was raised for charity

Achievement against business targets:

Confidential / Sensitive Data