How Humor and Social Media Influencers Play a Role in Brands on TikTok
TikTok has exploded since the last year. According to App Annie, TikTok hit 53.5 million weekly average users in the U.S. in the first week of September 2020. It was the #1 top-grossing app on iOS App Store globally in the second quarter of 2020 with consumers turning to it during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the app has been embraced mainly by Gen Z, with more than 40% of its audience ranging from 16-24, Millennials have also taken on this new social media channel. As a result, the generations have engaged in a mostly playful battle on essentially who is the more cool generation.
Humor: the battle between Millennials vs Get Z
Humor plays a huge role in social media, but we've seen it especially evolve in Tiktok. The battle between both generations is among countless examples of how social media influencers can use humor to gain more followers and spread viral content like stories, memes and create duals between users.
Millennials are getting calling out for their Harry Potter obsessions and adulting antics. At the same time, Gen Z is getting called out on their ultra sensitivity in using gender-neutral pronouns and making stupid dance videos. Both generations have engaged in duals, which is a feature that users can respond to another users video, generally used in a humorous approach. Last summer, the joke was on the Millennials for their love affair for skinny jeans and side parts Gen Z rejected as outdated.
Social media influencers on TikTok:
Nonetheless, TikTok is like an endless stream of videos, tutorials, duals, memes, and influencers. TikTok is the ideal social media channel for brands to approach Gen Z. For example, Clubhouse is one of several so-called "content houses" established over the past years in Los Angeles. The house is filled with the top social media influencers who live and document their everyday lives with an abundance of content and partner with brands who help monetize it.
"It's kind of like a Gen-Z Real World, the residents collectively vie for the most valuable commodity in the influencer economy: people's attention."- Esquire
This show represents the ultimate "flex" most obnoxiously, with their driveway filled up with "BMWs, a Land Rover, a Ford Mustang GT, and two Mercedes-Benzes, including Wolanski's white convertible." Although, the influencers are under pressure to sell and partner with brands no matter how much time and energy spent to push something perfect. Influencer Keven Zeni took 8 hours of nonstop shooting to successfully get his skateboarding ad to promote the Monster energy drink.
There are so many good examples of brands that use Tiktok successfully with humor. For example, Chipotle has a highly popular Tiktok. Starting with their bio "Less Tok, More Guac" and their consistency in ousting content is key to managing their brand identity. On Halloween, they did a #boorito campaign that got over 4 billion views on the platform.
In conclusion, Tiktok is an excellent emerging channel for both users and brands to promote themselves. Although it is saturated with mainly Gen Z, its becoming an increasingly popular channel among older generations like the Millennials. TikTok is here to stay and represents the new digital era of communicating through humor, memes, influencers, and perhaps even a dual here and there.
