As we continue to move forward in 2024, brands and marketers seek to be not only relevant but beloved by their audience at every touchpoint, including on digital platforms. TikTok consistently evolves to stay relevant with its diverse communities, and according to TikTok’s What’s Next in 2024 Trend Report, the past year was driven by connection and authenticity. Creators on the platform continue to find creative ways to break through, trend, and be on every viewer’s ForYou feeds. In the same report, TikTok challenges brands to adopt a transformative mindset of Creative Bravery in 2024 to reap the benefits of a fully engaged audience.
Creative Bravery is a blend of curiosity, imagination, vulnerability, and courage that brands and marketers can use to build deeper connections with their communities. It’s a mindset that inspires creators to boldly take strategic risks and keep their content in the spotlight. TikTok predicts that in 2024, brands and marketers need to be creative and encourage creators to engage and entertain their audiences through content that inspires curiosity, flips traditional storytelling arcs, and deepens trust with audiences to achieve rizz.
Curiosity Peaked
TikTok reports a deep curiosity among its audiences on TikTok about new topics and experiences, with 44% of users discovering something new during their visit to the platform. Notably, users are 2.7x more likely to enjoy newly discovered content than traditional media. Most users also agree that TikTok’s content helps them connect with and learn from people from diverse backgrounds and cultures from around the world.
With TikTok enabling content discovery, marketers need to be mindful of creating relevant and valuable content that resonates. TikTok recommends understanding what communities their customers are a part of and using those insights to align their content with these audiences.
Marketers can leverage the unique power of sound on TikTok to diversify and enrich their content. They can tap into TikTok’s Commercial Music Library, a global music library that spans all styles, genres, and regions and is a free resource for businesses to use for their content, whether paid or organic.
Marketers can also support content discovery by using Search Ads Toggle, which serves ads alongside organic search results on TikTok, keeping them top-of-mind while users actively search.
Unhinged Storytelling
TikTok creators have disrupted traditional storytelling with creative and unpredictable narrative structures, keeping audiences captivated and leaving them wanting more. The community also helps shape new storylines, creating a cycle that breeds more content and interest in any topic. Advertisers who embrace this new way of storytelling not only hook their audience from the get-go, but also successfully retain their attention, keeping viewers engaged with the content 1.4x longer than conventional story arcs. Marketers are encouraged to nurture and involve their communities in co-creating new brand stories and embrace this new format of storytelling which allows them to flip the script. Integrating this trend is also made simpler with TikTok’s Script Generator which helps brands to quickly produce a customized video script that reflects their brand identity and tone.
Bridging the Trust Gap
The report acknowledges the widening trust gap between consumers and brands. No cap, trust can be built by brands who understand and show up authentically within their communities, growing and evolving insider lingo. Viewers also seek a connection beyond being mere consumers of products; they desire active involvement in the brand’s narrative.
Additionally, audiences trust brands twice as much after seeing ads on TikTok with the comments enabled, signalling that these brands are actively engaging, demonstrating a genuine willingness to listen and include them in the conversation.
Marketers are also encouraged to cultivate creators whose values align with their brand, listen intently to their opinions, and tap into them to understand the trends and lingo their communities connect with.
The Trend Page on TikTok’s Creative Centre also provides marketers a dashboard to track trending hashtags, songs and creators. These trends can inspire marketers to create the next trending video. Additionally, the TikTok Creator Marketplace is a valuable resource for marketers to find and collaborate with creators, deliver meaningful content and spark conversation with their target communities. In this new creative era, marketers are called to rise with creative bravery, where innovation meets authenticity and storytelling takes centre stage. It’s not just about advertising, it’s about crafting experiences that captivate.
Read the full report here for more practical tips on how to succeed on the platform.
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