Two young ladies, dressed in sweatpants and T-shirt, dance to the music of the DJ Joel Corry. In the background you see a plant, it is included in a living room. Although they move reasonably synchronously, it is not a slick marketing video with top dancers, but something many amateurs also post on TikTok.
Yet it is public relations (PR) of a serious company. All over the world, young girls know where to find MyJewellery clothing and jewelry. The Dutch company has fifteen stores, a popular website and no fewer than 47,000 followers on TikTok.
New collection
That while the company only placed the first film on the platform at the beginning of this year. However, it is nothing compared to the 431,000 followers the company has on Instagram.
Still, owner Sharon Hilgers chose not to launch the latest collection via Instagram but via TikTok. For the first four days, jewelry and clothing could only be obtained through the platform, through a link that only followers could see.
“Thousands of orders have come out,” says Hilgers. “There are a lot of young people on TikTok. That is also our target group, reason to post a first video in January. We have a few young marketing employees who make films especially for TikTok. They often participate in challenges. 200,000 people watched it. a video about the #gogochallenge. That’s how we slowly got all those followers organically. “
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Young and playful
Creating special content is a necessity for Hilgers followers. “Posting videos or photos made for Facebook or Instagram doesn’t work. The TikTok audience is younger and more playful.”
“They like films that are not made too slick. And they love weirdness and effects. Although I think that will also change, Facebook has also developed from a channel of crazy videos to a place for more informative videos. “Hilgers explains.
Researcher
Esther Rozendaal is a researcher at the Behavioral Science Institute (BSI) at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her research focuses on the advertising processing of young people. “TikTok is emerging enormously as a social medium. At first it mainly attended primary school students and a little later also high school students. But that is now expanding to young adults, such as students.”
Where the target groups are, the advertisers also come. “You can see that existing influencers who are active on YouTube or Instagram are starting to explore TikTok. And many new influencers are joining on TikTok.”
No mortgages
She expects that Dutch advertisers will also use the platform more often. “Certainly companies that focus on a young target group. A mortgage lender may not soon end up on TikTok, but a supplier of soft drinks will.”
Children and young people receive media literacy at school. “A real advertisement is often labeled that way and they recognize it quickly. And new European rules are coming up (Audiovisual Media Services Directive, ed.) Stating that influencers must also report it when they advertise something. But like MyJewellery does it, for example. , posting nice videos on your own channel with which you advertise indirectly, that is less likely to be recognized as PR. “
Supermarkets
Various Dutch supermarket chains are now also active in the social medium. Supermarket chain Dirk posted a video in September to recruit new trainees.
However, it was not a standard advertisement, but entirely in TikTok style, with short shots in which director Marcel Huizing also shone under the guise ‘Dirk is looking for Dirkteur of the future’.
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#Director
“Of course you can still apply to us with a good motivation and CV. But nothing is as dynamic as the labor market. Because more and more of our potential candidates spend a large part of their time online, we thought it was time to get involved ourselves. “, Huizing said in a press release about the video that has been viewed 870 times.
Applicants were asked to add the hashtag #Dirkteur to their video. On the website they could upload their resume and place the TikTok link there. It is unknown how many people did this and how many suitable candidates were among them. The supermarket chain says it has not been able to respond to questions from RTL Z for two weeks due to pressure.
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