TikTok Challenge: The trend to boost your brand

Since its launch, the social network TikTok has established itself as a real incubator of trends for young people, thanks in particular to its challenges. Some of them, such as #OldTownRoadChallenge or the Barilla #SecondLifePasta challenge, have even accumulated several million views.

The most innovative brands quickly understood the importance of these challenges for reach new audiences and generate engagement.

‍Indeed, TikTok challenges offer a unique opportunity to interact with users in a fun and creative way, thus encouraging the creation of original and viral content.

In this article, we will reveal to you the Do TikTok challenges work and the benefits they can represent for your business. We will also show you the best practices to adopt in order to take full advantage of its challenges and accelerate the visibility of your brand on the platform.

How do TikTok challenges work?

On this social network, challenges take different forms, but they all have one thing in common: they must be simple for users to reproduce and interesting enough to encourage them to participate. Challenges are a unique opportunity to encourage your audience to create user generated content that aligns with your brand. When done well, these challenges tend to grow in popularity and spread quickly across the app.

What TikTok challenge can we launch?

To launch a TikTok challenge, you can take inspiration from the various popular activities on the platform.

Here are a few ideas based on popular concepts:

• Encourage platform users to show off their unique talents, for example by skilfully juggling a ball.
• Ask TikTokers to show how to use your product creatively. For example, if it is a kitchen utensil, they could prepare a special dish.
• Encourage the community to use a filter that embodies your brand or product in their video in an innovative and engaging way.
• Encourage users to create a dance or play back to a trending song, comedy line, or movie clip.

In short, by launching a challenge on the social network, you offer users an opportunity to express their creativity, while promoting your brand or product.

What are the different types of TikTok challenges?

Challenges on TikTok are governed by two types of content:

• Sponsored: Launched by brands, these challenges are marked “sponsored” in the videos. This type of announcement, specifically reserved for businesses, allows them to partner with content creators to spread their challenge, thus aiming to increase their notoriety or to highlight a new product, like the hashtag. #MakeMomSmile from Colgate.

• Organics: These are imagined and popularized by TikTok users. They are not associated with a specific brand or product, but rather reflect a cultural element (a song, TV series, news, etc.) or a subject that is very popular with Generation Z.

According to data shared by TikTok, use and categorization hashtags have increased by more than 150% since 2021. So, each community, whether focused on fashion, travel, or fitness, has its own TikTok hashtags, as well as its own challenges and its specific audience.

• ‍Communal: Typically launched by users through a viral trend or phenomenon, these challenges are entirely organic and not associated with a particular brand or product.

In addition, community challenges are more specialized and target a smaller group of creators compared to all users. The #3MinuteMakeupChallenge illustrates this concept perfectly.

Whether you are a brand looking to engage its audience or a creator looking for the next trending TikTok challenge, these challenges offer you plenty of opportunities to seize!

The benefits of TikTok challenges for brands

Challenges have become an essential part of using the platform for businesses. Brands that manage to exploit them effectively have multiple advantages for go viral on TikTok.

1. Develop your reputation

Faced with the intense competition between brands on the social network, it is essential to innovate with strategies that distinguish you. TikTok challenges offer a unique opportunity to position your brand at the heart of users' attention.

By launching a challenge in partnership with influencers, which generally have a larger reach than brand accounts, you increase the likelihood of generating more interest in your business. That way, you can engage a large segment of their community on TikTok and entice them to engage with your content in a fun and participatory way.

For example, Clarins brilliantly created a challenge capitalizing on the attractiveness of TikTok users for transitions. Their challenge, named #FaisPasser, involved virtually transferring the brand's products from one TikTok video to another. This challenge, which is as fun to watch as it is to reproduce, has generated over 23 million views to date!

2. Generate meaningful content

TikTok challenges also offer an opportunity to engage your audience, get user-generated videos, and popularize your business in the blink of an eye. Indeed, challenges are a powerful motivator for users to publish a video about your brand.

For example, Chipotle understood very well the value of creating its own challenge. From the first six days of its #GuacDance campaign, 250,000 videos were published on TikTok, and it has since been one of the most viral challenges on the social network.

3. Establishing a community relationship

Recent app data show that the most active age group on the social network is 18 to 24 years old. Reaching this young audience is not an easy task, as it is a group that is often misunderstood by brands.

However, TikTok, through challenges, offers a unique way to create and strengthen community relationships that are so valued by Generation Z. These challenges encourage united participation, creating a sense of belonging to a group with a shared experience.

Challenges on TikTok allow everyone to show their creativity and individuality, thus strengthening the sense of identity within the community. They promote interaction with the brand and between users, while providing a form of recognition that strengthens the relationship with the brand. And by reaching a broad audience, they have the potential to increase the breadth and size of the brand community.

Should my brand launch a TikTok challenge?

To date, TikTok challenges are a great opportunity to engage the TikTok community and boost your visibility. Indeed, these challenges embody the essence of what the social network can offer businesses: authentic and entertaining content that stimulates interaction.

If you are considering launching a hashtag or a challenge specific to your brand on this social network, we would be delighted to support you in creating captivating and effective experiences on the platform!