Have you ever scrolled through TikTok and come across a branded dance challenge or photo filter that seems to have taken over everyone’s feeds? Brand TikTok challenges are viral campaigns that encourage users to create their own videos using a specific branded hashtag, audio, effect or prompt. These viral challenges allow brands to tap into TikTok’s highly engaged user base and spread brand awareness rapidly. One of the most popular examples was Guess’ #InMyDenim challenge, which generated over 3 billion video views in just a few days. Brands ranging from Chipotle to Jimmy Fallon have also created challenges that took off on the platform. But do these branded challenges actually benefit companies and drive business results? In this article, we’ll examine how and why brands use TikTok challenges as marketing campaigns, look at notable examples, discuss the potential upsides and risks, and provide tips for creating a successful branded challenge on TikTok.
What Are Brand TikTok Challenges?
Brand TikTok challenges are campaigns created by brands that encourage TikTok users to participate in a dance, stunt, or other challenge. The brand creates a unique hashtag and dance/challenge, then promotes it through paid advertising and influencer partnerships to drive user-generated content.
For example, Chipotle launched the #GuacDance challenge, creating a branded dance for their menu item guacamole. Users were encouraged to post their own version of the dance with the hashtag. This resulted in over 250,000 video submissions.
Chipotle’s #GuacDance challenge created a fun and shareable branded experience.
Other brands have launched challenges like makeup or fashion looks, fitness stunts, cooking demos, and more. The key is creating an engaging, on-brand challenge optimized for TikTok’s short-form vertical video format. When done well, challenges can go viral and expose a brand to massive new audiences.
Why Brands Use TikTok Challenges
Brands are increasingly turning to TikTok challenges as a way to increase brand awareness and engagement. According to Sproutsocial, TikTok challenges provide an opportunity for brands to tap into existing trends and insert their brand in a creative, authentic way [1]. By launching a branded hashtag challenge, brands can encourage TikTok users to create their own videos featuring the brand, exponentially increasing their reach and visibility. TikTok’s unique format and culture makes user-generated content highly sharable, allowing challenges to quickly go viral. This virality is key for reaching new audiences and potential customers.
TikTok challenges also provide an opportunity for greater audience engagement. As Hype Auditor notes, challenges inspire participation by prompting users to create and share their own branded content [2]. This increases interaction between the brand and users. Challenges also facilitate community building, as users collaborate around a common branded theme. Overall, TikTok challenges allow brands to harness the creative power of the TikTok community for heightened awareness and engagement.
Popular Examples
One of the most well-known and successful brand TikTok challenges was the Ocean Spray Cranberry Fleetwood Mac challenge. It started when Nathan Apodaca posted a video of himself skateboarding and drinking Ocean Spray Cranberry while singing along to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” The video instantly went viral, gaining over 80 million views in just a few weeks (Later). Ocean Spray saw an opportunity and hopped on the trend, bringing Apodaca on as an influencer and collaborating on more challenge videos featuring Cranberry juice. This helped increase brand awareness and sales for Ocean Spray, showing how TikTok challenges can benefit brands when done right.
Benefits for Brands
TikTok challenges offer significant benefits for brands looking to increase awareness and engagement. Two of the biggest benefits are the potential for viral reach and user-generated content.
TikTok challenges can help brands go viral very quickly. When a branded challenge takes off, it can be viewed by millions of users in a short period. As more users participate in the challenge, it spreads organically on the platform. According to Sprout Social, the #posechallenge by e.l.f. cosmetics garnered over 2.7 billion views in just 5 days. This type of viral reach is extremely valuable for brands looking to rapidly increase awareness.
In addition, successful TikTok challenges generate a trove of user-generated content. When users participate in a branded challenge, they are creating content featuring the brand. This content is authentic, creative, and resonates more than content created by brands alone. Having users actively engage with and promote the brand through user-generated content is a highly effective form of marketing. As noted by HypeAuditor, user-generated content from challenges provides lasting value since the content lives on long after the campaign.
Sources:
[1] https://sproutsocial.com/insights/tiktok-challenges/
Challenges and Risks
While brand TikTok challenges offer many benefits, they also come with some challenges and risks brands should be aware of. One major challenge is generating authentic engagement. As reported by Forbes, some users participate in branded challenges just for the incentives without actually caring about the brand. This can lead to inauthentic engagement that doesn’t truly resonate with target audiences or drive sales.
It can also be difficult to make branded challenges go viral on TikTok. As noted by HypeAuditor, even with a clever concept and incentives, there’s no guarantee a challenge will take off. Paid advertising may be needed to push challenges in front of larger audiences. There’s a risk of putting effort into a challenge that flops and fails to deliver results.
Brands must also be cautious about potential controversy. As challenges spread across TikTok, they can be perceived negatively or spark unintended reactions. Maintaining control over a challenge’s messaging can be difficult once it goes viral. Brands need crisis plans prepared in case a challenge backfires.
Tips for Success
One of the best tips for creating a successful brand TikTok challenge is to trendjack. Look at what challenges are already trending organically on TikTok and see if your brand can create its own version to piggyback off the momentum. For example, Ocean Spray leveraged the popular Fleetwood Mac cranberry skateboarding TikTok, creating their own branded challenge called the #CranberryDreams challenge.
Another key tip is to use influencers and creators. TikTok creators with an existing large audience can help get a branded challenge off the ground. Paying influencers to participate in and promote the challenge can lead to much higher engagement and views. For instance, Chipotle partnered with well-known TikTok dancers Charli and Dixie D’Amelio for their #ChipotleLidFlip challenge, which generated over 230 million views in one week.
Metrics to Measure
There are several key metrics brands should track to determine the success of a TikTok challenge campaign:
Views: The number of views generated on challenge content is important. High view counts show the content is reaching a wide audience and generating interest. However, views alone don’t indicate true engagement.
Engagements: Metrics like comments, shares, likes, and video views show users are actively interacting with the challenge content. The engagement rate (engagements divided by views) can reveal how compelling the challenge is for the audience. An increase in engagements over time can signal growing momentum.
User-generated content (UGC): The volume of UGC shows whether users are inspired to participate in the challenge. Tracking the number of challenge entries, as well as the views and engagements on UGC, provides key insights. High-quality UGC that goes viral can greatly extend the challenge’s reach.
According to an article on Forbes, the percentage of audience generated content compared to branded content is also telling. If UGC surpasses branded content, it indicates an enthusiastic response from the audience.
Case Studies
Brands have seen both successes and failures with TikTok challenges. One of the most successful was Chipotle’s #GuacDance challenge in 2020. Chipotle created a branded dance and song and encouraged users to post videos of themselves doing the dance. The challenge received over 250,000 video submissions and over 2 billion views (TikTok for Business). Chipotle benefited from increased brand awareness and engagement.
However, not all challenges achieve viral success. In 2019, Guess launched the #InMyDenim challenge, asking users to showcase their Guess denim. However, the campaign only received a few hundred video submissions with limited views and engagement (TikTok Marketing Partners). Some challenges fail to inspire creativity or provide enough incentive for participation. Brands must carefully craft challenges that align with platforms trends and incentivize user generated content.
Overall, the success of a branded TikTok challenge depends on the brand’s ability to create something fun and engaging that resonates with users. Unique challenges that inspire creativity rather than promotions tend to gain more traction. However, even well-executed challenges can fail to take off. Brands must experiment to determine which challenges best suit their brand identity and audience.
Conclusion
In summary, brand TikTok challenges appear to be an effective marketing strategy when executed thoughtfully. The interactive, creative format lends itself well to generating significant engagement, brand awareness, user-generated content, and community building. However, brands must approach TikTok cautiously and strategically, with a focus on authenticity. Successful challenges require creativity, understanding the platform’s culture and audience, and choosing a challenge that aligns with the brand’s identity and values. Measuring ROI can be difficult, so brands should focus on engagement metrics like views, participation, likes, and shares. Overall, TikTok challenges seem worth exploring for brands ready to produce relevant, entertaining content that inspires their audience to participate. But blindly jumping on trends or forcing a poor fit will more likely lead to backlash than rewards.
