In a few short years, TikTok became one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, surviving a messy U.S.-China trade war that threatened to shut the app down in America and helping revive short-form video content after the collapse of Vine in 2016.
Now the app is changing the face of social media marketing as well, according to Movers+Shakers, the creative agency behind several TikTok campaigns for companies such as Amazon, CBS, and e.l.f. Cosmetics.
"What TikTok got right is they really understand what consumers are looking for right now, and consumers have been looking for something as an alternative to the big incumbent platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube," CEO and co-founder Evan Horowitz told Cheddar.
He added that TikTok has forced marketers to place a greater emphasis on authenticity. This stands in contrast to apps such as Instagram, where there is sometimes pressure to refine and edit images to meet a specific standard of quality, he said.
TikTok's more freewheeling style suits Gen Z, which grew up with "their camera in their hand, snapping photos and videos in a very authentic and raw way," Horowitz said.
Movers+Shakers has also taken into account that younger social media users are more discerning and skeptical about traditional forms of advertising, which forces brands to think more creatively about outreach.
"Anything that's trying to be an ad, they tune it out," Horowitz said. "But they also love brands. They love brands that engage with them in a way that feels authentic to the way that they actually talk to their friends, and they love these influencers who are recommending products."
Brands that are "self-aware" and "not trying to be sneaky" are more successful, he added.
One concrete example of this approach is the rise of social media "challenges," where brands invite users to participate in a campaign by creating their own content. Movers+Shakers, for example, helped e.l.f Cosmetics launch a TikTok reality show called Eyes.Lips.Famous that invited users to basically submit their own audition tapes via the platform
"That level of participation is what gives brands this opportunity to really nurture your community in a way that's never been possible before," he said.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
