The niche effect: How non-traditional brands are are connecting with avid fans on TikTok

By Kimeko McCoy

Sandwiched between the viral dance trends, lip sync videos and endless challenges, telehealth company Wisp created its own popular moments with posts about destigmatizing sexual wellness.

That meant publishing videos on everything from herpes education to information regarding birth control, on TikTok’s main feed: the For You Page.

Call it the niche effect, a phenomenon in which non-conventional brands, everything from sex toy companies to cannabis and financial management platforms, are building up their audiences with help from TikTok’s targeted algorithm and niche communities who are continuously turning to the short-form video app as a place to learn.

Since launching its TikTok presence over the summer, Wisp garnered a small following of about 250 but has secured partnerships with major TikTok creators that speak to how it wants to continue to grow on the platform.

Figures like Danielle Stokes (known as Roxanne Ramsey on social media) and Suzanna Brusikiewicz (Suzbub on Instagram and YouTube) have helped Wisp get in front of TikTok’s billion-plus users. Earlier this year, one of Wisp’s videos with Stokes (on feminine health) racked up nearly 300,000 views.

“We’ve built a non-traditional brand around a community of folks who work to normalize these ‘taboo’ conversations,” said Jennifer Dwork, head of brand marketing for Wisp, in an email. “The more we share, and the more we partner with creators, the more the TikTok community engages. We believe we’ve only just scratched the surface.”

Marketers and agency execs have sought to go viral on the platform, favoring the tactic over explicit ad spending as TikTok still tries to mature its offerings for brands.

In the last year, influencer marketing agency Fanbytes has taken on a number of niche clients with that very purpose, including Wanna Date, a start-up food brand, Lelo, a sexual wellness brand, and others. Each of those clients are leveraging paid and organic ways to interact with TikTok’s communities. For example, brands can easily access these niche communities using their respective hashtags, whether it be investment gurus in #personalfinance or readers with #booktok.

A TikTok campaign for Lelo found #girltalk and took an edutainment approach to pull in a 25% engagement rate and more than a million views, according to CEO Timothy Armoo. Another campaign with Wanna Date garnered 6.6 million views, which was 13 times the agreed-upon deliverable, he said. For reference, Influencer Marketing Hub reports that on TikTok, micro-influencers, those with less than 15,000 followers, have a 17.96% engagement rate on average, compared to 3.86% on Instagram.

“No platform can foster niche community engagement the way TikTok can and progressive niche brands open to taking calculated risks can win big here,” Armoo said.

Industry experts point to a few reasons why they can — like TikTok’s excruciatingly specific algorithm, anyone’s ability to go viral, its unpolished nature encouraging users to be their authentic selves, and the platform’s For You Page. The hyper-specific feed, experts say, is what really sets TikTok apart from other platforms in that users are served what’s trending across the platform versus them seeking that …read more

Source:: Digiday