Achi news desk-
New York City –
If content creators and corporate executives made TikTok videos about the potential demise of the platform in the US, Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” could supply the soundtrack.
Certainly, businesses that built strategies around TikTok and promote products there would rather not try to eyeball another app. Smaller companies and individual entrepreneurs are sure to feel more pain if there is a break. But if the popular video sharing service remains under Chinese ownership and Congress bans it, many companies would learn to get along.
Many “What ifs” still surround a bill passed by the US House this month that would order TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell its stake in the platform within six months or face a ban national. It is not clear when Parliament will accept the legislation or if it will approve a ban when it does.
Big brands that have relied on TikTok to reach younger users don’t seem to be panicking as they wait to see what happens in Washington. But they have also started planning. Some are retooling promotional campaigns originally intended just for TikTok. Many are testing alternatives and prioritizing work with influencers who have significant followings on multiple social media platforms.
“I’m not the type of marketer who wants to put all their eggs in one basket anyway,” says Jeremy Lowenstein, chief marketing officer of cosmetics brand Milani Cosmetics. “We can always pivot. And like any technology, there will always be something new to try.”
To be sure, brands like Los-Angeles-based Milani will lose a valuable tool if TikTok is no longer welcome in the US. Last year, sales of a new Milani mascara took off after an influential couple called The Lipstick Lesbians posted a TikTok video about it, Lowenstein said. It has already looked at alternative apps such as Flip, a little-known shopping platform that allows users to earn money by reviewing beauty items and then buying them from featured brands.
Another Oakland, Calif.-based cosmetics company, elf Beauty, created a viral sensation with a 2019 TikTok campaign that used an original song to explain that the company’s name stands for “eyes. lips. face.” Elf was also one of the first beauty brands to join TikTok Shop, the platform’s e-commerce arm, during US beta testing.
Elf chief marketing officer Kory Marchisotto said the in-app store, which allows viewers to buy products from seller accounts and videos, is doing well. But he noted that Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and other venues also offer short real-time videos, unlike when TikTok stood alone.
“We’ll take that incredible muscle that we’ve built and developed and take it wherever our community wants to go next, and they’ve always been the beacon that’s carried us,” Marchisotto said.
Some marketing agencies are telling brands to take basic precautions in case Congress ends up sending TikTok out the door. Billion Dollar Boy, a New York-based influencer marketing agency, has encouraged clients to spread their influencer spending across platforms, said Edward East, the agency’s founder and group CEO.
Established TikTok influencers, including beauty and fashion gurus, continue to post regularly on the app. But they also post unique content on Instagram or YouTube or pay more attention to their other social media accounts, says Nicla Bartoli, vice president of sales at The Influencer Marketing Factory, an agency that works to match content creators and brands.
Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at research firm eMarketer, believes that a TikTok ban would have a greater impact on businesses today than a few years ago. While Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts provide competition, they haven’t cracked TikTok’s video magic formula in driving sales, Enberg said.
“While you can replicate the technology, you can’t really replicate the culture, and people don’t necessarily behave the same way they do on TikTok,” he said.
TikTok doesn’t receive the same level of ad revenue as Instagram and Facebook, according to data from eMarketer, but the company predicts it will surpass the other two this year in terms of the percentage of users who will at least one purchase that originates. on the platform.
“I think the impact will be felt across the board” if TikTok goes away, Enberg said “But it will be much more dramatic for small and medium businesses, as well as creator-based businesses. “
Toy company Cepia LLC, which was behind the 2009 hit Zhu Zhu Pets, began investing in TikTok a decade later with the launch of Cats vs. Pickles, a collection of plush toys. Compared to other social networks, the platform has proven the best for telling stories about products and building a community of fans, said Laura Frerichs, Cepia’s head of marketing.
To present Decora Girlz, its new fashion doll line, the medium-sized company based in St. Louis, Missouri, 30 influencers with a strong presence on TikTok – most of them children – to FAO Schwarz in Manhattan this month.
Since the launch event, the doll line has garnered more than 53 million social impressions—the number of times Decora Girlz-related posts have been viewed across social media platforms, according to Cepia.
Yet the toy industry is used to adaptation, Frerichs observed, and would be again in a post-TikTok market. Until 10 years ago, Cepia focused its advertising on three television channels – Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel.
“The world has changed very quickly now,” Frerichs said.
Deborah Mayer, who has sold new and pre-owned handbags and other designer goods out of her New Jersey home for 16 years, understands that all too well. Early last year, TikTok recruited her business for the live component of the TikTok Store.
Mayer says her sales have jumped 50 percent since October largely due to purchases made during Debsluxurycloset’s live streaming exhibitions, which can attract more than a thousand viewers. She estimates that 60 percent of her revenue now comes from TikTok, which would make a ban “devastating.”
“We put a lot of time and effort into building this platform,” said Mayer, 52. “It would be a year of work down the drain.”
A classified Senate briefing on TikTok held on Wednesday prompted several senators to say legislation that would force ByteDance to sell on national security grounds was an urgent matter. Others said they would prefer to consider a variety of proposals rather than rush to pass the House bill.
In a tacit acknowledgment that congressional action could be unpopular with the millions of Americans who use the app, some senators called for a public hearing about TikTok’s alleged dangers.
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report from Washington.
