TikTok has rapidly evolved from a platform for dancing teens and comedic sketches to a global marketplace where brands of all sizes can cultivate direct, authentic relationships with audiences. What distinguishes businesses that are winning on TikTok is not simply their willingness to participate, but how they leverage the platform’s unique culture, tools, and algorithms to drive engagement and growth.
The Power of Authenticity: Storytelling over Selling
En TikTok, la publicidad convencional suele no ser efectiva. Los usuarios prefieren el contenido que se siente auténtico y cercano, lo que implica que las compañías que actúan más como creadores que como empresas generalmente prosperan. Por ejemplo, Ryanair, una aerolínea de bajo costo, ha conseguido millones de seguidores al convertir la marca en un personaje con el que se puede identificar. Utilizando sonidos de moda, filtros graciosos y comentarios autocríticos sobre los retrasos de vuelos y las ansiedades de viaje, Ryanair transforma las quejas de los clientes en contenido humorístico. Esta táctica hace que la aerolínea sea percibida como accesible y humana, en lugar de ser solo otra empresa sin rostro.
Rather than direct product pitches, businesses winning on TikTok utilize story-driven content. Small businesses frequently showcase behind-the-scenes glimpses: how products are made, day-to-day operations, or candid reactions to customer feedback. The hashtag #smallbusiness has over 109 billion views, illustrating the appetite for this raw, unfiltered perspective. For instance, coffee shop owners like Kleins Coffee in the US narrate stories about their family recipes or showcase the “Coffee of the Day,” encouraging meaningful connections beyond the product itself.
Adopting Trends and Overcoming Challenges: Flexibility Yields Benefits
Virality on TikTok is driven by trends and challenges—formats that offer equal opportunities for brands no matter their marketing budget. Duolingo, a language-learning platform, exemplifies the promise of this approach. Their strategy revolves around the company’s green owl mascot engaging with trends, memes, and cultural happenings in a fun, sometimes cheeky manner. Duolingo’s TikTok account frequently garners millions of views by quickly reacting to popular sounds or viral humor, demonstrating that staying current and being fast are key advantages.
This agility extends to retail. Beauty brands like Fenty Beauty and The Ordinary have succeeded not by pushing products, but by reacting to viral makeup challenges, responding to user questions, and sharing creative tutorials that demystify skincare routines. Their willingness to hand creative control to TikTok creators, empowering authentic voices to experiment with products, enhances credibility and drives virality.
Content Created by Users as a Driver for Expansion
An additional feature of thriving TikTok companies is adopting consumer-created content (UGC). Companies such as Chipotle purposefully design initiatives aimed at duplication, like their #LidFlip challenge, which invited participants to flip burrito bowl lids and display their personal Chipotle meals. These types of initiatives not only create excitement but also enable the brand’s influence to grow naturally as users remix, interact with, and reimagine the initial material.
UGC also bolsters community-based marketing for smaller companies. For example, Bala Bangles, a fitness accessory brand, gained significant popularity when TikTok influencers showcased inventive exercise routines using their products. This exposure led to a ripple effect, with the brand’s sales increasing as trending videos encouraged numerous replications and favorable feedback.
Leveraging TikTok Shopping and Influencer Partnerships
The emergence of TikTok Shop and smooth shopping integrations has led to notable changes in the marketplace. Businesses using TikTok’s built-in e-commerce features experience simplified transitions from finding products to buying them. For instance, fashion brand ASOS employs try-on hauls, “get ready with me” clips, and live shopping sessions to present products in an authentic manner, encouraging swift purchases directly within the app.
Collaborations with influencers continue to be crucial too. Companies such as Glow Recipe partner with skincare influencers whose genuine product evaluations and demonstrations ignite viral trends and ongoing discussions about ingredient transparency. This open, peer-to-peer marketing is especially powerful among Gen Z and millennial age groups.
Diverse Sectors Finding Success
The winning formula is not exclusive to a single industry. A spectrum of sectors is thriving:
Learning: EdTech companies like Study Smarter along with science communicators such as Hank Green simplify intricate subjects into engaging and easy-to-understand insights, transforming education into an enjoyable and shareable experience.
Economics: Creators focused on financial education cooperate with fintech companies, breaking down the fundamentals of investing or clarifying how credit scores work through engaging sketches, transforming a typically dull topic into practical guidance.
Food & Beverage: Both neighborhood bakeries and global brands flourish by showcasing recipes, conducting flavor trials, and sharing customer feedback videos that entice audiences to make online purchases.
Data and Case Analyses: Assessing Influence
Data supports TikTok’s role in business success. According to TikTok’s 2023 “What’s Next” report, 38% of users globally have purchased a product after seeing it on the platform. A notable case is Little Moons, a UK-based mochi ice cream brand, which saw a 700% increase in supermarket sales after a viral TikTok video pointed users to where the product could be found. The “TikTok made me buy it” phenomenon exemplifies the platform’s capacity to catalyze commercial trends overnight.
Another investigation conducted by Marketing Dive found that campaigns utilizing influencers on TikTok achieved almost twice the engagement compared to those on Instagram or Facebook, particularly in the sectors of beauty, fashion, and food. The common factor: Successful businesses synchronize their messages with the dynamic, creator-focused environment of the platform.
The business of tomorrow
Businesses prevailing on TikTok are those that recognize and embrace the platform’s culture of authenticity, agility, and communal participation. They treat every video as an opportunity for storytelling, not just selling. By merging creativity with responsiveness and placing genuine engagement above formulaic advertising, these companies invite users into a collaborative, evolving brand narrative. Success on TikTok is less about dominating attention and more about co-creating meaning within a passionate, participatory audience.
