How TikTok for Business helped brands focus their messaging during Ramadan

With several social media platforms now at the disposal of brands, businesses can often be overwhelmed with the correct medium to select to reach their target audience.

Often, even when they narrow down on a specific platform, understanding how to leverage its full potential remains a difficult task for brands.

One such platform that has refined the process is TikTok for Business. Jochen Bischoff, head of Consumer Business Partnerships MENA – Global Business Solutions at TikTok, explains how brands can leverage their reach. “Our objective is to equip business owners and brands with the tools they require to address their community on TikTok,” he says.

Here in the region, TikTok for Business played a strategic role for brands during Ramadan specifically, helping them to streamline their messaging. “Ramadan impacts 2 billion people around the world and it is about coming together and celebrating community. The commercial opportunity behind this moment is roughly $2tn globally per year. People spend more time looking for entertainment, edutainment and ultimately looking for recommendations. Our insights show that the four-week moment turns into a six-week event as consumers start preparing two weeks before the holy month begins in terms of what to wear, what to put on the table, and how to beautify themselves. So, there’s two spikes in consumption – two weeks before Ramadan and two weeks before Eid.”

To maximise the brand’s reach on TikTok, Bischoff says that it takes more than brands talking in their own voice, and instead they must use the community to speak back to their peers. Hence brands have to understand the limits of their own voice and instead engage with the community in a way that resonates with them. “We’ve created the TikTok Creator Marketplace. What’s imperative for brands is to utilise those creators and let those creators be their voice rather than speaking their voice. Those are the campaigns that see the most success on our platform.” He cites the example of carmaker Kia that successfully used the platform’s creators to create four episodes of branded content that ultimately endorsed the mother as the key decision maker in the purchase of a car.

Read: Here’s how to leverage TikTok for Business this Ramadan