Working in a car dealership is not very exciting. But when a Mohawk Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York created a TikTok series to show exactly how mundane it is, the internet went wild. The Office-themed parody quickly went viral, with the weekly videos gaining hundreds of thousands of views.

So how did Chevrolet get it right, and what can brands learn from its success?

Building authenticity

There are many reasons Chevrolet’s series hit the right note with people. First, it is so far removed from the traditional realm of well-polished commercials of cars gliding in surreal landscapes. Second, it tapped into a format and channel that made it accessible to a wide range of people outside traditional automotive audiences. Finally, and most importantly, it puts people at the heart of it.

Because it’s people, not products, that bring the brand to life in an authentic way. Chevrolet’s series features real employees starring as themselves. Similarly, hugely popular digital direct-to-consumer swimwear brand Strawberry Milk Mob created a huge following on TikTok thanks to its innovative content that follows the antics of founder Georgia, her family and friends. While products make the occasional cameo, it’s the lifestyle content that has generated a mass following and genuine fandom around the brand. The organic success on TikTok has also meant that the brand has not had to spend any dollars advertising on Meta’s platforms.

Understanding your audience

For this social-first, audience-first approach to succeed, brands need to show they understand their audiences' real-life experiences and acknowledge that products are just enablers for those. The Chevrolet ads gain authenticity from having real people in them, driving relevance for the audience because they look and feel like the entertainment they know and love. Brands need to understand the world of their consumers and actively look for ways to enrich it.

Maltesers’ #TheMaternityReturn did this by acknowledging the challenges many new mums feel when returning to work. It created a hub of support resources, promoting it with a comedy film featuring real mums sharing their challenges and laugh-out-loud moments at work. This provided a natural route for it to become part of the right conversations and communities.

Finding the right fit

Finding a platform that is the right fit, and creating content that looks and feels authentic to the audience, is key. But this is something many brands struggle with, especially on platforms where authenticity equals low-fi compared to the ads they are used to spending millions producing. Mohawk Chevrolet’s videos are a world away from the traditional automotive adverts, but right at home in the gritty TikTok realm they live in, indistinguishable from other user-generated content on the platform.

Acknowledging that this is what resonates, TikTok’s advice to businesses is ‘Don’t make ads. Make TikToks’. It’s not just about putting products in front of the audience, but creating culture in the community you are trying to engage with.

There is also a technical element to the winning strategies. For content to break through in any platform, it’s vital to understand the algorithms that power it. This means investing in getting the length, style, tone and format right so that the content can live up to its full potential.

Show don’t tell

As brands have tightly defined architectures, tones and ways of behaving, meeting platform-specific requirements can sometimes be a challenge. Collaborating with partners who sit outside that realm can give them the flexibility to play the social field the way it needs to be played.

Influencers and partners can tap into their communities to build a bridge between the brand and new audiences and enhance authenticity. Dulux’s partnership with Stacey Salomon is a great example of this. It capitalised on Stacey’s status as a DIY enthusiast and home décor influencer, opening the brand to younger audiences outside the traditional painting and decorating sector.

Getting started

There are different routes to building authentic connections, but, in many cases, it calls for a mindset change. If you want to ride the current trends and zeitgeist, you have to move quickly. And that means letting go of the expectation of what you think content should look like and turning content around in hours and days, instead of months.

You need confidence to take the first step, start experimenting with content and formats and acknowledge that you probably won’t get it right the first time.

Don’t over-strategise. Be clear on why you want to do this, identify where the value is, and how you measure it – and accept that the ROI might not be as easy to quantify as with traditional advertising.

To thrive in the new communications economy – our social and digital-first world – we have to think audience-first. Advertising is meant to be entertaining, to add value, but today that’s too often an afterthought. Chevrolet, Strawberry Milk Mob and Maltesers have caught onto this, and are reaping the rewards.

Other brands need to follow suit if they want to forge more authenticity with their audiences and connect with them on the topics that matter the most.