The TikTok takeover of the physical world has well and truly begun
The TikTok takeover of the physical world has well and truly begun. With its recent launch of the ‘Out of Phone’ capability, it has broken out of mobile screens and smashed into the real world. Brands are now able to extend their TikTok creative beyond the platform into new placements; starting with outdoor, cinemas, and digital screens.
TikTok's strategic move from phones to include out-of-home is aimed at convincing brands to put TikTok at the core of their media plan. While the platform continues to claim an ever larger slice of the social media pie, this is a shot at prizing budgets away from non-social channels, like search, TV, and out-of-home. The pitch is simple and compelling: extend your reach, improve creative efficiencies, and place the most culturally relevant platform of today at the heart of your plan.
They’ve learnt this from a rival: YouTube is a success story in extending out from the mobile screen, with half of viewership now occurring on TV. It’s all an effort to extend influence, diversify revenue streams and increase the share of advertising budgets. And it seems to be working, with YouTube’s revenue set to reach $33.5bn in 2024 according to WARC.
TikTok will believe they can go one better, with the cultural momentum they have right now.
Don’t be surprised by this unusual marriage: social and out-of-home have always been closer siblings than you’d first assume. Both exist in low-attention environments where you must prioritise brutal simplicity of message. Grab attention, or get ignored.
We’ve recently explored this innovation for Guinness, extending social creative out into digital out of home screens. We’ve seen first hand the impact from bringing the channels closer together, and combining the two has been successful in increasing both effectiveness and efficiency.
This all gets particularly interesting in the context of creator campaigns. It’s increasingly clear that influencers are pivotal for brands to cut through on TikTok - they’re at the heart of how the platform works. With this move, you can see the potential to test, iterate and then scale creator partnerships beyond the For You Page, giving brands the confidence to increase investment here.
'Out of Phone' presents the opportunity to take this one step further by seamlessly extending creator campaigns into the ‘real world’. Soon, creators will dominate offline media as much as they dominate online media today.
'Out of Phone' shouldn’t be seen in isolation as it represents the broader sea change in the media environment. According to WARC and GWI, Social is now the number one form of media consumption for the 16-44 age groups.
Now, brands are taking note and identifying where the attention goes, investment follows: social media is set to surpass Search spend in Q4 2024, becoming the largest media channel by spend, globally.
With these platform innovations able to drive brand building and social taking centre stage globally, a social-first approach is rapidly becoming the default choice for marketers. The key emphasis is on the word 'first'; start with a social strategy and then expand it across the entire media ecosystem. Is the marketing industry prepared for this shift?
Callum is CSO & Partner at Born Social, where he oversees the strategic output across the agency and works with some of the world’s most ambitious businesses, like Guinness and Ford, to build social-first brands. Known for his thinking on the role that social media plays in building the brands of tomorrow, Callum has been featured in the Campaign 30 under 30 and BIMA100 lists, spoken for TedX and been published in The Guardian, Campaign, and WARC on the role that social media plays in brand building.
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