Social media has become an integral part of our lives. Many head to apps like Instagram and Facebook for product information and inspiration. Consequently, many social media users follow fashion, beauty, food or fitness influencers to stay informed on what’s hot. In an astonishing fact sourced by Google, 4 in 10 Millennials said their favourite influencer understood them better than their friends. This has placed influencers on a powerful pedestal that brands can capitalise to build a bigger, more loyal customer base.
How are brands partnering with influencers?
Brands have been using shoppable video and streaming commerce to connect with customers via influencers. The medium seamlessly integrates direct purchase options with immersive and interactive content. Smartzer’s interactive tag video platform adds a clickable overlay to video content. This might be over an influencers livestream, image or video post. The brand will add the desired links to Smartzer's software either manually, via Product Feed or via Product API. This will enable the viewer to click the products and access details and purchase options as the video continues to play. This tech speeds up the route to purchase for a consumer, increasing the chance of a conversion. By combining trustworthy influencers with instantly informative interactive video brands can win big.
Here are some of the ways brands are implementing this strategy…
NYX Pro Makeup: Livestream Shopping and Tutorials
The digital first brand targeted the social media generation during a time when bricks and mortar beauty counters were closed. By launching their large scale influencer outreach programme they have secured a close relationship with their customers. The livestream makeup tutorials with LGBT influencer Matt Bernstein reached thousands. Fans were able to see the products in action and purchase them directly from the livestream shopping video.
The Sport of Being Hannah Bronfman for Harper’s Bazaar: Shoppable Day in the Life
Famous online retailer, Harper’s Bizarre collaborated with DJ, fitness guru, model and blogger Hannah Bronfman to deliver a clickable and entirely shoppable editorial. Viewers could interact with the video by clicking on the pieces worn by Hannah. The video would then display the products, showing more information and the option to “Buy Now”. The shoppable video received 80K shares on social media.
Trisha Hershberger: Amazon Live Influencers
Amazon has created their own platform for influencers and brands to come together to promote products to the masses. This form of streaming commerce features live reviews that demonstrate how products work. These videos are tagged with the items for the viewer to purchase without leaving the video. Tag videos have the potential to reach huge audiences as demonstrated by gaming influencer, Trisha Hershberger. By partnering with influencers like Trisha to promote their gaming products, brands could reach over 145K potential buyers.
Sofia Schwarzkopf-Tilbury: Brown Thomas X Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Masterclass
Using Smartzer's shoppable livestream video platform, Brown Thomas teamed up with celebrity makeup artist, Sofia Tilbury to deliver an interactive beauty masterclass. Makeup enthusiasts pre-booked tickets for the exclusive event and tuned in for live makeup tips. Demonstrated products would appear in a shoppable side-bar for the viewer to purchase without leaving the stream. After the livestream shopping event, the video was made public on Brown Thomas’s e-commerce website with the aim to turn regular web traffic into qualified traffic. This bespoke, immersive form of streaming commerce can successfully increase engagement by offering a memorable and unique customer experience.
Influencer voices can help brands obtain thousands of new customers through just one video. It is clear that in 2021, influencer marketing is key to maintain customer trust and loyalty when physical stores are closed.
In January 2021 alone, TikTok had over 315 million downloads. Overall, it has been downloaded over 2.6 billion times as reported by Sensor Tower in December 2020. This surge in popularity can be blamed on the global pandemic. With so many of us stuck inside and glued to our screens, it’s no wonder that people are seeking the instant entertainment that TikTok videos provide.
But what is TikTok?
TikTok is a video sharing social media platform that has proved itself a global hit with GenZ audiences. The app may not have anything to do with clocks or watches but it is highly concerned with views. It's more than likely that you will have seen videos of dance routines or heard a song on the radio that initially went viral on the platform. Here, content can go viral in seconds with the biggest influencers possessing nearly 32.7 million followers and receiving almost 46 million likes for a 60 second video. Brands would be silly not to take advantage of the platform to promote their content to the masses.
How to make an interactive video ad on TikTok
TikTok offers several options for brands to advertise with interaction videos. For example, IN-Feed Ads, TopView, Brand Takeover, Branded Hashtag Challenge, Branded Effects.
In-Feed Ads
Videos have a “Sponsored” label
Videos appear on users “For You” page amongst other creator content
Videos have a clickable call-to-action ie, “Learn More” or “Buy Now”
Users can “like”, “share”, “follow”, “shoot videos with the same music”
TopView
Video first format that puts brand videos in unmissable view of audiences
Using sight, sound and narrative to capture user attention
60 seconds of full-screen and long form video, with autoplay and sound
Distraction-free viewing grabbing 100% user attention
Brand Takeover
Full screen visual ad experience for viewers
Multiple creative formats with static and dynamic display
3 second JPG and 3-5 second video supported
Branded Hashtag Challenge
Taps into user passion for creation, encouraging brand engagement that goes beyond simple clicks
Brands invite users to participate in creating content surrounding the campaign theme with all UGC aggregating in the hashtag challenge page.
Average engagement rate of 8.5% through likes, comments and shares.
Branded Effects
Tailor made shareable stickers, filters and special effects
Users can create selfie videos with these effects, sharing and promoting brands interaction videos.
TikTok Creator Marketplace is an official platform for brand and creator collaborations and videos from creator partners can easily be promoted as in-feed ads for an extra visibility boost. Here, brands can monitor their analytics and productivity of their campaigns.
The Best Brand Use of Interaction Video on TikTok
Motel Rocks: Call-To-Action and Influencer Partnerships
Online retailer, Motel Rocks has been taking advantage of Influencer followings to promote their brand. Their products are shown to millions of viewers via TikTok personalities in In-Feed ads. The clickable call-to-action “Shop now” takes viewers directly to the product page without leaving the shoppable video. With 2.4 million likes, the interaction video has clearly engaged millions of prospective customers.
Guess Jeans: #InMyDenim Branded Hashtag Challenge
“A Cluttered brand space demands unique, engaging content and integrated participation” said Edward Park, SVP of retail and digital at Guess. So, the brand took to TikTok to shake up their video content marketing strategy. The challenge asks users to demonstrate how they style their denim and transform their look from a mess to best dressed. The interactive element of the challenge drew together fans and the brand, successfully generating conversation with a new GenZ and Millennial audience.
Balenciaga: Shoppable TopView Ad
Balenciaga was the first luxury brand to launch a shoppable campaign on TikTok. This was a 24 hour takeover of the TikTok front page and generated 25 million views. The interactive video platform allowed viewers to shop the items in the video. By clicking the call-to-action, viewers could view the collection in a carousel. The interaction videos speed up the route to purchase by displaying the shoppable products directly before the viewer. Since the route to purchase is shortened, there is a higher chance of customers completing a conversion.
Innovative Interactive Video Platforms that can show brands how to easily make an interactive video on TikTok
Smartzer offers an interactive video platform that provides brands with a tool that turns content into interaction videos on TikTok.
Smartzer MINI Shop:
Brands can connect their campaign call-to-action with the Smartzer MINI Shop links. This will connect your ad directly to your product feed. A viewer will click the ad and instantly see all the shoppable products and a direct link to the e-commerce site.
Lightweight, easy to use pages help inform users about products. This can lead to higher conversion rates and a stronger ROI.
This could be through either makeup tutorial videos, fashion videos or recipe videos. Videos will have clickable components to clothing, makeup or ingredients.
Smartzer Interactive Experience
Every interactive experience is optimised for mobile.
It is easy to share the interaction video content across social media platforms.
Users can engage with the interactive content by launching the call-to-action or the URL displayed in the video.
This could be in TikTok work out videos (shoppable fitness gear), travel videos (interactive hotel tour), auto videos (interactive tour of car features).
With more and more users downloading TikTok everyday, the clock is ticking for brands to utilise the platform to reach millions of new and existing customers.
- Feb 12, 2021
2020 was the year for cancelled plans. The Summer Olympics was cancelled for the first time since World War II, Glastonbury 20/21 was cancelled, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, The Rolling Stones and The Weeknd were all forced to reschedule their highly anticipated tours and ITV’s Love Island was unable to take place. The list goes on.
With the word of the year being “unprecedented”, the only thing we could be 100% sure of was that the events industry needed to adapt to accommodate for restrictions.
While some brands have refunded and rescheduled events, some have made the virtual transition to livestream. In fact, the occurrence of virtual events went up 1000% since the start of COVID-19 with 52,000 on just one platform, 6Connex.
Brands driving virtual events in 2021
Livestream Music
Online livestream venue StageIt has been helping to connect fans with lesser known artists for years. Here, acts stream live from the comfort of their homes via laptop cameras. Through an interactive chat room feature, fans can communicate with artists by asking questions and requesting songs. With venues closed, StageIt enables fans to financially support artists through a monetized system and acts can show their appreciation for viewers via a virtual tip jar. Through interactive video streams, fans can win prizes such as band merch or one-on-one Zoom sessions.
Bigger artists such as The Weeknd have held live, interactive virtual concerts. In August 2020 he took to TikTok drawing over 2 million total viewers and raising over $350,000 for the Equal Justice Initiative. Adam Lambert will host a series of live streams this February 2021 discussing Stonewall day and up and coming LGBTQ artists. Eddie Vedder, Phoebe Bridgers and more are set to perform virtually for the 34th annual Tibet House US Benefit concert with tickets starting at $25.
Livestream Fashion
Harnessing the magic of the internet, Dior streamed their Autumn 2021 Men's show live online as a part of Paris Men’s Fashion Week on 22 January 2021. The innovative, vibrant collection inspired by surrealism and science fiction reflected the limitless possibilities of combining technology with fashion. Featuring art from Kenny Scharf the show was streamed live using Amazon owned platform Twitch. The technology has also been used by Burberry in their Spring/Summer 2021 show. By contrast to Snapchat, Facebook Live, or Instagram, Twitch’s streaming service is more public, bringing the front row seat at fashion week to your device screen. The interactive video experience gave viewers the opportunity to connect with each other in live chat rooms. As a result, live streaming could bring the fashion community together during a socially distanced period.
Live Shopping
With store doors closed, interactive video is opening up new opportunities for ecommerce. Department store Brown Thomas partnered with Smartzer to create interactive and shoppable video events featuring brands like Laura Mercier and Bare Minerals. Customers could book onto breakthrough beauty masterclasses and tutorials to learn about makeup products and application techniques. They could shop the content shown in the stream via a product carousel and add items to their basket without leaving the stream. Through these exclusive events, customers were provided with a bespoke, live shopping experience that generated a community feel for like minded makeup enthusiasts.
By using Smartzer’s player that was fully integrated into the Demandware API, up-to-date product information could be instantly pulled into the Smartzer editor and player to be showcased to viewers. The private videos are now available on Brown Thomas’s ecommerce site for anyone to view. By using these videos for video content marketing, brands can engage and inform standard web visitors and turn general traffic into qualified traffic. Tests have revealed that a consumer who watched a video demonstrating a product was 144% more likely to add that product to their shopping cart. Through interactive, demonstrative video content brands can increase online engagement and build trust with their audiences to increase conversion rates.