- TikTok has continued to have sway with marketers, with over one quarter of brands listing the ByteDance-owned app as probably the most integral platform for influencer marketing, in keeping with a latest report from CreatorIQ and TikTok.
- The report detailed how the top brands on TikTok share similar approaches, including prioritizing creator authenticity, brand alignment and retention, to succeed. Brands in the sweetness and fashion category have found the best success, per the report.
- The report measured earned media value (EMV) over a 12-month period from March 2023 to February 2024 to rank the top brands. Placing first is Amazon, with a TikTok EMV of $1.03 billion, followed by the NBA, NFL, Sephora, Fortnite and Barbie.
The age of the influencer is here, and, despite what other reports might indicate, CreatorIQ’s report suggests that authenticity stays king. According to the research, 41% of TikTok users say creators’ content feels authentic, and significantly, that authenticity transfers to the brands they represent. Fifty-five percent of TikTok users say they usually tend to trust brands once they hear about them from creators, as in comparison with the opposite ads of their feed.
Additionally, 55% of users agree TikTok creators help them feel connected to brands and ads with a creator related to the brand’s vertical —a beauty influencer for a cosmetics brand, as an example — are 1.5 times more more likely to hook a user than a creator with no association with the vertical. That connection translates to engagement as well, as the top brands partner with creators who’re already engaging key audiences organically, per the report.
CreatorIQ’s report broke down 100 total brands by EMV, with Amazon rating first. The e-commerce giant’s $1.03 billion represents a 20% year-over-year change, and the corporate also holds a 43% creator retention rate and over 763 million engagements. Behind Amazon, so as of highest EMV, is the NBA ($894.6 million), NFL ($688.1 million), Sephora ($468.8 million), Fortnite ($360.1) and Barbie ($337 million).
Further, 14 of TikTok’s top 25 brands have a creator retention rate of over 25%, meaning that no less than 1 / 4 of the brands’ creators posted about them in consecutive 12-month periods. Such retention is vital to establishing authenticity, and a consumer’s likelihood of shopping for a product increases when a creator continually shares experiences with a product or brand. The more often a creator posts a couple of brand or is featured in a brand’s ads, the more authentic the brand-creator relationship is perceived to be, per the report.
CreatorIQ’s research diverges from insights presented by Sprout Social earlier this 12 months that suggested consumers trust influencers greater than they did six months ago, but that they value authenticity lower than they do follower count. Nevertheless, Sprout Social’s research indicated nearly half of all consumers make every day or weekly purchases due to influencers.
Influencer marketing, meanwhile, took a much bigger step toward the highlight last week when Publicis Groupe announced its plans to buy Influential, the world’s largest influencer marketing company by revenue, for an estimated $500 million. Influential runs a network of greater than 3.5 million creators, including 90% of the worldwide influencers who’ve 1 million followers or more.
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