QVC is gearing up for yr two of its “Age of Possibility” platform, an effort dedicated to celebrating women over age 50, with the disclosing of an expanded partnership with TikTok for an eight-hour livestream shopping event designed to empower the older generation.
Championing the platform is QVC’s Quentissential 50 (Q50), a group of ladies including public figures like Donna Kelce, mother to Travis and Jason Kelce, creator Stacy London and TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford. The livestream, a part of TikTok Shop’s Super Brand Days, might be hosted on QVC’s TikTok channel on May 14 and have a handful of Q50 ambassadors, around 100 creators, exclusive product drops and panel conversations.
The event builds on a partnership between TikTok and QVC announced in April that enables the shopping network to host 24/7 live shopping streams featuring parent QVC Group’s brands, products and talent on the app. For QVC, a nearly 40-year-old brand most generally regarded for its live television broadcasts, a give attention to TikTok could seem out of character — especially for reaching the older generation — however the move is anything but, explained Annette Dunleavy, QVC’s vp of brand name marketing.
“Gen X is there. Gen X women are there. I’m there,” Dunleavy said. “So for us, it’s a technique to get in front of that audience and get in front of more women in a relevant way… and for TikTok it’s a technique to grow that Gen X audience that’s coming over and introducing themselves.”
Marketing for Gen X
While TikTok is known for its sway amongst generations like millennials and Gen Z, it also holds favor amongst Gen X, with 24% of the cohort using the app day by day. Additionally, after viewing a TikTok Shop experience, 87% of Gen X TikTok users agree that the platform is convenient, and nearly half (44%) of weekly Gen X users are taken with shopping on or from TikTok in the subsequent three months, in accordance with TikTok data.
QVC’s event will begin at 1 p.m. ET and be hosted from Santa Monica, California, and can feature eight hours of specialty content, including appearances from Q50 talent and QVC ambassadors including London and actresses Sherri Shepherd and Busy Philipps and more. Q50’s newest members will even be unveiled, including TV personality Hoda Kotb, clothier Carla Rockmore and socialite Kathy Hilton.
Categories promoted through the event will span beauty, fashion, home and kitchen, they usually might be amplified through exclusive drops and deals. Supplementing the shopping segments might be Q50 keynotes and panels where participants will discuss topics like constructing community, finding joy after 50 and suggestions for getting began as a content creator.
The “Age of Possibility” platform was introduced last April alongside Q50, a group inclusive of QVC hosts, celebrities, activists and entrepreneurs (and Dunleavy herself) to focus on life after age 50 as a period stuffed with opportunity. The platform was informed by brand-commissioned research revealing that only 31% of ladies aged 50-70 feel supported by brands, in comparison with 58% of ladies ages 18-29 and 41% of ladies ages 30-49.
“We found that girls over 50 aren’t feeling like they’re seen by brands or in promoting,” Dunleavy said. “We really wanted to acknowledge them, and we predict they need to see themselves reflected and celebrated.”
TikToking during a turnaround
The TikTok tie-up arrives amid QVC Group’s push for a turnaround. The company, which also owns shopping brands HSN, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Grandin Road, ended Q4 with a nearly $1.3 billion operating loss. Total revenue for the period fell 6% to $2.9 billion.
The company, formerly called Qurate Retail Group, began a three-part turnaround strategy in November that features offering live shopping content anytime and anywhere; leveraging technology to grow with emerging platforms and audiences; and, perhaps most significantly because it pertains to QVC’s latest news, creating what the corporate bills because the “leading live social shopping content engine.”
“We’re not by any means taking our foot off the gas from our original linear channels, but women are spending a lot of time on social and it aligns so well with our core values: community, entertainment, trust and presenting with our hosts, who you might argue were the OG influencers,” Dunleavy said.
The give attention to TikTok has already shown signs of paying off: Since initially launching on TikTok Shop in August, over 74,000 TikTok creators have featured QVC items through their shoppable videos and livestreams. TikTok’s future within the U.S. stays uncertain, though President Donald Trump recently indicated he would give the ByteDance-owned app a third extension on its impending ban in hopes that the corporate will reach a sell-off deal.
QVC Group has taken other efforts to drive its growth, including revamping its leadership team and naming a chief growth officer who will give attention to areas including recent business development, digital and social streaming.
While social media is a key a part of QVC’s strategy, its efforts to achieve goal audiences like Gen X stretch beyond TikTok to incorporate channels like streaming and linear — the latter of which is still a strong player and on the core of the brand — because the network angles to be the “primary entertaining live-shopping retailer on the market,” Dunleavy explained.
“We are in every single place she desires to be,” the exec said. “We are really working to be in every single place we will entertain and have interaction our audience.”
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