The Most Important Tik Tok for 2020
@420dogface208 made a Tik Tok that went viral out of nowhere. Let’s analyze how Ocean Spray took advantage of this and why this video worked.
“Right time, right place” it’s a quote that can be thrown a lot when this kind of viral events happen, in this case, without planning of the creator, from his frontal camera, with some Cran-Raspberry Juice from Ocean Spray and “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac playing in the background, but the truth is that this good vibes video wouldn’t have worked outside of Tik Tok and in any other year, it would’ve been buried in the information that is uploaded every day. So yes, right place: Tik Tok, right time: 2020.
This viral video that already has more than 60 million views on Tik Tok, without counting views from other videos that have paid tribute to the original shows that one of the most important qualities of Tik Tok is how its algorithm and how it pushes the content that people fine real, rather than the popular dances and the lip-sync. The main difference between Tik Tok and other platforms right now is that Tik Tok is not money and ad based (at least yet). On Facebook you would need a whole strategy to make your content relevant, on Instagram it happens the same way but just on a smaller scale, on Twitter although you can push your content by putting ads on it, a few retweets could be all you need to reach a lot of people organically. So just thinking that Tik Tok is a great opportunity to do marketing because of the way it works could be a little rushed. And let’s be real, as of right now Tik Tok is an ad free place, how do you think its users would react if their content starts to get interrupted, still in an organic way by a brand trying its best to be a casual user doing content.
Knowing how Tik Tok works and dismantling a little of 420dogface2080’s video, there's 2 elements that we can easily stand out from this platform. First, the music is a good opportunity to create more genuine content, McDonalds already did it with the “I’m Lovin it” campaign through a hit pop that later would be revealed as their main piece for this campaign, and also the slogan that would stick right below the logo to this day. This Tik Tok viral video, originated by Nathan Apodaca(420dogface208) having problems with his truck and using his longboard to get to work as a plan b, made the album where Dreams was released to reach 30.6 millions plays on the week of October 15th. The second element is that making content around the brand rather than always putting the brand in the center of the spotlight can bring positive results. The Ocean Spray bottle was there sharing the same space with Nathan and the song by Fleetwood Mac. It was not necessary that the juice bottle was the main character in this video to give Ocean Spray a push that in the context of 2020 must feel like winning the lottery.
This “good accident” that Ocean Spray got to be a part of and received with open arms reflects what was mentioned before about not putting your brand always in the spotlight is okay. The juice company reacted quickly by having its CEO making the same video as the original, and also being involved in the trend with Mick Fleetwood, Jimmy Fallon and even Shakira. Ocean Spray also said thanks to 420dogface208 by giving him a new Cran-Raspberry Juice colored truck, and a lot of products by their company, making this move coexist perfectly with the already popular video. As of right now there's not an official tv spot produced by Ocean Spray starring Nathan Apodaca, and would it be really necessary?
The most important thing is to recognize the ecosystem of social media and how it works, nobody jumps into a pool without feeling how cold or hot the water is. Learning how to co exist with the changing content that users are consuming and explore a bit more the context of many viral videos, like the one we talked about here. Today this video pops up as good vibes necessary for a year that we all know hasn't been good, tomorrow the context will be different.
Roberth Leiva
Creative