The revenue from the global food industry is expected to reach $488,160 in 2020. The food sector is expected to grow annually at a CAGR of 3.6% between 2020 and 2025.

With COVID-19 bringing major disruptions to almost every sector, the food industry is perhaps one of the few industries that have shown a potential for growth. However, job losses and salary deductions could play spoilsport in the food sector reaching its full potential.

Hence, marketing is more essential than ever to make the most out of this ever-growing industry. Companies need to get their brands out there and ensure that people notice their products by leveraging various platforms, which was done by these three following food brands that teamed up with TikTok to boost their brand awareness.

1. Pocky

Popular snack food, Pocky, produced by the Japanese food company Ezaki Glico, wanted to popularize the snack among the young consumers.

Their Objectives

Pocky sought to raise its brand awareness and drive more brand engagement among the young digital natives.

Approach & Solution

Since Pocky was focusing on a younger audience, which is very active on TikTok, partnering with the platform was an obvious decision.

Pocky launched the Branded Hashtag Challenge, #ポッキー何本分体操, which translates to #PockyHowManyGymnastics, to attain its goals. The challenge has a customized Branded Music, called "How Many is Your Happiness?". The song quantified people’s happiness into Pocky sticks. Thus, more number of Pocky sticks meant a person was happier.

Pocky also roped in influencers who performed the finger dance by comparing fingers to Pocky sticks and challenged users to show the right number of fingers by keeping in sync with the lyrics. As the number of Pocky increased from 1 to 100 in the 15-second video, the music also sped up.

The Result

The campaign turned out quite fruitful for the brand as the challenge fetched 27.3 million views of videos that used the campaign’s hashtags. Also, it resulted in more than 23,600 user-generated videos. Considering that the campaign lasted for only 5 days, this was an incredible achievement.

2. Capri Sun

Capri Sun was about to launch its new product range called Capri-Sun & bubbles for which it wanted to reach out to a new audience.

Their Objectives

Capri Sun wanted to drive mass awareness to promote its new Capri-Sun & bubbles to a Gen Z audience.

Approach & Solution

Since Gen Z was their target audience, they decided to team up with TikTok, which is adored by millions of Gen Z digital natives.

They ran In-Feed, which targeted users with an organic and subtle presence. The creative was so designed that it popped up and captured the user’s attention with its vibrant and bright colour, catchy music and eye-catching product placement.

Also, it featured Gen Z models drinking Capri-Sun & bubbles from the can. The product was placed front and centre of the ad, which made it the highlight of the creative and left users with a memorable impression of the can.

The Result

The campaign, which was designed together with one of Europe’s leading media agencies, Mediaplus, was highly successful and exceeded all expectations. They acquired a view-through rate of 6.68% to 100% completion, along with a 4.78% engagement rate.

The final call to action also garnered an impressive click-through rate of 1.41% and led to a product page with additional information about Capri-Sun & bubbles.

Of all the impressions, only 8.2% accounted for invalid traffic, which meant that 91.2% of the views were authentic and valid. With an average ad length of 10.22 seconds and 83.42% completion quality, the ads performed better than all the set benchmarks.

3. Chipotle

Chipotle, an American chain of fast casual restaurants, noticed that it was being repeatedly mentioned by the TikTok community, which it decided to use in its favour.

Their Objectives

Chipotle sought to engage the TikTok community and raise brand awareness with fun and authentic content.

Approach & Solution

Chipotle decided to launch its official business account on the platform in 2018 to connect with the younger generation in a better way.

Instead of sharing conventional branding videos, they kept the content very casual, such as people sharing their favourite Chipotle hacks or recipes for Chipotle steak or corn salsa.

Also, they produced comedy sketches and reposted fan content. This included content such as Boomers mispronouncing Chipotle and using a burrito as a ‘dumbbell’ for the bicep workout on ‘arm days’. Also, to give the entire campaign a more realistic touch, they included behind-the-scenes footage showing Chipotle’s crew members and real kitchens.

Chipotle also ran two successful Branded Hashtag Challenges for further engagement. Both these challenges, i.e., #LidFlipChallenge and #GuacDance, featured popular TikTok creators who helped the brand raise awareness for its official business account.

The Result

Ever since it joined TikTok in 2018, Chipotle has gained massive reach and awareness through its official account, gaining over 1.3 million followers and 20.7 million likes across more than 100 of its videos.

Wrapping Up

Today, there is no dearth of platforms that can be used by companies to drive user engagement and create brand awareness for their products. However, it is critical to understand what would resonate with one’s targeted consumers. Even content with the simplest ideas and concepts can bring in massive engagement and boost brand awareness in unimaginable ways.