Despite an economic downturn caused by the outset of COVID-19, sales in the retail industry are anticipated to grow to $23.6 trillion in 2022, from $23.6 trillion in 2018.

While this may sound like great news to many retailers, the ever-growing competition makes it imperative for brands to think out of the box to catch and retain the customer’s attention. The emergence of various marketing channels has also contributed to the growing challenge for brands to keep themselves relevant in an industry that sees the entry of many new players every day.

Therefore, retail companies need to leverage the potential of existing channels to boost their brand familiarity, as was done by these three following retail brands that used TikTok to drive their brand awareness.

1. Rossmann

Leading German drug store chains, Rossmann, had recently undergone a name change to RIVAL ♥ me and sought to popularize the new name.

Their Objectives

Rossmann wanted to both drive awareness toward its new name, as well as, appeal to its young audience.

Approach & Solution

As Rossmann wanted to focus on a young audience, teaming up with TikTok was an obvious decision.

As the campaign was quite important, TopView Lite seemed like the only TikTok advertising format that could meet the campaign’s goals. This format makes the ad the first video that a user sees in a specific category and occupies the entire screen with an ad that runs for 3-5 seconds.

The 5-second video ad featured a young woman model, thereby announcing the arrival of Rossmann’s cosmetic line, RIVAL ♥ me. The ad ended with a call to action, which took the users to a Rossmann landing page and showcased the entire range of RIVAL ♥ me products.

The Result

The TopView Lite ad was shown for only one day on 16th May 2020 but was immensely successful. The ad garnered a whopping 14.3 million impressions, which exceeded the initial estimates.

Also, the video was seen 14.2M times, driving 2.7M clicks to Rossmann’s RIVAL ♥ me collection page at a high click-through rate of nearly 20%. This subsequently delivered an impressive engagement rate of 19.7%.

2. Kaufland

Kaufland, one of the biggest hypermarket chains in Germany, wanted to make inroads into the young German shoppers.

Their Objectives

Kaufland wanted to boost its brand perception and drive brand awareness, which would subsequently boost its sales.

Approach & Solution

As their target audience comprised young people, they decided to join hands with TikTok, which is immensely popular amongst Gen Z shoppers.

TikTok’s Official Creators are much loved and often replicated. So Kaufland brought on board two of Germany’s most popular comedy creators- Theo Carow and Levin, to help with their campaign called Wie kaufst du?” ("How do you shop for your groceries”).

Kaufland enlisted the help of creative agency LIMITD, to leverage TikTok’s In-Feed Ads for its two 20s videos. The video shows both the Creators at Kaufland stores and depicts two humorous scenes with the topic “Wie kaufst du?”, which had a quotient of relatability to it, especially for young people.

The first video showed how people’s attitude to pricing changes depending on whether an item is being paid for by them or their parents. The second video presented a scene of how one might act if they bumped into someone that they didn’t want to speak to.

Both these In-Feed Ads were displayed in the For You feeds of TikTok users, and had a cool soundtrack running in the background. Each clip ended with a call to action that took the users to the TikTok profile page of Kaufland.

The Result

The In-Feed Ads were run for three days from 14-16 May 2020 and garnered a massive 2,246,234 views. The combined click-through rate for the ads was 0.57%, which was much higher than the targeted figure. Also, they registered 2,172,121 impressions.

The campaign fetched 51,000 likes, comments, and shares, resulting in an increase of 3,665 followers in Kaufland’s TikTok profile. The impact that these videos had on the brand can be perceived from the average watch time for each person being 4.55 seconds. Over 30% of the unique video views had watched the ads for at least 3 seconds.

3. KFC UK

KFC wanted to celebrate its return post the COVID-19 pandemic with a witty and catchy message and grow its online orders.

Their Objectives

KFC wanted to make an event out of its comeback after the pandemic and make up for its low footfall throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, through its comeback, it wanted to reach out to a young UK audience.

Approach & Solution

Since KFC’s target audience consisted of mostly young fans, it decided to join hands with TikTok, which is incredibly popular amongst the younger generation.

It leveraged TikTok’s In-Feed Ad to re-launch its delivery service over a two-week period for UK fans over the age of 18. These ads ran natively in the For You feed, which was strategically placed to make the brand a part of the conversation.

KFC, which is known for creating powerful creative, used fan-created memes of food prepared at home, which also had Celine Dion’s “All by Myself” playing in the background. Also, shots of a KFC bucket further set the mood. The Ad then shows an impactful statement “we’ll take it from here” at the top and directs the users to a Deliveroo page to place their orders.

The Result

The TikTok campaign proved to be highly successful for KFC and amassed over 3.4M impressions, 1.8M video views, and 64K clicks. A high engagement rate of 10.54% was a clear indication of how eagerly KFC fans had been waiting for KFC services to relaunch. Moreover, a 1.87% click-through rate to the Deliveroo page converted the existing fans to sales.

Bottom Line

While the content plays a great role in engaging the target audience, using the right marketing platform along with the ad format can ensure that brands achieve their target within the planned time frame. Also, videos are a great way of driving engagement and brand awareness through TikTok. Also, the TopView Ad format can help users take notice of an ad more quickly than other formats.