How TikTok Helped Telecom Companies Ramp Up Their Brand Awareness

Jefrey Gomez

Sep 15, 20205 min read

Research says that 51% of customers would demonstrate a higher degree of loyalty toward telecom companies if they have a ‘good’ experience. Needless to say, here good implies coming out with flying colours at everything from tariff wars and data deals to the latest handset exclusives.

However, the digital transformation of the current age has only heightened the challenges of the telecom industry as customers today expect brands to engage with them through smart interactions. Doing so would also help brands stay on top of the minds of potential customers, which is of utter importance in an industry that is as competitive as the telecom sector.

Luckily, when different telecommunication brands are scrambling for ways to engage with their target audience, TikTok has emerged as the single platform that can go miles in ensuring customers’ familiarity with a brand. This was discovered by these three following telecom brands that partnered with TikTok to take their brand awareness a notch higher.

1. Vodafone

For Vodafone X users, Vodafone provided free and exclusive access to its dedicated learning platform called ‘Level Up’, which offered online learning courses for young people, as part of their monthly plan. In April 2020, Vodafone decided to extend the access to their learning platform to everyone regardless of their mobile network provider.

Their Objectives

Vodafone wanted to spread the news about extending the access to its learning platform to non-Vodafone users and boost its brand awareness in the process.

Approach & Solution

Vodafone X knew that TikTok could provide them with the reach that they needed to get the word around. So they joined hands with TikTok and utilized TikTok’s most engaging ad format, TopView, to spread their message to young people in Ireland with a 10sec video.

The video begins with the question of ‘bored at home?’ in the opening scene, which highlighted the predicament of young people who were away from work and education due to social distancing norms.

The ad then encourages users to add to their skills with Vodafone X’s free online courses through their Level Up programme, which was going to be available to students on all the networks.

The video featured a catchy soundtrack, which attracted the users and engaged them into Vodafone X’s world, driving awareness by appealing to all the senses of the audience.

Vodafone X’s landing page also featured an attractive ‘Get Started’ call to action. Tariff details were displayed alongside the information about the learning platform, which provided further information on their student-only packages.

The Result

Vodafone X TopView ad generated more than 1.7 million impressions on the very first day, driving hundreds of thousands of students across Ireland to the Level Up landing page. The ad also generated more than 350,000 clicks, which was much higher than all TikTok and industry benchmarks for engagement.

The watch length of the video was also exceptionally good, with almost half of the viewers watching at least 3 seconds of the video and more than 40,000 users watching the entire 10-second video.

2. Congstar

In 2019, telecom supplier Congstar wanted to reach a new audience of tech-savvy people on TikTok and drive engagement for its brand.

Their Objectives

While driving engagement and brand preference was at the top of its list, Congstar also wanted to build and grow its brand profile, which would help it facilitate organic communications in the future.

Approach & Solution

Considering the diverse demographics that TikTok has on its platform, Congstar decided to team up with TikTok.

Congstar claim- “You want it. You get it”- is the perfect match for young millennials and Gen Z users, who give more preference to experience, want instant connections, and aren’t afraid to show the world who they are.

Keeping this in mind, Congstar launched the #dancefordata challenge on TikTok for prepaid Congstar users in Germany, where the users only needed to post a video of themselves dancing to a catchy soundtrack and follow Congstar on TikTok. Also, Congstar incentivized participants by providing them with a chance to win a 50GB data pass.

To further boost their chances of being discovered, Congstar launched three different ad types, which included the Brand Takeover, a Brand Banner on the Discover Page and 10X creative variants of In-Feed Ads. all these three ad types directed users to the central Challenge page, thereby creating a huge reach.

Congstar also brought onboard a handful of German TikTok influencers to drive followers to the Challenge page. Their dance moves to the catchy soundtrack set the type of user engagement that Congstar was expecting.

The Result

The Congstar Hashtag Challenge was a tremendous success, resulting in over 24,000 participants creating 58,000 #dancefordata videos, which together fetched 81.7M video views and 9.8M interactions. The challenge page received more than 1.5M views. Also, the Brand Takeover ad resulted in 20.25% click through rate, which indicated that users were curious to find more about the campaign. Also, Congstar saw its followers increase from 1,700 to 3,200 in just six days.

3. TelkomSel

Indonesia’s largest mobile operator, TelkomSel, had over 18 million subscribers and about 20% of its smartphone clientele was using 3G network & 4G enabled smartphones. This resulted in inferior customer experience and poor brand recognition. TelkomSel wanted to change this situation on the ground.

Their Objectives

TelkomSel wanted to boost customer experience and drive awareness for its brand among millennials in a fun and memorable way, thereby converting a large chunk of its 3G internet users to 4G users.

Approach & Solution

Due to TikTok’s immense popularity among TelkomSel’s target audience of young millennials, TelkomSel decided to team up with TikTok.

Together, they carried out a viral marketing campaign for Telkom 4G upgrade with a branded hashtag campaign #NaikinLevel on TikTok, targeting more than 30 million TikTok users, 40% of which used the TelkomSel network.

The campaign saw the use of branded stickers, rolling banners, branded song, and signature TikTok moves to generate maximum engagement.

The campaign was supported by a combination of offline events around the country. Also, the network roped in 20 local Indonesian influencers to take the campaign to every household in the country.

The #NaikinLevel campaign, assisted by branded stickers, a catchy soundtrack, and signature moves helped spread the campaign among young people, creating a ripple effect for more engagement and participation.

The Result

The #NaikinLevel campaign was quite successful for TelkomSel, resulting in over 200K video submissions, which drove more than 1000M engagements in the form of likes, shares, and comments. Also, the videos fetched more than 100M views.

So, How Do You Plan to Use TikTok For Your Brand?

While it’s important to invest in core products and overall infrastructure, try ensuring that your customers have excellent brand experience at every touchpoint. The way you engage with your audience will be the differentiating factor between you and other operators and prove decisive about how effectively you grow your market size, increase usage, and minimize the churn.

How TikTok Helped Telecom Companies Ramp Up Their Brand Awareness

1. Vodafone

Their Objectives

Approach & Solution

The Result

2. Congstar

Their Objectives

Approach & Solution

The Result

3. TelkomSel

Their Objectives

Approach & Solution

The Result

So, How Do You Plan to Use TikTok For Your Brand?

References:

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