How TikTok RUINED Marketing - Company Forensics

Introduction

Marketing is probably one of the fastest changing disciplines in the world. Over the last 10 years, something vastly different and much more transformative has happened. There has been a true shift in a thousand-year-old industry right under our noses. In the last 10 years, newspapers died, all print media is dying, and television as we grew up is dying too. For a while, this shift into digital marketing was a dream for advertisers. More data to collect from users, more ways to target them, to guess what they want, and to push it to them. But privacy is more and more crucial to customers using digital devices these days. We're blocking those tracking pixels, the ads on those media pages are noise that we're evolving to ignore or that we just pay to get rid of. Ads have become a tax for the poor or for the non-tech savvy.

Brands are left with fewer and fewer places to get in front of people. It's great for people, but it's bad for brands and has made a very specific group especially powerful, which ultimately brings us to TikTok.

The Shift in Advertising

Estimates say that today the average human will see 4,000 to 10,000 ads in a single day. Many of these ads go unnoticed, with most studies agreeing that only about 10% are truly noticed, though many still get stuck in our subconscious. For this article, I will count every single brand impression that you will see. Here's the count so far.

When we started our company, finding a marketing lead wasn't easy, and today's sponsor helps solve precisely that. They've shortlisted about 600 marketing experts across various disciplines who you can hire to lead or assist in your company's marketing. They help fill a middle ground where hiring a permanent team could be too risky or too expensive, and a marketing agency might be disconnected from core business metrics.

The Death of Traditional Media

The early days of marketing focused on direct response advertising—getting customers to engage with the product immediately. Platforms like Google and Facebook thrived on this model. They allowed advertisers to target users based on the data collected from their online behavior. However, this came to a halt thanks to several scandals, the most notable being the Cambridge Analytica incident that highlighted how much these companies knew about us. People lost trust in these platforms, and new controls were added to browsers and devices to block this kind of tracking.

Influencer Marketing

Traditional marketing channels like TV and radio have been in decline. There was a time when ads were all about brand awareness through print, television, and radio. However, the rise of the internet led to a new era of marketing called influencer marketing. This started when celebrities endorsed products, but evolved with platforms like YouTube and Instagram making it possible for everyday people to become influencers.

TikTok: The Final Straw

TikTok became a perfect storm of various trends disrupting marketing. With cable TV dying, people spending more time on their phones during the pandemic, and ad-blocking becoming the norm, TikTok offered a unique platform. TikTok is dictated by an algorithm that personalizes content based on user behavior rather than follower count, allowing anyone to reach millions of people.

Challenges with TikTok

TikTok's strength is its personalized, user-driven content. But it also poses future risks. It’s banned in several countries due to security concerns, and its algorithm has shown biases based on user data. Nonetheless, TikTok's influence on marketing has been transformative, albeit disruptive, forcing brands to rethink their strategies in engaging ways.

In conclusion, the traditional model of marketing is rapidly disappearing, with platforms like TikTok leading the charge in this transformation. Marketing professionals now have the exciting but challenging task of navigating this new landscape.

Keywords

• Marketing evolution
• Digital marketing
• Influencer marketing
• TikTok
• Algorithm-driven content
• Privacy concerns
• Advertising decline

FAQ

Q: How has the role of ads changed in recent years? A: Ads have become more targeted but also more likely to be ignored. Privacy concerns have reduced the effectiveness of tracking-based advertising.

Q: Why is TikTok significant in the world of marketing? A: TikTok leverages a powerful algorithm to tailor content, making it easier for anyone to reach a massive audience without relying on follower count.

Q: How has traditional media been affected by the rise of digital platforms? A: Traditional media channels like TV and radio have seen a significant decline as people switch to digital platforms with ad-free experiences.

Q: What are the future risks associated with TikTok? A: TikTok poses security and privacy risks. It has been banned in several countries, and its algorithm has shown biases in content.

Q: How can brands adapt to the changing marketing landscape? A: Brands need to embrace new media formats and platforms, create genuine and engaging content, and possibly leverage short-form content to stay relevant.