📦 - Haters Gonna Hate

DTC 309 - Should your brand reply to your TikTok comments? [DTC]( Banter Friday, March 17, 2023 #relatable. Do the kids still use hashtags these days?! In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇 📦 Do TikTok trending songs help or hinder your videos? 📦 FOMO no more. Get your ticket to DTC’s C-Suite Las Vegas 📦 Should your brand reply to your TikTok comments? 📦 The importance of having clear data to scale your brand Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎 👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, [subscribe,]( so you never miss out. TikTok 🎉 Introduction Welcome back to the latest edition of DTC’s Brand Breakdown series! This week, we continue the dive into Kim K’s SKIMS, the athletic shapewear brand and their TikTok account. As one of the biggest brands on the fastest-growing platform on the planet, we’re expecting some big moves from SKIMS’s organic strategy. Let’s see what the [Pilothouse TikTok team]( had to say. 👇 🤔 What’s the deal? Hmm, looks like SKIMS is off to a bit of a rocky start and leaving us with some questions. With a short medium to work with, the goal should be to answer as many questions as possible for the viewer rather than generate more of them (unless the answer can be found in your call to action!). We see the brand name right up front in the video, and we’re not sure this is a worthy use of screen space for such an established brand. Exploring alternative design elements with further testing could be the right move to increase the overall impact of this post. 🎨 Consumers and marketers enjoy narratives in video content because it drives a message home. There’s nothing more boring than a big company telling you to spend money while not giving you anything substantial in return. 🥱 Speeding up the pace and leveraging a narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end would engage the audience more effectively. A simple morning routine simply doesn’t provide that here. On a more positive note, we can compare brand-building vs. sales strategies to determine the best angle and audience. Without much product information, SKIMS should use this video in a brand-building campaign for its organic audience. This angle is much easier to leverage with previously engaged users who don’t necessarily need to be sold on your product. Sponsor If You Get FOMO, Read This… Do you scroll your LinkedIn, Twitter, and social networks and feel left out from all the fun things your peers are doing? If you answered yes, don’t miss out on your [last chance to snag a ticket for DTC’s C-Suite Las Vegas!]( Join the DTC team March 23rd and 24th to network with DTC brand owners and operators from a variety of industries, and learn from some of the biggest names in the game: - Sean McGinnis from Kuru Footwear - Issac Medeiros and Karly McFarland from Mini Katana - Jason Kutasi from Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream - Ashvin Melwani and Ronak Shah from Obvi - Lezlie Karls, Nick Saltarelli, and Jake Karls from Mid-Day Squares Still not convinced? 👀 You'll be rubbing shoulders with brands like True Classic, FEASTABLES, Tabs Chocolate, Tapcart, Outway, Bushblam, Plufl, and ClearStem Skincare. P.S. Want to check on your email or Meta accounts? Join 1-on-1 workshops with the [Pilothouse team!]( We don’t want you to have FOMO, so use discount code TRAVEL at checkout for $1000 off your ticket today! 👉 FOMO no more. [Get your ticket to C-Suite Las Vegas TODAY and use code TRAVEL at checkout to save $1000!]( TikTok 🎭 ‘Improv’ a little! SKIMS is certainly on top of trending organic content. Point of view (POV) videos are huge on TikTok at the moment, so there’s a ton of room for experimentation here. We can’t blame SKIMS for playing it safe, but we can’t help but wonder what impact this video would have if they got a little more adventurous. With some testing, they could incorporate a cheeky hook at the beginning or buyers interacting with the product unexpectedly. This TikTok could benefit from a call-to-action (CTA) regardless of its place in an organic or sales-focused campaign. Giving the audience some instruction to buy or find out more about their Valentine’s Day promotions could really boost both engagement and conversion rates. 💸 🚗 Get in loser, we’re going shopping This is a great example of a strong brand-building creative angle, but we end up missing out on a more developed narrative that could connect with more consumers. This video leverages an existing demand for out-of-stock products and collection wishlists. With these angles tied to a strong narrative, it would certainly help catch the attention of hopeful consumers. To demonstrate, let’s theorize a narrative to visualize what it could do for a video like this. We imagine a voiceover overlayed with this footage to humanize the content. The narrator could be a friend asking the consumer to attend this particular event with them. This direction would give SKIMS a chance to show its personality and make this video even more memorable. 💡 🎵 Wait for the drop! People who recognize the song in this video would know that “the drop” is coming up and creators will typically include the most value at this point. It generates the most impact and has the potential to go viral if done well. As the song gets more popular, people will eventually stay invested in a video or ad until that moment occurs so they can see a brand or creator’s unique spin on the trend. This video lasts about seven seconds which is quite short, even for TikTok. With some additional testing, SKIMS could look for opportunities to extend the content and improve engagement with more eyes on the product for longer. Sponsor If you are serious about scaling your digital ads, you need the best attribution tool The biggest brands know how to scale, they also know the importance of having clear data to help them scale. Northbeam is THE definitive attribution tool. 👇 Here's what it lets you do: - 🔬Track CAC and ROAS by custom attributes like funnel stage, specific influencers, or hook tactic (even across different channels) - 💰 Attribute revenue to every marketing touchpoint more accurately than any other platform (our customers say so) - 👩‍🔬 Scale your ad experiments faster without having to rely on platform results (or learning phases) 👉 [Schedule a chat with the team and learn how you can win with Northbeam.]( TikTok 📓 Word count A large wall of text is a great way to draw viewers into your video. The more text you put upfront, the longer your average watch time will be. 👀 With this tactic, it’s important to focus on readability first. A small design choice like an outline on the font would drastically improve the copy’s readability and separate it from the white background. With longer text blocks, you should consider trying a longer video format to reduce the amount of times the video needs to repeat itself. After about four or five repetitions, the overall vibe becomes a bit awkward and that isn’t what you want the most memorable part of your ad to be. 📷 There she is Every video with a celeb is going to stand out. ⭐ While this isn’t the most engaging or creative content, Kim K’s presence reassures the devoted consumer they’re in good company and reaffirms brand loyalty. 🙌 Conclusion SKIMS has grown into a massive brand with an audience ready and waiting to spend money on their restocks and product drops. Their organic content fits TikTok’s platform well as a decent strategy to support their existing audience and allow additional creative to hit new audiences. They have a frequent upload schedule with a wide variety of styles, messaging, and brand focus. With what they have built, their content will gain traction faster than the majority of other accounts. They just need to identify small improvements that bring their content to the next level. 🆙 From the examples above, we highlight the value of showing more than just the product, and it should become the focus of SKIMS' next few campaigns. If you focus solely on the product, go all in by being branded with a CTA and strong sales copy. In SKIMS’ case, get Kim K in there more often, showing off what she just ordered and explaining why you need them too! 📣 SKIMS’ content isn’t revolutionary, but it’s appropriate and high-quality that finds a ton of success on TikTok. They let the products and the brand speak for themselves and push to keep that content on consumers’ “For You” pages. That takes a lot of time to develop and is a tough strategy for any brand to follow. A small hack that we’d like to throw in for any level of business, including those with the caliber of SKIMS, is to reply to your comments! Your replies will actually add to the number of comments beneath the post, increasing the social proof and discoverability of the post. That concludes our Brand Breakdown journey with SKIMS! Shoutout to the [Pilothouse TikTok team]( for the insights. We’ve got some big winners from a world-class brand at the top of their game over the last couple of weeks, but the best part is: any brand can use these strategies to level up their marketing campaigns. We can’t wait to see what you accomplish with your new tools and tactics. Did you have a favorite winner from SKIMS? Reply to this email and let us know! Quick Hits 🦾 [Are you leveraging AI?]( Mark Cuban said, "the companies that have harnessed AI the best are the companies dominating”. Use [Maverick:]( record once, send AI-generated personalized videos at scale. * 👍 [Bing]( is removing the waitlist to access GPT-4 powered chat. All users are now able to access the most advanced iteration GPT on the market. 👻 [Snap]( provides insights on its content moderation tools. With this information, marketers can see what type of content is pushed or suppressed on the platform. 🧰 [LinkedIn]( adds more AI tools to the platform. These new tools will help recruiters and job seekers streamline their relationships and connections. 🧪 [TikTok’s]( new STEM feed curates science-based content for the curious browser. This indicates a prime opportunity to highlight the research and development process that went into your product. *Sponsored SHARE DTC NEWSLETTER 🔥 NEW REFERRAL PROGRAM HAS OFFICIALLY DROPPED 🔥 Want to level up the marketing skills of your teammates and employees? 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Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Michael Venditti](. Edited by [Claire Beveridge]( and Eric Dyck. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. NEED MORE DTC? 🚀 [Advertise]( in DTC Newsletter. 💰Check out our course on [Facebook and Instagram]( ads! Rate Us [Fueled by Pilothouse] [Share]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( At Direct to Consumer, we are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe & high-quality online experience for all visitors. We understand that you care about how the information you provide to us is used and shared. We have developed a Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies regarding collecting, using, and disclosing information we receive from our Website users. Federal Filing operates the Website. Our Privacy Policy, along with our Terms & Conditions, governs your use of this site. 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