TikTok has undoubtedly taken the world by storm with over 50% of marketers stating that they are hoping to increase their investments in the app throughout 2023. Alongside its grand potential for content creators, TikTok has also worked tirelessly to support the growth of iconic brands from around the world. As such, Netinfluencer will explain how you can use TikTok’s new Branded Effects feature to maximize your engagement. 

What Are Branded Effects?

In March 2023, TikTok announced the launch of its newest Effect House Branded Effects initiative, a tool that aims to help businesses formulate a striking and lucrative marketing campaign within the app. The feature also gives brands the prime opportunity to work alongside some of the industry’s finest content creators as a way to dominate extremely dynamic audiences. 

Put simply, Branded Effects are custom creative assets that have been sponsored and crafted by the brand itself. As a result, businesses now have the chance to implement a wide range of call-to-action features and overlays to help form a stronger bond with their target audience. 

In addition, this new feature uses a ton of already established assets from TikTok’s vastly popular Effect House platform. Thus, brands are encouraged to search through a plethora of high-end effects such as AR filters, text capabilities, and audio to help add a touch of creative flair to their next influencer marketing campaign. 

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How Does This Feature Work?

In order to make the most out of this Branded Effects platform, brands must first create a TikTok for Business account. Once this has been established, marketers will gain access to a wide selection of creative tools, enabling them to enter a new platform that is teeming with expression and ingenuity. 

This tool is currently in the early stages of development, so brands must complete an interest form in order to receive a demo of this project. The Branded Effects hub then encourages brands to add their own spin on a variety of already established tools such as the Green Screen filter and comical World AR filters that can give the impression that dinosaurs are running around the user’s environment. 

Branded Effects also support high levels of User-Generated Content (UGC), encouraging viewers to interact with the effect in their own way. In turn, users can then create their own viral trend whilst also continuing to promote your brand. 

Why Was It Released?

It seems that the Branded Effects feature was launched to help TikTok express its stance as a comprehensive and detailed social media platform. Now that both brands and content creators can build a deeply engaging and interactive campaign within one singular app, they no longer need to make use of complex editing software. Therefore, TikTok is now working towards establishing itself as both a video editing tool as well as a space for communication and expression. 

This project also gives brands the opportunity to create a unique campaign that has the sole purpose of receiving high levels of engagement. TikTok informs us that Mucinex’s Branded Effects campaign managed to gain a 42.7% increase in purchase intent. Thus, it seems that these tools can be implemented to help sway the purchasing decisions of a wide range of prosperous demographics, allowing brands to potentially see a hefty influx of revenue. 

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Examples of Popular Branded Effects Campaigns

Pepsi

The iconic drinks brand Pepsi recently used Branded Effects to increase its engagement with Gen Z across the entirety of Pakistan. During this campaign, Pepsi created the #NewPepsiHitMeLike campaign, which asked content creators and viewers to taste a can of drink and describe how it feels, using emotive language such as stronger, fizzier, and tastier. The campaign was highly successful, amassing an impressive 8.9 billion views with the branded Effect being used 2.24 million times. 

Microsoft 365

As a way to strengthen its bond with corporate Millennials, Microsoft 365 recruited influencers like Eddy Adams and Jan Trejo to use its nostalgic Word Art filter. This tool required creators to write their name into a vintage search bar, which would then express their name in a specific font that harks back to Microsoft’s old creative titles. The campaign managed to generate 126K views across the platform.

Bomb Pop

Bomb Pop has managed to secure a large share of the frozen treat market since the 1950s and is now using TikTok’s Branded Effects to further boost its advertising campaigns. The brand created the #AFlavorForEveryYou challenge, allowing viewers to select a unique flavor combination and then answer specific questions that were displayed on the filter. An example of this would be to describe your favorite book, artist, and animal in just a few short words. The campaign focused on the positive essence of community and secured an astonishing 11% engagement rate. 

Benefits of Using Branded Effects on TikTok

Branded Effects has shown that it has the capability to help both businesses and influencers gain dominance over a wealth of popular market segments. This tool can also help businesses to experiment with the nuances of their social media strategy, particularly if their previous attempts have become stale or outdated. Now, brands can collate a plethora of creative features to build a campaign that thrives on interaction, meaning that they are more likely to receive a much higher ROI than if they used standard social media marketing techniques such as image ads. 

This feature can also help influencers collaborate with a collection of thriving brands, whilst also extending their skills as ambitious content creators. Since this platform also works to promote the benefits of influencer marketing on a more widespread scale, influencers can now simply conduct their own interpretation of a branded trend as a way to gain positive exposure. As such, this can inspire other brands to continue working alongside influencers, adding a larger sense of validity to the entire industry. 

The launch of this feature also gives the impression that TikTok is an incredibly thriving platform, which is particularly beneficial for those who create a majority of their work on this app. By giving brands a larger incentive to build campaigns on this platform, influencers can feel secure that TikTok is continuing to grow and become more profitable at an exponential rate. This is also especially important for those concerned about the app becoming banned across certain areas of the United States. 

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TikTok’s latest Branded Effects project explores how businesses can revitalize their next influencer marketing campaign by using an assortment of high-end creative features. The success of this project also highlights the platform’s desire for growth, helping to make the industry a much more competitive playing field.