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Background:
It seems Instagram’s autonomous reign over fashion is over. While the Meta-owned app still has more users, a growing number of brands and creators are turning to TikTok as their marketing platform. As TikTok ascended to Gen-Z favorite status, fashion and beauty used the app as a space for experimentation while doing most of their marketing on Instagram. That’s starting to change — and it’s shaking up the way brands approach their social media channels.
“Content demands for brands just keep escalating and escalating,” says BoF contributor Chantal Fernandez.
Key insights:
- Just a year ago, TikTok was not taken seriously as a marketing platform by fashion brands, who tried to match their polished content with its lean approach. Now, it is seen as a place where all brands should have a presence. However, the returns on TikTok marketing investment are still not great. The app is still pretty new, with Facebook and Instagram having decades-old and more sophisticated advertising platforms.
- For influencers, sought-after influencers and regular users alike, TikTok is attractive because it has created a relatively level playing field where anyone can go viral at any moment. Casual, personality-forward content is preferred over high-production shoots and scenes.
- Instagram still plays an important role for influencers and brands. It can serve as a channel to reach older consumers by showcasing products and can act almost like a secondary website or blog that people refer to.
- Fueled by the rise of TikTok, social media is moving away from being social – and more towards acting as a kind of recommendation machine, where algorithms decide what to show users.
Additional resources:
- How TikTok won over fashion: Instagram has more users, but for a growing number of brands and creators, TikTok has replaced the Meta-owned social network as the fashion marketing platform.
- TikTok’s ad returns don’t match ads yet: Despite TikTok’s growing popularity and lower cost compared to Instagram, brands and experts say the return on ad spend still doesn’t match the more popular platforms, though that doesn’t mean brands can ignore it either.
