Marketing

Social media forever changed the game in marketing. Digital marketing has since become the future. The data available through digital marketing far outweighs the depths of traditional marketing methods that have been utilized for decades. TikTok has shown us a glimpse of the future of marketing and the relationship between brands and companies, consumers, and followers. The amount of views and interactions that brands are gaining from social media platforms is larger than ever before because they are being seen on so many screens.

Source: Dana Galo I Charli D'Amelio x Dunkin Donuts

As the fastest growing social media platform of all time, the power that the app has displayed is absolutely insane. There are over a billion users on TikTok, so with this scale of people checking the app throughout the day, or even at least one time per day, the marketing opportunity to reach audiences on a single app is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The success of TikTok as a marketing tool follows the way it has impacted business as a whole, where the unique algorithm is different from every other platform and makes exposure significantly easier. Brands or companies benefit from this algorithm because as long as they create appealing content, an audience will follow and engage with it, even if they don’t already have many followers at all. Marketers post a video, and boom, TikTok does the rest and places the video in front of users whose interests reflect it, targeting users by age, location, demographics, etc.

Furthermore, TikTok is currently the most influential app. This means that collaborating with influencers on TikTok can completely transform a brand's success and notoriety. Brands like Chipotle, GymShark, and Fashion Nova are aligning their image with those of popular TikTok creators and have benefitted significantly as a result. Brands are working hard to establish a presence on the app, which puts them in the favor of younger audiences.

In September of 2020, one of TikTok’s biggest stars, Charli D’Amelio, started posting a few videos enjoying Dunkin’ drinks. This sparked the ingenious marketing strategy of Dunkin’ partnering with the TikTok influencer to create a signature cold brew drink, ‘the Charli.’ It didn’t bring anything new to the menu (cold-brew coffee, whole milk, 3 pumps of caramel swirl); it was simply her favorite order.

Source: Dana Galo I Statistics: TMZ and Dunkin Donuts

Cold brew sales at Dunkin’ rose over 45% within just the first two days of the drink’s launch. This marketing campaign increased Dunkin’s presence to kids and young adults who felt like they just had to participate in the hype and then post about it afterwards. Additionally, Dunkin released ‘Charli x Dunkin Merch’ including onesies, shoelaces, scrunchies, travel cups, and more that all sold out almost instantly. As a result, the Dunkin’ app increased by 57% in mobile app downloads. This strategy was so successful that again in 2021, Dunkin re-introduced a new Charli item, the Charli Cold Foam, which has been even more successful. This cold foam could be added onto any drink, making it easier for literally anyone to try.