How to Maximize Content Distribution on TikTok

Purpose of Research

• Identify popular entities in the sport, music and content space who invest in activations.
• Analyze the posting strategy for activations on TikTok to assess success on Standalone or Episodic content.

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Metrics Defined

The following terms are defined as follows for this report:

• Activation: A brand’s film, event, or storytelling initiative 
• Standalone: Only one TikTok video shared for an activation
• Episodic: Multiple TikTok videos shared for an activation

The following metrics were considered to develop key insights:

• Share of TikTok content made about an activation
• Aggregated performance of standalone v.s. episodic content
• Performance of pre-, during or post-activation launch content
• View and engagement retention over episodic content

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Key Takeaways

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Consider sharing half of your activations on TikTok.

~35% of your TikTok content should be about activations.

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Prioritize episodic content for activation distribution.

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Post pre-activation launch and on launch day.

Increase cadence on launch day as opposed to post-launch.

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Keep content about activations within four posts. 

Views and engagements tend to fall off after the 4^th post on average amongst competitive set episodic content.

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Let’s dive into examples of how to launch activations with multiple posts—as well as how not to.

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Keep TikTok content to 5% of the run time of your full-length activation.

The YouTube activation is 5 minutes and 45 seconds, while the average TikTok post is 15 seconds in length. 

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Make pre-launch content about the activation without showing it.

To launch their first feature film “Project Iceman” Yes Theory posted seven TikTok videos about the premiere & ways to purchase the film.

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Longer-form release footage isn’t as successful as shorter content.

Yes Theory released this 2.5 minute clip from the documentary. It saw -73% fewer views and engagements than other TikTok videos for the activation.

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Keep launch content low barrier to entry, educational and direct.

Patagonia’s Gerry Lopez feature performed well on YouTube (2M views) but wasn’t optimized for TikTok, generating only 124K views + engagements.

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Don’t unveil the entire activation on TikTok.

Some ways the post-launch content for the Gerry Lopez activation went wrong:

• Keep videos short only if there is a very direct and specific message to communicate. Patagonia’s videos averaged 10 seconds but only featured random clips from the film.
• ‍Include voiceovers or contextual audio. This lowest-performing TikTok video for the activation is the only one that didn’t feature any added audio or voiceovers from the film. 
• ‍Behind the scenes and filming process content is missing from Patagonia’s release strategy, which may have provided a stronger content-mix to entice TikTok viewers.

Post-Launch

Views 5K

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Post-Launch

Views 21K

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Post-Launch

Views 16K

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Post on activation launch days, to make content intentional.

Most brands are posting after launch, seeing lower performance.

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Let’s dive into examples of how to launch activations with a single post—as well as how not to.

*MrBeast has been omitted from aggregate data points due to skewing properties.

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MrBeast is taking a TikTok-only strategy, not sharing outside activations on the platform. All content is focused on account growth.

Standalone Tactics from MrBeast:

• ‍Keep content fairly repetitive with different storylines. MrBeast’s top-performing videos are all about people winning things or doing outrageous tasks within the lens of whether they follow the account on TikTok or not. 
• ‍Create a caption template. The top three videos use the same format:
  1. “bro really knew karate”
  2. “Bro really went to Paris and back”
  3. “bro flew from Paris to see me”

• ‍Keep videos in the 30-45 second range. From August 2022 - July 2023, MrBeast’s average length was 30 seconds, but these top performers are 45-seconds long.

Views 146M

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Views 133M

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Views 110M

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Ben Kielesinski’s Standalone content out-performs his serial content.

Ben posted 1 series of 5 videos from August 2022 - July 2023, on average his Standalone content performs 132% better than his series did. 

Standalone Tactics from Ben Kielesinski:

• ‍Communicate a story from beginning to end in 60 seconds. Ben’s style is consistently high-performing due to his established storytelling format where he:
  (i) Poses an opportunity to the viewer.
  (ii) Shows the details of pursuing that opportunity.
  (iii) Checks in at the end with the viewer who went along on the journey.

• Apple hosted an activation with him for a Watch event. In 1 minute, he represented all the features of the watch in a linear, easy-to-follow manner.

Views 7.6M

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Views 5M

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Views 3.7M

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Show key takeaways about your activation in a list form.

Yes Theory’s top-performing activation content is typically episodic but this video performed 136% higher than their Standalone average.

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Standalone content should not be copied & pasted to TikTok. 

DC Shoes is the only brand in the competitive set that posted the exact same activation video from YouTube to TikTok. 

Pre-Launch