According to the two models, this shows that the short viral video program has more problems than the traditional advertising platform. In the last year, TikTok has also managed to become a very profitable marketing method, helping small and medium businesses that advertise on the platform. In particular, one brand that Modern Retail spoke with has found that pull-up videos work well for driving offline sales.
Right now, Ellsworth said the main way Poppi tries to measure what kind of business TikTok is driving online is through comments. In one TikTok with Ellsworth, one of the top quotes from a shopper last week says, “I love Poppi. I’ve told a lot of people about it. I went to Target especially today.”
Poppi estimates that his digital marketing is raising 80% of online sales, and that TikTok accounts for about 30% to 40% of that increase, depending on what other companies have seen. But, Poppi is conducting official research through January and February to better measure TikTok’s impact on store brand sales, Ellsworth said. He added that Poppi is doing this “in partnership with TikTok to help the internet and we’re doing it in different zip codes. We’re blocking some paid ads, in part to see if it’s really affecting [in-store sales].”
Some of Poppi’s early internal data for Target revealed that some of Poppi’s best performing retailers are located in North Dakota, Cincinnati and Ohio. “TikTok doesn’t pick a zip code or your location – it lets everyone know about it,” he added.
Ellsworth said, historically, beverage brands have tried to reach new customers by offering samples in retail stores. Even so, he can reach 30 people in less than an hour.
“With TikTok, now we can reach thousands of people and it’s not limited to ZIP codes” It’s a whole way of marketing through this digital lens and I don’t think you can find it on IG and Facebook anymore. Twitter,” Ellsworth added.
For the nearly two-year-old skincare brand Bubble, the rise and popularity of “portable videos” is driving consumer sentiment, said Bonnie Szucs, vice president of business development at Bubble Beauty.
For Bubble, it’s not a big startup with millions of followers that’s driving this, Szucs said. In fact, one creator whose video has been viewed 400,000 times had only 700 followers. “His video was first posted on December 27th and we think this is a starting point, but it’s one of those things that you don’t know very well, because there were about eight videos, which happened at the same time,” Szucs. he explained.
In one video, which was posted on January 2, a teenager showed off her carry-on at Walmart that contained Bubble gel moisturizer. “They have moisturizer at Walmart?!?!?!? In the Beauty section?,” one user commented.
Bubble started seeing similar increases in Walmart sales starting on January 2. “That’s when we doubled our sales for the week in our brick-and-mortar account. And we started seeing Slam Dunk.” [Bubble’s hydrating moisturizer] very quickly. The same thing happened at Ulta so what happened was about two or three days from when the video went viral to when we actually saw shoppers in the store,” Szucs added.
The brand ended up selling over 70% of its stock at Ulta within a week of the viral event. “We had stores send us pictures of empty shelves,” Szucs added.
Bubble data showed a 300% jump in Walmart sales compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. Bubble began selling through Walmart in July 2021.
Szucs said that he hopes that Tiktok’s online sales will grow in the future based on Bubble’s experience. “We think that this will be sustainable over time. We have grown our customers. It’s only been two years. Therefore, brand awareness is something that as a new brand we are always trying to grow. What we have been able to do at this moment is: we have shown our brand to a quarter of new customers in one week because of Tiktok,” he said.
