Within a platform such as TikTok, it's not surprising to find that there are numerous smaller communities within the overall user population. People come together over shared interests to form groups, to share relevant and interesting content and discuss among one another their common interest. One such subset of TikTok is health TikTok, sometimes shortened with the catchy portmanteau #HealthTok. Various threads seem to run through the larger HealthTok banner -- fitness learning and inspiration, healthy eating (including special diets, such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, or low carbohydrates), the medical community (including doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals), and health related organizations are just some of the major contributors to the #HealthTok content pool.
Medical Media Marketing Online's Sarah Mahoney recently wrote an article about how some healthcare brands are embracing the wildly popular platform as a new way to get the word out about public health campaigns and brand awareness. Some of the highly successful COVID 19-related campaigns highlighted in the piece, particularly Proctor and Gamble's work with TikTok star Charli D'Amelio for the viral #DistanceDance to promote social distancing and Reckitt Benckiser, parent company to Lysol and creator of the #Healthyhabit6step filter (matched with lyrics from the rapper Twista) to encourage safety measures around COVID-19 transmission concerns. These campaigns were wildly successful because they embraced the young, fun nature of the app to spread their message.
I think this is a fantastic strategy. A large portion of the TikTok user base is in the 13-25 age range, and are a prime target for many health campaigns, including healthy eating and diet culture, dating and sexual health, drug and alcohol use and abuse, not to mention concerns about the spread of COVID-19 that are especially relevant to that age group, many of whom are in K-12 or college or university school settings. The marketing groups that took a look at the existing culture of the app -- who the major influencers and popular creators were, what types of content have a tendency to trend or "go viral", how to make health information interesting and fun in a way that would encourage participation and buy-in from the younger population -- and synthesized all of that into marketing campaigns that celebrated the culture within the app instead of trying to force it to fit the mold of traditional advertising campaigns. These campaigns end up feeling a lot more organic within the context of the app itself.
Just as collaborations with creators on other platforms like Youtube, collaborators need to be wary of obscuring their involvement so much that the content seems disingenuous when the connection comes to light. This is particularly true if the collaboration involves a for-profit company -- while advertising can be fun and take advantage of the uniqueness of the platform to portray their message in a certain way, they still need to make sure that viewers know they are watching an advertisement.
I agree that it's hard for advertising to feel organic, mostly because it usually comes across as manipulative. Using trends is an interesting idea, though, especially when it comes to health related issues.
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