Magic Spoon was in a unique position.
Known as the “Childlike Cereal For Grownups,” it targets both Millennials and Gen-Zers by capitalizing on childhood nostalgia. These fresh-faced adults now hang out on TikTok, but Magic Spoon wasn’t sure how to reach this demographic.
With the help of influencer marketing platform Ubiquitous, Magic Spoon launched a campaign that surpassed their KPIs. They more than doubled their engagement rates, garnered over 10.8M impressions, and hit a $2.30 CPM.
More importantly, the campaign revealed data that would change the future of Magic Spoon’s entire marketing strategy.
Wait, Where Are the Millennials Hanging Out?
Brands used to scuttle around TikTok, dismissing it as “less serious” than other paid socials. Yet TikTok isn’t just for the kids – American adults are one of the highest growing demographics on the app.
Magic Spoon’s goal was to increase brand awareness and deepen customer relations with this demographic. To reach them, they understood it wasn’t a question of if they should post on TikTok, but when.
And the answer, considering TikTok’s explosive growth, was now.
Before working with Ubiquitous, Magic Spoon’s TikTok campaigns were elementary. They had an ambassador campaign where they’d recycle the same 50 or so creators to promote their products.
It was a start, but this kind of strategy doesn’t give brands the flexibility to experiment with new content and collect updated user behavior.
Plus, marketing on TikTok was nothing like Magic Spoon was used to with Instagram. Instead of inserting ads into news feeds, Magic Spoon needed to create authentic content for the feverishly specific “For You Page.”
“That’s the trouble brands are running into. They don’t know how to authentically show up on TikTok in a way that doesn’t seem pushy or forced.” – Anna Siler, Ubiquitous' Director of Campaign Strategy
Why Ubiquitous: From Administrative Nightmare to Automated Process
Magic Spoon discovered Ubiquitous through a referral.
Turns out, Ubiquitous had previously worked with a similar brand, immi. Knowing they had experience with DTC companies, Magic Spoon decided to reach out. And while they could’ve tackled TikTok solo, they opted to work with Ubiquitous instead.
And when you consider what it takes to invest in TikTok ads, it’s not difficult to see why.
Creating an influencer campaign on TikTok is tremendously work intensive. Brands need to sift through hundreds of potential creators, send them individual contracts, discuss negotiations, and craft agreements.
It doesn’t take long until it becomes an administrative (and costly) nightmare.
“When every brand and agency has to manually reach out one-to-one to each creator, it’s just impossible to scale anything up and really test anything in a meaningful way. That’s when Ubiquitous comes in.” – Anna Siler
Ubiquitous automates this entire process. Using proprietary technology that pulls data from TikTok, plus metrics flagged by data scientists, they find creator matches for brands in a fraction of the time.
Best of all, the brand’s budget goes back into paying creatives to do what they do best – being creative.
Here's where you get the stuff we don't put on the blog. Learn how to craft an entire TikTok marketing strategy from scratch, plus get access to our proprietary data on the top 100 creators and brands on TikTok by industry— and a lot more.
The Process: Whittling Down 2,500 TikTok Creators to 17
Based on previous campaigns, Magic Spoon was eager to collaborate with young, female, Millennial creators who were health-conscious and lighthearted. They also opted to experiment with family creators.
But TikTok houses hundreds of thousands of creators. Where would they begin?
Selecting The Creators
With a database of over 2,500 TikTok creators, Ubiquitous began pruning their list to find matches for Magic Spoon. They targeted creators with a 40% female audience minimum since Magic Spoon’s data reflected that mostly females purchased their products for the household.
“Our system has over 100 data points on each creator. We’re able to search by quantitative data, but we can also search by family, mom account, and 30 other pages of genres. Once we whittle it down, we take a look at what views they have, and then add them to the campaign for the client to review and approve.” – Anna Siler
A New Marketing Strategy: Integrated Video Campaign
Magic Spoon launched an “Integrated Video Campaign'' over the course of 30 days.
Integrated Video Campaigns are what Ubiquitous calls a new form of native advertising where creators make content “integrating” the product rather than creating “around” it.
“What I Eat in a Day” or “Get Ready With Me” videos are perfect examples. In each TikTok, the product is casually flashed before the agenda of the video continues.
The reason why Integrated Video Campaigns work?
Because they follow TikTok’s unspoken advertising rule: “Don’t Make Ads. Make TikToks.” It challenges brands to couple advertisements with entertainment and ditch the traditional, hyper-polished commercials.
“We don't call TikTok a social media platform. We call it an entertainment platform. TikTok entertains users by digging up content that appeals to their interests, as opposed to users having to find and follow specific accounts for content. ” – Anna Siler
Magic Spoon’s Campaign Results
Magic Spoon’s campaign ran for a total of 30 days. It garnered over 10.8M impressions, raking in a 38% engagement rate and a $2.30 CPM. More importantly, the data led Magic Spoon to double-down on winning content. Family TikTok creators, as well as “What I Eat in a Day” videos performed the best – with hundreds of engaged comments from the audience.
While the campaign generated a high CPM and impressive number of total impressions, the intangible results were equally impressive. After the campaign, Magic Spoon recognized:
1. Crafting a Delightful Experience With Product Packaging Is Essential
Magic Spoon’s star product wasn’t just the cereal.
At the start of the campaign, they sent out elaborate packages that contained tie-dyed bowls and rainbow, reflective spoons. Thanks to the high rate of engagement on the campaign, Magic Spoon’s marketing team noticed a flood of comments of people raving about the cutlery.
“When a creator receives your product, make sure the experience is fantastic for them. If your packaging goes the extra mile, it becomes an exciting moment where creators are then motivated to create a video around it.” – Anna Siler
2. A Product in Action Leads to Traction
Videos showing Magic Spoon in action performed the best.
It didn’t matter whether the creator was putting cereal in the bowl, pouring milk, or dunking the spoon. Anytime viewers could see the process unfold, engagement rates soared.
3. Mid-Sized Creators Have the Best ROI
Surprisingly, it wasn’t the macro-influencers who generated the best results.
Despite having over half a million followers, it turns out that the larger the audience, the lesser the rates of engagement. Magic Spoon saw its best results when working with mid-tier creators who hover around 100,000 - 500,000 followers.
Magic Spoon’s Future TikTok Marketing Strategy
Magic Spoon soon reupholstered their marketing strategy after the campaign.
They’re now opting to create video packages with mid-sized influencers to maximize their advertising spend. These videos center around Integrated Video Content – naturally integrating the product into a video a creator would already make.
As for the type of creator, they’re now doubling down with those who fall under the “mom,” “vlogger,” and “foodie” categories. And a key part to each video is to flash the discount code with text overlay – which is proven to drive rewatches and engagement.
But the key takeaway? Influencer campaigns are well worth it.
It’s one of the best ways for Magic Spoon to get their product in front of TikTok’s growing Millennial audience. And with TikTok’s hyperbolic growth, the opportunity to reach millions more only keeps increasing.
“All growth marketers want to know where to pour their advertising dollars. Influencer Marketing on TikTok is absolutely the answer.” – Anna Siler
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