Dive Brief:
- TikTok has continued to have sway with marketers, with over one quarter of brands listing the ByteDance-owned app as the most integral platform for influencer marketing, according to a new report from CreatorIQ and TikTok.
- The report detailed how the top brands on TikTok share similar approaches, including prioritizing creator authenticity, brand alignment and retention, to succeed. Brands in the beauty and fashion category have found the greatest success, per the report.
- The report measured earned media value (EMV) over a 12-month period from March 2023 to February 2024 to rank the top brands. Placing first is Amazon, with a TikTok EMV of $1.03 billion, followed by the NBA, NFL, Sephora, Fortnite and Barbie.
Dive Insight:
The age of the influencer is here, and, despite what other reports might indicate, CreatorIQ’s report suggests that authenticity remains king. According to the research, 41% of TikTok users say creators’ content feels authentic, and significantly, that authenticity transfers to the brands they represent. Fifty-five percent of TikTok users say they are more likely to trust brands when they hear about them from creators, as compared to the other ads in their feed.
Additionally, 55% of users agree TikTok creators help them feel connected to brands and ads with a creator associated with the brand’s vertical —a beauty influencer for a cosmetics brand, for instance — are 1.5 times more likely to hook a user than a creator with no association with the vertical. That connection translates to engagement as well, as the top brands partner with creators who are already engaging key audiences organically, per the report.
CreatorIQ’s report broke down 100 total brands by EMV, with Amazon ranking first. The e-commerce giant’s $1.03 billion represents a 20% year-over-year change, and the company also holds a 43% creator retention rate and over 763 million engagements. Behind Amazon, in order of highest EMV, is the NBA ($894.6 million), NFL ($688.1 million), Sephora ($468.8 million), Fortnite ($360.1) and Barbie ($337 million).
Further, 14 of TikTok’s top 25 brands have a creator retention rate of over 25%, meaning that at least a quarter of the brands’ creators posted about them in consecutive 12-month periods. Such retention is key to establishing authenticity, and a consumer’s likelihood of buying a product increases when a creator continually shares experiences with a product or brand. The more often a creator posts about a brand or is featured in a brand’s ads, the more authentic the brand-creator relationship is perceived to be, per the report.
CreatorIQ’s research diverges from insights presented by Sprout Social earlier this year that suggested consumers trust influencers more than they did six months ago, but that they value authenticity less than they do follower count. Nevertheless, Sprout Social’s research indicated nearly half of all consumers make daily or weekly purchases because of influencers.
Influencer marketing, meanwhile, took a bigger step toward the spotlight last week when Publicis Groupe announced its plans to purchase Influential, the world’s largest influencer marketing company by revenue, for an estimated $500 million. Influential runs a network of more than 3.5 million creators, including 90% of the global influencers who have 1 million followers or more.
