The Fashion Brand’s Guide to Standing Out on TikTok
TikTok’s Karen Kang, Kate Spade New York’s Danielle Macaluso and BoF’s Dan Hastings, joined BoF’s Yasmine Dahlberg to unpack how fashion brands can use cultural capital and creator partnerships to build fan communities on TikTok.
Fashion brands are rethinking their approach to marketing in response to the decentralization of influence in digital subcultures. With platforms like TikTok, communities are forming, creating and interacting in real time, giving brands new opportunities to engage with their audiences.
To stand out on TikTok, brands must filter trends through durability, distinctiveness and reach. Durability ensures the trend has staying power, distinctiveness determines how the brand can add value to the trend, and reach measures how well the trend travels across channels. Distinctiveness is more important than production value, as authentic storytelling resonates more than budget-driven content.
Understanding the right communities is crucial for brands to build a fan base on TikTok. By collaborating with creators who are curators and translators within their specific communities, brands can connect with audiences in a more authentic way. Focus groups and social listening help identify the best community fit for the brand's ethos, story and values.
Brands should invest in serialised content to maintain audience engagement. Instead of relying on one-off campaigns, brands should create a series that builds attention and loyalty. For example, Kate Spade New York's autumn campaign "Hide and Seek" began with a launch film and was followed by a series of outtakes, behind-the-scenes clips and trend content, keeping the audience engaged throughout the campaign.
Written by urgent.news from Business of Fashion's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
