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Scene: A close-up of a gummy bear standing alone on a cardboard-box stage singing Adele. "Never mind, I'll find … " The camera slowly pans out to the audience, revealing a sea of gummy bears. The chorus rings out from the crowd: " … someone like you."
Welcome to TikTok (#haribo, #haribochallenge).
Advertisers could be forgiven if they are not quite sure what to make of TikTok, or even what's going on there. Singing gummy bears? But the Chinese-based video app is trying its best to teach brands the fundamentals of the platform. A leaked pitch deck obtained by Ad Age shows that the company's priority is simply to explain how the app works. "TikTok enables everyone to be a creator," the pitch says, "and encourages users to share their passion and personal creative expression through their videos." (So long as the expression isn't political; the platform recently banned such advertising.)
The sales presentation, which was circulated to agencies, provides a rare comprehensive look into the rising social-media company, which has been guarded about publicly disclosing key details about its community, including its size. Until now, the only number that has been revealed about the size of TikTok's user base is that the app has been downloaded more than a billion times. But that number doesn't suggest how many people visit the app on a regular basis. The pitch deck does: There are 30 million-plus monthly active users in the U.S., it says.
To put that into perspective, Snapchat has 83 million daily active users in North America, according to its second-quarter financial report.
What TikTok lacks in reach, it makes up for in its relevance with young viewers. According to the pitch deck, 69 percent of users are between the ages of 16 and 24, making it enticing for brands searching for cultural relevance with that young audience. "If I was working for GE or Allstate or AT&T, I wouldn't recommend advertising on the platform," says Benjamin Stops, strategist at Rauxa, a full-service agency recently acquired by Publicis Groupe. "But if you're Taco Bell, Burger King or Adidas, there's an opportunity there."
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
Brands lining up
The pitch deck says...