YouTrip, Singapore’s leading multi-currency mobile wallet has surpassed 5 million reach on TikTok since its venture onto the platform in June 2020. TikTok is a video-sharing social networking platform that allows users to create videos spanning 60 seconds or shorter, with a host of editing features at their fingertips. In Singapore, the popular mobile app has amassed 1.04 million downloads from January to July, as users looked to the app as a new source of entertainment due to the pandemic. As YouTrip strives to maintain its position as relatable and reliable for everyday users, adding TikTok in its marketing mix was a natural progression for the brand.
The key to the success of YouTrip’s content strategy on TikTok lies in a two-pronged approach which is to make informative content bite-sized while staying relevant to trends. Since launch, YouTrip’s unique strategy demonstrated success with 32,000 followers and over 680,000 likes across all videos in the span of 4 months.
Jeremy Lim, Head of Marketing for YouTrip shares: “Curating meaningful content that resonates with our users has been the core of our marketing strategies. Our venture into TikTok allows us to tap into our creativity to find new ways to connect with our users. We encourage brands to consider including TikTok in their marketing mix as well if they aim to establish themselves as relatable and reliable.”
Making Informative Content Bite-sized
The appeal of TikTok to many users lies in its short, funny and trendy content that serves as a source of entertainment. YouTrip has noted the success in breaking typically information-heavy topics into entertaining bite-sized videos to be well received as a source of information. Successful examples include YouTrip’s 2-part transaction fee series which aimed to educate users on hidden fees in overseas credit card transactions. By inculcating good practices of keeping key messages succinct while supplementing it with shortened infographics, the videos garnered over 30k views within a span of 2 days.
In order to maximise on potential reach, YouTrip adopted an efficient content strategy of adapting original blog articles that had performed well. The content types include e-commerce shopping guides and hotel reviews. These articles were identified during the content planning process and translated into a short-form format optimised for viewing on TikTok. One successful piece featured a guide to get the ‘Cheapest Nintendo Switch’, which garnered over 119k views till date.
Staying Relevant to Trends
For brands who want to maximise their reach and visibility on TikTok, YouTrip identified that it is vital to be the first-mover in driving reactive content on trending topics, audios or hashtags. Hopping onto the challenge bandwagon, YouTrip also took an informative spin on the trending song ‘Kings and Queens’ by Ava Max, where users typically showcased their culture and traditional costume to the song. Being a travel start-up with a passion for educating our users on global culture, YouTrip took the opportunity to showcase real queens from around the world. YouTrip’s rendition of ‘Queens of the world’ garnered over 2 million views and 12.8k followers in 2 weeks.
Riding on the travel “FOMO” (fear of missing out) trend, YouTrip’s travel-themed videos have proven to be a big hit. As many Singaporeans look forward to planning their next holiday once the pandemic is over, travel videos like ‘Our Favourite Rail Journeys Around the World’ have garnered over 116k views. By driving travel content, YouTrip also aims to strengthen its brand positioning to remain top-of-mind for when travel rebounds.
“TikTok is about embracing the creative, positive, and real moments that make our community so special, with solutions for businesses to connect and grow with our wonderfully expressive community,” said Chew Wee Ng, Head of SEA Business Marketing, TikTok. “With the right content strategy and a touch of authenticity, any brand can find success on the global stage with TikTok, and YouTrip’s rapid growth on the platform is a prime example. As one of the first movers, they’ve incorporated TikTok early into their marketing mix and are now reaping its successes through a customised content strategy, collaboration with the TikTok community, and growing with a global audience.”
Encouraging Brands to Join TikTok
With 800 million active users and a unique algorithm, TikTok offers an opportunity for brands and their organic content to go viral regardless of the number of followers. To achieve the same virality success, YouTrip encourages brands looking to unleash their creativity through original content, or look to TikTok’s Discovery Page for inspiration of the latest trends and challenges. Additionally, what YouTrip found particularly useful was the abundance of editing tools and features that made achieving virality and high reach much easier and at minimal costs, as compared to other social media platforms.
As a best practice to further promote your post’s engagement and reach, YouTrip recommends adding related and trending hashtags within the caption. Similarly, YouTrip also notes that polls can help to increase your visibility on TikTok’s For You page.
“There’s a lot of untapped potential for TikTok to be a vital pillar in YouTrip’s long term marketing strategy. We’ve got big plans for YouTrip on TikTok and we’re excited to be pushing out more first-of-its-kind content like a branded soundtrack in the near future,” Jeremy adds.
