Nora Zukauskaite, global marketing director at cosmetics group Brand Agency London and owner of Gen Z-favorite brands Lottie London and I Am Proud, says advertisers are currently To survive the ongoing economic downturn, they say they are increasingly prioritizing sales strategies over long-term brand building.
“Marketers are always in the hot seat of selling, selling, selling, fast, fast, fast…” she says. “But when it comes to brand building, awareness and the long term, no one cares, especially when times are so uncertain.”
Zukauskaite's comments contradict the latest IPA Bellweather report, which found more than a quarter of marketers said their budgets had been revised upward for the final quarter of 2023. But I have never seen anything like this, as the retail environment has become increasingly complex. ”
Winning a contract with a retailer is hard enough, but meeting the retailer's lofty goals is another, she explains. “When you're in a big brand retail environment, there are some very tough discussions going on…retailers are asking customers to do more in a shorter amount of time and have less time to deliver performance. If you need to sell more and you need to sell more, performance will give you the biggest benefit.”
In that case, she says, the knock-on effect for marketers is to expect them to switch to short-term sales strategies.
TikTok is the answer to increasing sales
Brand Agency London was founded in 2009, first with Ciaté, followed by Lottie London in 2015 and I Am Proud in 2020. Over that time, brands have used Instagram and Facebook to build awareness, but Zukauskaite says TikTok is a different game. absolutely.
“TikTok is the only social media platform where you can see the impact of viral content and in-store or online sales. This has never been done before.”
The cosmetics group's TikTok journey started like everyone else's, Zukauskaite said. “We thought, 'Oh, this is a sing-and-dance app for teenagers. But no one there has money. They don't even have bank cards. 'But with COVID-19, we were like, 'Oh my god, we have to use that app… Who can sing and dance?'
@iamproud That donation…SHINE⚡️⚡️ This Hair Proud Hero is for our best friend in need of shiny donut hair ⚡️ #hairproudhero #hairproud #cvs #fyp ♬ loki.4yah –
And the next step was to see the viral moment translate into sales. Zukauskaite remembers being contacted by Walmart to say the blush was sold out after an influencer mentioned it. “The realization was that this worked and that people were buying our product after watching that video.”
Although TikTok's commerce platform has only been live in the UK since September, brand agency London has already seen significant profits, she says. “We are in the next stage of TikTok's journey, which is social commerce. This is going to be a huge revenue driver and source of revenue for us, and in a few months it will be up to 30% of her DTC revenue in the UK. It is possible to reach.”
Zukauskaite, a judge at The Drum Awards for Marketing 2024, added that he has seen an “explosion” of brands developed purely for social commerce, with TikTok Shop leading the way. “In the beauty space, we will increasingly see brands being created this way, rather than the traditional, purpose-driven style of long-term brand building.”
Zukauskaite explains that brand-building strategies are quite different from the traditional strategies that large multinational companies have used for decades. But there are big unknowns about how these brands will fare in the long term.
What kind of content works?
Mr. Zukauskaite considers himself lucky to be a marketing director for a privately held brand that is not accountable to shareholders. “We can be very brave about what kind of content we put out,” she says. It's necessary for platforms where ideas need to “get attention and get thumbs down.”
She also looks at how the algorithm prioritizes this content over celebrities and considers ways to use regular TikTokers who are not influencers. “That type of content is having a huge impact on consideration and the purchase itself. We've never seen anything like this before, so it's really interesting. In the past, the more followers you have, the more Generally speaking, the more famous someone was, the more influential they were.”
She says Gen Z trusts their peers more than influencers because they understand the creator economy. Demographics knows that it is essentially “media buying” and that influencers are compensated for it.
Taking a behind-the-scenes look at your brand is also a strategy that resonates with this “curious” Gen Z audience, and Brand Agency London creates content that showcases everything from product development and manufacturing to office culture. It's open to the public.
“They want to know what you stand for, what you stand for, what your ethos is, so get them involved in your community and build your brand, not just the perfect Instagram photo. It helps to see another side of it.”
Zukauskaite was recently joined on The Drum Predictions by Aoife O'Toole, Head of Digital Marketing at Skyscanner, and Hannah Walley, Head of Media Insights at Kantar. Find out what will be the biggest priority for brand marketers in 2024.
