Top marketers from two of Australia’s most ascendant brands, Oodie and Bondi Sands, take us behind the scenes to show how they’re creating campaigns which drive sales on platforms like TikTok.
Performance marketing is one of the most dynamic parts of the industry, requiring a deep understanding of the brand, technical mastery of several distinctive platforms and an innate ability to create something that will stop thumbs and drive actions.
Here Chloe Clark, Global Digital Marketing Manager for skincare powerhouse Bondi Sands, and Head of Paid Media for everyone’s new winter essential The Oodie, Sigrid Lundborg, discuss their approaches to their craft.
What was the career path which led you to your current role?
Chloe: I did my degree in public relations, and my first job out of uni was for an online fashion retailer. But this was at the boom of organic social, so the role quickly morphed into mastering those emerging fields, although there actually was no performance marketing on social at that time. But, as brands found it harder to reach people organically my role developed again, so I taught myself paid media marketing and each company I joined wanted to focus more on performance marketing.
Now at Bondi Sands it’s come back full circle as we’re very digitally focused, but we really do tie that into our organic strategy, particularly on TikTok, where organic and paid work so closely together, versus other channels where those teams might work a bit more separately.
Sigrid: I’ve always had a passion for marketing, so I studied it at university and really leaned towards the analytical side of it. When I left uni I was lucky to land a role with an agency purely focused on paid search and I really enjoyed the data component of it, that was something I thrived on.
So I've been in performance marketing for just over 10 years now and the biggest change is obviously the channel mix. Video-led content didn't really exist past YouTube, but that focus is obviously so much more prominent now. It’s definitely evolved a lot, because this part of the industry changes so quickly.
What do you enjoy about what you do?
Sigrid: I love to be able to see the impact that our changes have on business metrics and to be able to show that directly is super motivating and inspiring for me and why I love it. I can't imagine what my role would be like if I was doing the same thing with TV ads where you don't get that direct and immediate response.
I thrive off making improvements and I think of it as like making pottery. You can tweak things here and there and you can keep massaging things and immediately see the implications come out of it. That’s super fun.
Chloe: Bondi Sands has always been a leader in the digital space so working in a team that values and invests in performance marketing is exciting and rewarding. We are always present in the digital space, and are always testing new platforms, new products or optimising our existing digital ecosystem.
Clark at the recent 2023 TikTok Incubator Retreat
How are you measuring the success of your marketing activities?
Sigrid: The challenge in today's digital landscape is navigating the myriad of attribution models available and sifting through the vast amounts of data. While there's a potential risk of information overload, the key lies in pinpointing our goals and ensuring clarity about which data to prioritise.
I lean heavily towards direct response metrics. For us, the overarching performance indicators are customer acquisition cost and return on ad spend. However, we also value pre-conversion metrics as they offer an early signal of a campaign's potential success. The real essence, though, is in continuous testing. It's fascinating how sometimes an unexpected approach resonates more effectively than what we initially believe might be the 'perfect hook'. Preparing in advance, having a bank of content angles and hooks, ensures that we're agile in our content strategy and aren't constantly starting from scratch.
Chloe: We gauge success differently from direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands due to our primary focus on retail sales. Our perspective isn't solely on online conversions; it's broader, emphasising reach within our addressable market, especially during global launch campaigns. The efficacy of this reach, and its cost-effectiveness, directly impacts our retail sales. While we employ traditional performance marketing measurements for campaigns directed at our online platform, a more comprehensive approach is vital for our in-store presence.
We also recognise and adapt to the diverse life cycles of our customers across regions, as each market—be it Australia, the UK, or the US—has unique metrics of success owing to distinct customer behaviours and expectations.
How do you approach making impactful creative for TikTok?
Chloe: Understanding what works organically is really crucial for our creative strategy for TikTok. In paid marketing we've observed that the more organic our content appears, the better it performs. My background in organic roles and the fact I’m also that person who probably spends 90 minutes per day on TikTok definitely helps as well as I understand how content should feel on the platform.
While trends play a role, particularly in giving our organic posts the potential for virality, we don't depend on them for our paid strategies. Instead, we lean into the essence of our brand and product offerings; showcasing application processes, before-and-after results, and emphasising the immediate benefits of our products. We do occasionally weave trending techniques, such as stitching, into our content, but our primary focus is on demonstrating our product's effectiveness.
A large element of performance on TikTok is anchored in the creative as capturing users' attention promptly is crucial. To achieve this, we continuously hone our creative assets in collaboration with our digital designers and organic teams. Creativity is not just a component, but the core of our paid social marketing strategy.
Bondi Sands - Technocolor Caramel on Vimeo
Get more inspiration from Bondi Sands on TikTok
Sigrid: First and foremost you have to really immerse yourself in the platform to get why some videos just click. It's all about finding that angle that makes people stop and watch.
While we don’t always lean into trends, we certainly keep an eye on what is being said in the comments to spot wider cultural things that can influence our thinking. For example, when there’s a big conversation about cost of living and users chat about how much they saved on their electricity bills, we take that cue. It's like having an ever-updating focus group right there on TikTok.
Keep an open mind, read what people are saying, and it feels more real and personal. Our whole team is in-house, so we work together and are on the same page and can be agile.
As for measuring success, it's about watching the metrics and seeing what sticks. We don’t have a magic number when it comes to content fatigue, but we always have a plan for the next big thing and making sure we're ready to roll with fresh content.
What is your approach to testing and learning?
Chloe: Every campaign we run on TikTok involves rigorous testing of our creative. We always deploy multiple ad variations, contrasting organic-style content, polished content, and influencer-driven content, among others. A big part of our strategy is the application of native TikTok techniques, such as adding fonts native to the TikTok platform, to our assets. This approach not only ensures the content appears organic on the platform but also fosters learnings that we constantly feed back to our organic and design teams.
Our marketing activities are typically campaign-based, aligned with our brand calendar. While we maintain a diverse mix of creative to counteract fatigue, it's essential to note that we often run full-funnel campaigns comprising awareness, traffic, and conversion. We would have, at the very least, three creatives for each of these campaign objectives, and for our most significant launches, we could have hundreds of variations in line with different campaign goals.
Sigrid: Great content is really important on TikTok more than any other channel and you need to keep it fresh and authentic. That really just enforces the need to be constantly testing and having that clear pipeline coming through for fresh content.
Sometimes what you think might be a great hook might turn out not to be, but you won't really know until you test it. And sometimes it's always the opposite of what you think is going to work, ends up working. You need to be really specific with the specific problem you are tackling with it.
THE OODIE - DON’T LET WINTER CHILL YOU on Vimeo
Check out all the fun things The Oodie is doing on TikTok
Top tips for success on TikTok:
Sigrid:
1. Always test: what you think is going to perform doesn't always perform
2. Tailoring content for the platform to really push that authenticity.
3. Investing in creators that have good experience because they know what works on the platform and they're the best at feeling native
Chloe:
1. Continually testing your creative is the best way to see what resonates with your audience. Sharing these results with your team will ensure everyone can take learnings into future asset creation and it fosters a culture of testing & learning
2. If you don’t have the resources to create TikTok first content, you can remix or ‘TikTok-ify’ content from other channels by applying some native TikTok functionalities such as text on screen, trending sounds etc.
3. Show your product in action and don’t be afraid to tell viewers what you want them to do. This is a tip TikTok shared with us that gives us a new perspective on TikTok users vs other platforms.
To learn more about how TikTok is the platform for entertainment that drives social impact, join industry experts and TikTok insiders at #ForYou Summit Australia on September 19! Register now: https://bit.ly/FYSAustralia
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