TikTok partners M&C Saatchi Abel for their first campaign in South Africa

TikTok joins a growing list of clients that M&C Saatchi Abel partners with that are shaping the new economy, such as Takeolot.com, Netflix, Superbalist and MWEB.

Collaborating with the TikTok team based in Beijing, London and Johannesburg, M&C Saatchi Abel pulled together the global video streaming brand’s first brand campaign for South Africa during the country’s lockdown.

TikTok, which has exploded onto phones around the world, needed to broaden its appeal in South Africa and change the perception that the platform is for teenagers, to a home for anyone that wants to share their passion.

“At its simplest, the challenge was to get a broader audience curious about TikTok. When you are curious about something you are more likely to go and check it out,” says Keke Mahlelebe, Strategy Partner for Cape Town at M&C Saatchi Abel.

Jacques Burger, Group Executive at M&C Saatchi Abel, said: “Partnering with TikTok was a powerful demonstration of what is possible when ambitions are aligned. Here’s a new client, based in three cities, with one of the fastest growing brands with an immediate ask during our generations biggest pandemic.

“As always we were guided by our purpose, to create beautifully simple solutions for an increasingly complex and challenging world. By applying some bright and brave thinking we got to a great idea and a powerful piece of content delivered within a few weeks, all in the middle of lockdown.”

Without the benefit of being able to shoot any footage due to lockdown restrictions, the team, lead by Jake Bester, Executive Creative Director for the Cape Town campus, conceptualised the campaign off content from TikTok’s users with a stand-out custom track, asking a simple question to pique interest in the platform: “What makes you Tic?”.

To date the campaign has achieved over 1.5 million views, prompted a huge increase in downloads and received several Creative Circle awards in film and motion & digital graphic design.