#CreateForACause: TikTok and Best Friends Animal Society
TikTok is a destination for short-form mobile videos and in early 2018, was one of the most downloaded apps in the world with more than 500 million users around the globe. With the company’s recent purchase of musical.ly and with competitors entering the space with their own versions of short form mobile video, TikTok turned to social impact to differentiate itself.
The inaugural #CreateForACause campaign was designed to generate awareness and raise funds for three charities that they felt were in strong alignment with the values and priorities of their users: DoSomething.org, Oceana and Best Friends Animal Society.
The campaign used the most popular features of the platform; influencer content, customizable filters, stickers and smart AR technology that can “see” pet faces to add costumes or hats to pet images to engage users.
Taking advantage of the giving spirit of the holiday season, the campaign ran from December 21 – 26 to generate user engagement. At the launch of the effort, TikTok announced a donation of up to $2M to be split between the three charities to show their commitment and inspire user action.
Users chose designated filters (up to twelve unique filters were established for each participating charity) to show support for their favorite charity, and a donation was generated each time a video was created or shared on the TikTok platform.
Celebrity supporters such as Khloe Kardashian, Halsey, Nick Jonas, Peyton List, and Nina Dobrev (among many others) participated with each choosing a charity and sharing videos using the filters to generate excitement and support.
Nonprofit partners were able to leverage TikTok user generated content to raise awareness for their cause and impact. For example, Best Friends Animal Society was able to add #CreateForACause posts to the #adopt #cats #dogs and #bestfriends conversations on TikTok, which put Best Friends Animal Society and the critical need to adopt shelter animals in front of thousands of potential supporters.
In the TikTok App, users in the United States produced over 2.5 million videos with the #CreateForACause hashtag. These videos received over 200 million views for the campaign in just 6 days. The campaign helped raise the profile of causes that matter to TikTok users while raising awareness for the TikTok brand during a crowded holiday season, attracting new users and showcasing the platform’s new technology and features to a wider audience.
Best Friends gained 16,000 fans for a newly created Best Friends TikTok account in those six days. The campaign generated more than $2 million, split between the three charities with Best Friends receiving a total donation of $845,590.