by Kris Van Hout -

Impulse #4 – Duolingo’s TikTok Best practice

In the podcast 20VC from Harry Stebbings he is interviewing Zaria Parvez – Social media Manager at Duolingo. She is talking about the success of their social media accounts with a special look to TikTok.

Zaria didn’t know a lot about advertising and she had fresh eyes to it. She just started making funny videos with the Duolingo mascot suit that nobody was using at the time. The content she was making was different and unexpected and no other brand was doing that yet. The small human moment is what Zaria thinks which made the TikTok page of Duolingo blow up.

Zaria choose for TikTok as a platform because it felt like a native platform to her. Also TikTok mentioned that they hat 1 billion users (September 2021). “And if People are on TikTok they are not on our app. How do we bring people back to our app.” Zaria. Duolingo doesn’t see other language apps as competitors but apps like TikTok or other social media platforms that are taking attention away from taking your daily language lesion. “How do we bring back the daily lesion or push notification to TikTok” Zaria.

For Zaria TikTok and Reels feels more connected and Shorts feels a bit more distanced. The Content that is made has to be fit with the trends that are going on. “Is the content entertaining to you when you are making it? Or do you have fun making it? Then most likely it has a chance to become viral. Is it sharable?”

Zaria doesn’t believe that the quantity of posting is important what a lot of people suggest but she thinks the quality is far more important.

So, to sum up the things that has been said. Make sure why you are using social media content. And try to be different than all the other main brands.

20VC with Harry Stebbings. (2024b, Januar 21). Behind Duolingo viral success 🔥 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPBRuzPF7XI

20VC with Harry Stebbings. (2024a, Januar 20). Duolingo’s Owl Origin Story  [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOGv96tYdnE  

by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #4 – What is a good research paper, article, or book?

In the proseminar for our thesis we were asked to find several recourses to begin our master thesis and here are some find I did:

First I found this paper: Cinematic study of TikTok mobile app.

But I quickly found out that’s its not the right article for me. This article shows that up to date data is harder to find. This article is from 2019 and is already outdated a TikTok changed already a lot since that so the article is not very relatable any more.
They talk about that all the videos have a different playback speed than other video apps and that video’s only take 15 sec. Which is not the case anymore there are still videos of 15 seconds but there are also videos of 30 and 60 seconds and even videos of 3 up to 10 min.

Even though the article is outdated there is still some information that is still in use. Users still imitate videos of others to jump on the trends. It’s important to look for these trends and try to flip it so it will work with your kind of content and your brand (Autumn Klein,2019)

I have the feeling this paper is more explaining what TikTok is in a basic way than actually going deeper into specific information that you would want to find if you are searching for Paper with TikTok as platform.

For my next blogs I want to find a list of good resources about TikTok, Instagram or more on social media campaigns. Or maybe take inspiration directly from the source, but than its always the question if its a good and reliable one.

Sources:
Kurzrock, Ethan. (2019). Intensified Play: Cinematic study of TikTok mobile app.


by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #3 – Acht van Bladel Social-Media Campaign

Here is a recap of the social media campaign for the Acht van Bladel 2023:

Goals:

1. Brand awareness:
– Post reach: Get as many people as possible to reach with our posts.
– Follower: Instagram: started with 508, now 1094 followers
TikTok: started with 0, now with 1001 followers

2. Manage brand reputation:
– Brand mentions and relevant hashtags: Get as many people to mention @achtvanbladel 
– How often are people talking about us, special reach out.

Also got a special report in the official UCI Jury report of the event. That the social media this year was outstanding and this is a good example how other races should spend more energy into their social media aswell. The UCI is trying to put races for juniors like this on the map. And how we tackled the social media this year was the way to do so they said.

The UCI, Union Cycliste Internationale, is the international organization of the cycling sport. It oversees and regulates all cycling disciplines, establishes rules, organizes international competitions, promotes global development of the cycling sport at the international level.

3, Improve community engagement:
As much as possible
Here are the average results of the social media posts:

Instagram Reels
LikesViewsCommentsSharedSaved
475238732314
Instagram Photos
LikesReachComments
858030
TikTok
LikesViewsCommentsSharedSaved
38957623813

As you can see Instagram reels and TikTok have more potential than a photo posted on Instagram. Further you can see that there are very little comments in all the posts we posted. Maybe that is something to work on.
We also put a lot of effort in the after movie which is mostly to show other sponsors what kind of event the Acht van Bladel is. That’s why performance is less important but here are the results from that:

202220232024
YouTube30119??
Instagram9902869??
Facebook16001700??

Reparation before the event:
Since we also made the after movie of the 2022 edition, we knew a little bit what to improve but not to every detail. In 2022 we only made an after movie and did nothing with the social media so that was completely new.

Team:
Director/ Preproduction/Camera/Edit/Social media: Kris van Hout
Camera 2: Mirre Roymans
Social media 1: Nele van Hout
Social media 2: Richard Caddock
Drone: Ruud Hooijen
Photographer: Peer van Rooij

Planning
I didn’t do the whole campaign on my own but I was the “director” if that’s the right word. But I also did most of the preproduction work. We rented all the gear so we were fully equipped for the weekend.

DP 7588 Panasonic S5 body
LO 8372 Fader ND 82mm Kenko / Hoya
LP 7239 Panasonic Lumix S PRO 70- 200mm f/2.8 OIS
AM 8112 SD card 128GB 95MB/s
We also used the Panasonic S5 from my cousin (Mirre)

For social media we looked deep into similar similar cycling tour account to come up with inspiration and saved already a lot of music so we could use it on-site. So, we have a list of wished content what we wanted to post. The only thing is that we had to get those right shots.

Further we had all the routes of all the stages but we had to figure out a good schedule to get as much footage as we could in the short period of time.

All with all we made already a lot of progress compaired to 2022 but there is still a lot to improve for the next edition.

Sources:
https://blog.hootsuite.com/smart-social-media-goals/
https://www.instagram.com/achtvanbladel/

@achtvanbladel
by Kris Van Hout -

Short form Video and the Goldfish Effect

In the 00’s the human attention span was measured at 12 seconds. And fast forward to today out attention span has markedly decreased. As a consequence, short form video is now more popular than before.
The average human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish’s, it is estimate to be just around 8 seconds (one second below a goldfish).
TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels among many other similar applications are now trending and showing no sign to slow down that decrease.
For marketer, this has opened up new avenues to reach the consumer. As a result, that short-form videos are one of the most in-demand social media marketing tools in 2022.

In 2021 Google was the most popular website worldwide. However, towards the end of 2021 TikTok surpassed Google. I now even use TikTok as a search engine rather than I use google.

These videos have higher retention rates, making them more likely to capture the viewers’ attention and for longer in comparison to long-form videos’, notes and graphics.
It is difficult to define how short a short video is. As this variates form platform to platform. It differs from 15 seconds long to 60 seconds to 3 minutes. But on YouTube they talk about short-form video when a video is 5-10 minutes long. Research suggest that the length at which engagement is highest is just under 60 seconds.

TikTok
There is a possibility to upload 3-minute videos but all indicators show that shorter videos are still dominant. TikTok’s algorithms compute the average watch time.

Facebook
Facebook is more a sharing platform rather than a place to build original content. But now competing with Instagram, YouTube shorts and TikTok. With possibility of interacting with websites, this has been seen as a viable medium for marketers to reach the consumers.

YouTube Shorts
YouTube has come with a ‘’Short fund” to pay creators for making content for YouTube Shorts. The advantage that YouTube has over other platforms: an extremely wide target group.
Shorts’ content has already yielded success in commercial advertising, with brands receiving a high volume in reach and engagement with their intended audiences.

Instagram Reels
Following the success of TikTok and YouTube also Instagram also moved towards video. With first IGTV but now changed to Reels. And have plans to focus primarily on growing Reels.

Content Trends
User Generated Content
Capturing content from followers and fans gives them to have a voice and speak on their behalf of the brand.

Behind the Scenes
Consumers are seeking personalization and authenticity from brands. A short video of a normal day in a company could provide insights that would otherwise more often be over looked at.

Educational and informational
Tutorials and DIY videos are the key things to consider when passing out educational videos. Short video can provide quick and doable solutions to normal day-to day situations and problems

FAQ’s
Commonly asked questions and various commonly misunderstood industry related issues can be easily cleared up with a short video

New product Teasers
By announcing a new products and service brand can pull more traffic presenting an opportunity to sell the products and or services.

Starting a Challenge
A fun and engaging form of short video. And connects the consumers on a personal level.

Conclusion Short form Videos are all about quick, snackable, digestible content. We are constant learning, and staying on level of improvements, marketing trends and updates to keep the clients ahead of the game.

Resource:
Mwandango, G. (2023). Short Form Video: The Most Powerful Marketing Tool Today. Digital Marketing Content Services | Training Data | Data Management – Reactionpower. https://reactionpower.com/why-short-form-video-is-the-most-powerful-marketing-tool-today/

by Kris Van Hout -

Best practice: Right media for right target group

Attracting new users to the world’s most popular language learning app by teaching the meaning of TikTok hashtags.

One really good example is how some brand use TikTok for their Gen-z audience. These brands left the traditional marketing behind. Did research of what the desired target group thinks and acts and make the best media campaigns. One of the big winners is Duolingo

In august 2021, back-to-school season, Duolingo launched a campaign with the objective of increasing awareness and consideration for the brand, in addition to bringing new users to the app. They turned to TikTok to deliver an effective message to both a qualified and massive audience.

In the creative assets, the brand’s owl mascot and other characters teach the meaning of popular hashtags on TikTok, such as #fy, #trend, #stitch and #cringe, and invite the audience to “install now” the app. Using a vocabulary that is common among TikTok users was crucial for the brand to get attention and increase engagement. Now other brands followed this tactic like brand as Ryanair, Paralympics. But as I said before this will only work for a certain target group if you attack the campaign in a way your desired target group is interacting with it.

There is this campaign from Zalando that completely flopped because you clearly felt you were watching a tv commercial adapted to a mobile platform. It’s nice but not relatable. Made the way tv commercials are made: to be looked at, not to look at you

Sources:
Duolingo | TikTok for Business Case Study. (2022, March 22). TikTok for Business. https://www.tiktok.com/business/en/inspiration/duolingo-509

Cardoso, L. (2021, May 27). TikTok Language: A Visual Guide To Why Brands Are Failing On TikTok. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tiktok-language-visual-guide-why-brands-failing-middleton/