Brief:

• Ralph Lauren this week became the first brand to roll out a campaign tied to a U.S. sporting event on social video app TikTok. The luxury brand created a dedicated digital campaign to coincide with the 2019 U.S. Open tennis tournament, WWD reported.
• Ralph Lauren's campaign consists of a series of three videos starring "Booksmart" actress Diana Silvers, a hashtag campaign dubbed #WinningRL that urges users to post videos of winning a real-life challenge and shoppable posts that let consumers buy U.S. Open-branded products, Adweek reported. TikTok users whose videos get the most engagement will be selected to win a package of Polo Ralph Lauren U.S. Open apparel.
• In addition, Ralph Lauren released U.S. Open-related stickers on Giphy for TikTok users to include in their videos. The campaign will start on Aug. 31 and run through Sept. 8.

Insight:

Ralph Lauren's #WinningRL effort is notable for being the first time that a brand has run a campaign tied in with a major sporting event on TikTok, the social video platform that has been the most downloaded app worldwide recently. Ralph Lauren has been a sponsor and official outfitter of the U.S. Open since 2005, and its TikTok campaign is a way to extend its marketing efforts onto mobile platforms and engage with a younger, tech-savvy generation.

More than 70% of TikTok’s U.S. users and 75% of global users are ages 18 or older, making them a key target for Ralph Lauren, Alice Delahunt, chief digital officer for Ralph Lauren, told WWD. More than half (56%) of TikTok’s audience can't be reached on other social media platforms, she said.

Ralph Lauren also is relying on social influencers to help the campaign grow on TikTok, whose collaborative features make the app especially powerful for viral marketing. Influencer marketing is set to grow 40% to $6.5 billion in 2019 from last year, per Influencer Marketing Hub. Hero Cosmetics, a startup that makes overnight skin patches to treat acne, this month launched an influencer campaign on TikTok after seeing results that were better than on Instagram. 

Brands such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Grubhub, Guess, Macy's, Sony Pictures and Uniqlo have recently run campaigns and viral challenges on TikTok to try and capture on its success. The platform has tested a new format that resembles Facebook's Instagram. TikTok also ramped up hiring to gain greater ad-sales expertise in more regions. Key hires this year include Facebook's former VP of Global Partnerships Blake Chandlee as VP of business strategy in the Americas and Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and Vanessa Pappas, YouTube's former global head of creative insights, as TikTok's first U.S. general manager.