Brief:

• Tums plans to bid farewell to 2020 with an earlier New Year's Eve countdown on social video app TikTok. Describing 2020 as heartburn-inducing "dumpster fire of a year," the antacid tablets made by GSK Consumer Healthcare will declare the year over three hours early in a livestream hosted by TikTok star Michael Le at 9 p.m. Eastern on New Year's Eve, per an announcement.
• As part of the campaign, Tums is running an online sweepstakes through Dec. 16 that will give the first 900 entrants a chance to win a gift card for New Year's Eve food and other party prizes. Another 2,020 entrants will receive party supplies and a gift card to order a drink and dessert. Tums is asking people to enter the contest by creating photos or videos, and either uploading them to its TUMSworthyNYE.com website or providing links to their posts on Instagram, TikTok, Vimeo or YouTube.
• Along with the livestream, Tums enlisted TikTok star Spencer X to make an original remix of the brand's "Tums, de tum tum, Tums" jingle, and Le created a dance video to help inspire people to participate in the campaign, per the announcement.

Insight:

Tums' year-end campaign aims to engage younger consumers during the holidays, when overindulging on food and drinks can lead many people to seek heartburn medicine. The brand acknowledges that 2020 has been an especially stressful year, without specifically mentioning the pandemic, economic recession, social protests and contentious U.S. elections. By giving people a way to bid farewell to 2020 three hours early with a New Year's Eve livestream on TikTok, Tums is getting a jump on late-night programming that homebound consumers are more likely to watch this year instead of attending parties or dining out.

The GSK brand seeks to extend its campaign's reach on social media by collaborating with influencers like Michael Le, whose dance videos have earned him a following of 42.5 million people and 1.2 billion views on TikTok, and Spencer X, who has a following of 49.6 million. As people share their content on TikTok and other social platforms for a chance to win prizes, Tums is more likely to boost exposure and engagement with its campaign. Social media sweepstakes have become increasingly popular in the past few years as brands seek to engage consumers on their preferred platforms. Recent campaigns have included those by Chipotle Mexican Grill, Diageo, Michelob Ultra and Pepsi.

Tums' sweepstakes is the brand's latest effort to raise awareness and connect with social media users when they're most likely to suffer heartburn. With many people overeating and drinking alcohol at Super Bowl parties, Tums earlier this year ran a sweepstakes that asked people to use the neglected blue dot emoji to rate stressful moments during the big game that triggered the most heartburn. The campaign attempted to take ownership of the little-used visual icon, making it a key part of Tums' identity on social media. Tums offered a variety of prizes Twitter users who used the emoji during the Super Bowl, giving them more incentive to share their posts with friends and followers.