Brief:

• WeQ Influencers, a marketing agency run by mobile advertising firm WeQ, formed a partnership with social video app TikTok to provide brands and app developers access to native ad campaigns that include TikTok influencers, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.​
• TikTok's video ads can direct users to a website or app page and promote hashtag challenges. Because of TikTok's recent ascent as a popular channel, WeQ says advertisers are hesitant to use the platform, making media buys comparably less expensive.
• WeQ Influencers will run a campaign for an unnamed video game company that includes a live streaming event with influencers at the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, Aug. 20-24.

Insight:

WeQ Influencers' partnership with TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, may help marketers reach followers of influencers who are building audiences on the social video platform.

The partnership merges several mobile marketing trends of late, including influencers and TikTok, suggesting that marketers are exploring newer ways to capture the attention of mobile consumers. Influencer marketing is forecast to grow 40% to $6.5 billion in 2019 from last year, per Influencer Marketing Hub, while researcher Sensor Tower said TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the world based on install statistics.

TikTok's popularity is partly attributed to features that urge creative collaboration among its users and high-end artificial intelligence (AI) that identifies fun and quirky videos that are easily shareable. The average TikTok user session lasts 8.95 minutes, ahead of Reddit, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram, per Statista. However, the platform's engagement rate of 29% is less than those of leading social media apps, Apptopia found.

TikTok's biggest competitor in social influencer marketing is Instagram. To better compete with the Facebook-owned platform, TikTok last month began testing a format that resembles Instagram. The pilot included a change to its "For You" page that relies on an algorithm to offer personalized suggestions on what to watch, and a Discover tab that would replace the current Search tab that lets users find videos based on keywords, among other features.

The app has an opportunity to grow its social influencer marketing as Instagram gets saturated with the content. TikTok's partnershp with WeQ aligns with parent company ByteDance's ambitious plans to grow the platform's advertising revenue by sharpening its marketing strategy and making key hires. Brands like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Grubhub, Guess, Sony Pictures and Uniqlo have run campaigns and viral challenges on the platform that's especially popular with U.S. teens.