Brief:
- WWE partnered with social video app TikTok to offer more wrestling entertainment content for mobile users to share. As part of the agreement, WWE created an official account on TikTok and started letting users add entrance themes from its star wrestlers to their videos, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
- WWE provided entrance themes for more than 30 of its stars such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Ultimate Warrior, Becky Lynch, John Cena and Sasha Banks. Its first TikTok video shows its stars vying with other wrestlers while Bonde R300's "Oh Nanana" plays in the background, a variation of the #ohnanachallenge dance meme, Variety reported.
- WWE plans to post daily content to its TikTok account, which the entertainment company started amid the promotion for its "Tables, Ladders & Chairs" pay-per-view event on Dec. 15. WWE has more than 1 billion followers worldwide among its social media channels, per TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance.
Insight:
WWE's new account on TikTok could help the wrestling entertainment company reach a younger audience, considering that 60% of the social video app's 26.5 million monthly active users (MAUs) in the U.S. are 16 to 24 years old, according to TikTok data cited by Variety. By posting content including original music themes on the mobile platform, WWE urges social sharing that helps to raise awareness for its entertainment brand among an audience that's typically difficult to reach through other media channels.
More than a quarter (28%) of Generation Z said they're most likely to watch TV series and video content on a smartphone than on other devices, compared with 6% of millennials, per a survey by YPulse. The researcher found just 33% of teenagers watch content on TV weekly amid a shift toward cord-cutting and streaming services. Reaching this audience will be essential for WWE, which has TV shows on Fox, Fox Sports and the USA Network, along with its own over-the-top (OTT) service.
TikTok's global reach and popularity among U.S. teens has led other sports leagues like the NFL, NBA and the International Cricket Council to share highlights and other content on the social video app. Only 41% of Generation Z watches their favorite sports on TV, compared with 75% of baby boomers, per a study by New York University's Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport and Fox Sports.
TikTok surpassed 1.5 billion downloads globally on Apple's App Store and Google Play, according to Sensor Tower's estimate from November. That popularity has drawn interest from brands such as American Eagle Outfitters, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Ralph Lauren, Uniqlo and Walmart, which have created branded hashtag challenges to urge users to create videos in order to raise brand awareness. TikTok also is testing social commerce capabilities that let influencers link to pages where users can purchase products featured in videos.
