Unlike healthy pancakes, having an offer in your ad never goes out of style.

What’s interesting about this

I am under the belief that short form content like the videos you see on TikTok is the next frontier of digital marketing. The format is brand new and many marketers are not sure how to capitalize on it yet. That is why we see so many awkward attempts at leveraging the platform.

Ad agencies are going to have a field day with brands because executives are unsure as to what a good TikTok would look like. Millions of dollars in ad spend will be wasted. Executives just want their brand on the platform because they see their children using the service. They want the TikTok to look stylish and results take a back seat in the short run.

This article is going to focus on what not to do when using TikTok by looking at this feeble video promoted by Rappi in Latin America. Rapid is a food delivery service that operates in many countries. They have been so successful that they have driven UberEats out of Lima. With big business, there comes a lot of bloat and that is what Rappi is facing right now, especially with the decision making process in their marketing department.

The fundamentals of marketing still apply to whatever format you are thinking of using. The most fundamental principle of marketing is to always have an offer. The creative does not have an offer at all.

As per an article in SEJ, only 3.43% of TikToks have an offer. That means 97% of all TikToks are wasting their marketing potential. This is proof that there is an extreme opportunity for marketers to get in on the trend before banner blindness sets in and users begin to ignore offers.

If the goal of this campaign is “awareness”, then the creative also fails. The brand is not prominent at all. The logo briefly figures in about 10% of the video. Rappi’s services are not really explained nor showcase sufficiently enough to attract a new user nor encourage an existing user to use the platform to place an order.

On top of that, the concept is extremely stale. The healthy pancake trend emerged in the early days of the pandemic and continued for a couple of months eventually dying out completely in Q3 2020. This advertisement was served to me in September 2021.

The advertisement is no longer culturally relevant. Nobody is making those healthy pancakes anymore. The trend died out because the pancakes weren’t good. I know this because my wife and I tried to make them at home. The texture was strange and we ended up throwing away about half the batch.

If you feel so inclined as to attempt a marketing campaign on TikTok, make sure your video has an offer. Do not get caught up in a trend from over a year ago. A TikTok trend lasts about 3 months and then it fizzles out completely.

About this creative

Category: Tech / Services / Food & Beverage

Company: Rappi

Advertising Format: Video on Social Media

Country: Colombia