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At TikTok’s NewFronts presentation last week, the platform’s GM of US Global Business Solutions Sandie Hawkins said “people check Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter,” but “they watch TikTok like Netflix and Hulu.” Talk about a flex.
During the presentation, TikTok also boasted that 30% of TikTokers recently told Kantar they’ve watched “less TV, streaming, or other video content since joining" the app. And a TikTok representative told Marketing Brew that the average TikTok user consumes a movie's worth of content every day.
Snap and Twitter used the NewFronts to plug their video chops, too.
- Snap announced a slate of new original shows—including one starring the D’Amelio sisters, who rose to fame on TikTok.
- Twitter showed off its “expanded lineup of new live and on demand premium video content” via partnerships with Genius, NBCUniversal, Refinery29, and others.
Big picture: According to recent estimates from eMarketer, US social network video ad spending in 2021 will grow by 31% year over year to $19.22 billion.
- Nicole Perrin, eMarketer principal analyst, told Marketing Brew that advertisers consider digital video “among their most effective ad options.”
- She explained that “some of that ‘entertainment’ time that previously defaulted to long-form video on television is moving not only to that same type of content on [connected TV] but also to other types of video-based entertainment content in social media—e.g., TikTok—and platforms like Snap and Twitter will want to capitalize on that shift.”
Speaking of TV...
Social Native CEO David Shadpour told us that the “most meaningful revenue opportunity for these platforms sits within shifting ad dollars from TV budgets.”
- “As the larger platforms like Twitter and Snapchat face pressure from shareholders for continued growth, TV is the primary target,” he added.
This could partly explain why platforms like Snap continue to invest in original, TV-esque shows. Tedi Schmidt, iProspect’s associate director of paid social, claims marketers are “excited” about this type of content.
- “After the past year, when COVID pushed advertisers to pull back on upper-funnel dollars and focus on online sales to combat the loss of in-store revenue, this is a cool way for brands to make a splash and open back up into branding in a big and unique way,” she told Marketing Brew.
- Schmidt also pointed out that more than 90% of the US Gen Z population watched Snapchat’s shows and publisher content during the fourth quarter of 2020.
Zoom out: “Video is on the rise across all social media platforms,” Socialfly CEO and cofounder Courtney Spritzer told us. “In adding longer form video content, the social platforms are getting closer and closer to competing with streaming services to capitalize on the increase in video consumption.” — PB