How Coach is Dominating TikTok
As someone who used to work in fashion (and spent her first ever paycheck in high school on a Michael Kors bag) I do get the occasional fashion and style content on my TikTok #fyp.
Now, Coach (for me) became pretty irrelevant until I saw Michael B Jordan in some ad campaigns a while back (more recently Lil Was X) and then they released the Pillow Tabby which I actually like.
All this to say, other people on the internet agree with the “resurgence” of Coach. Now I am curious, do you see Coach content on your TikTok? The first time I came across it was this person who is a Coach retail employee - Brandon came across my page maybe once a week and I thought - wow he loves his job and I assume from his content his store encourages him doing this (which we know is NOT the case for all retail stores having employees use social on the clock).
Well in the last couple of weeks I have seen these two accounts - Gabby and The Tea Roses
As I have preached before - it is important for your brand to show up on TikTok (seriously lost opportunity if you don’t) and more importantly show up in a way that will engage users while giving brand awareness - no matter what account that comes from since video views are much more relevant than followers on this platform.
So after seeing these accounts I realized (assumed) that this is Coach’s strategy and in my opinion, it’s genius - best thing I think a brand can do on TikTok. So bravo Coach!
If you are interested - here is Coach’s owned account on TikTok. As you can see views aren’t nearly as good as the other user accounts, they focus on pretty standard “luxury” branded content. As I have talked about before when it comes to large companies it can be hard to get approvals on having accounts that aren’t aesthetically pleasing (aka using UGC and more scrappy style content) BUT I assume they have a nice influencer budget and have gotten around this rule that way - again GENIUS!
Now let’s get into how you can duplicate this strategy for your own brand. To back up, we all know you never want to blatantly copy a brand and what they are doing, but this strategy/approach is different and I think there is room for all brand’s to take advantage of this “formula”.
What are they doing?
Creating multiple accounts for the brand under an influencer/UGC creator some of which have their own style accounts and also some are Coachretail employees.
I assume the 3 accounts I found are not the only accounts. I would assume they have anywhere up to 20 accounts like this.
They tapped into people who know the brand best - the people selling each and every day and sharing their stores and knowledge through content as well as style influencers who are mixing their products into everyday posts.
I can promise you the style influencers have their own separate account and also mix that content into their normal posts as well - so double promotion/usage of this content.
How much money do you need to do this?
TikTok and video creation has scared a lot of brands into thinking they can’t afford it. The reality is your brand can’t afford NOT to be creating this content and having a presence on TikTok.
Assuming you have someone to manage this in house (we will talk about that below) we can estimate the following:
$150-$5,000 for one video
You will want to have a contract for everything you do and be clear on usage intentions, edit rounds, etc.
It’s more ideal to work with people on a consistent basis and you will get better pricing the more you do
Assuming a monthly contract with a creator may be anywhere from $1,800-$25,000 per month for 10-25 videos.
There is a huge range here but honestly any budget can be used to make this successful, don’t be scared by the large numbers here
The costs come down to the following:
The person - do they already have traction as an influencer or just a normal creator?
The package of videos you are asking for
Their interest in the brand
If they have management or not
Usage rights
Edit rounds
Specific ask/requests for content
How can you manage this kind of program?
You will surely need someone in house managing this or an agency to make this happen. That person or agency will need to be in charge of the following:
Creating the initial list of people to work with
Handling contracts, payments, negotiations, and breifing
Analytic reports and influencer updates/maintenance (making sure influencers follow through with the work, answers questions about the brand proving feedback on their content, etc.)
Making sure to gain/organize all content for your company to utilize in other ares (like website, paid, email, etc.)
Coordinate shipments for new products and updating briefs
All of this can take anywhere from 15-30 hours per month
You really need to make sure this person/agency understands TikTok, influencer relations, creative best practices, and super organized.
How do you choose creators and brief them?
These two items can make or break the entire approach - you have to have your briefs right, trust the process, and work with the best people.
You start by curating a list of potential people (if you are like Coach and have retail locations) you can start with that
There are tools to help you on this search like Collabstr, #Paid, Unlimited UGC, Popular Pays
There is also my other agency No Revisions which does list building starting at only $125 (and obviously we at The Creative Exchange can manage entire programs like this)
Create a brief on what you are generally looking for to share with them to gain interest
Whoever is interested move forward with chatting pricing and then choose what will be best to move forward
I would start with an initial 2 month test here (or minimum 30 videos)
The more you can share about the brand with the creator the better - think about your brief and how you want to customize for each person making sure it represents the brand well but really showcases their personality and interest (which are what users will fall in love with and stay around to actually watch the video to the end).
For the people you work with consistently you may want to meet with them once a month (as a group even) to chat about the content that did well, new ideas, updated on the company/products, etc - you want them to feel like a huge part of the companies marketing efforts and invested in what they are doing.