Music marketing has thrived in the world of TikTok, but it is about much more than just generating awareness now. Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ recent release, ‘Unholy’, illustrates a successful execution of a marketing campaign done with lean-through engagement in mind.
A month before the song was released, the creators strategically dropped a chorus teaser and a dance challenge to TikTok. This meant the song was viral before even being released, with enthusiastic audiences populating the social platform with videos of themselves dancing to the song clip, and using the sound as a backdrop to anything from transition videos to video memes. Once it was actually released in full, ‘Unholy’ shot to number three in Billboard’s Hot 100, and earned the top spot in the Official UK charts. It also stayed in the Billboard Global 100 for three weeks in a row (at time of writing – October 2022). In short: a marketing campaign successfully executed.
Yet, it was not a success as a result of ad placements or algorithmic precision. Rather, it tapped into social audiences’ keenness for engagement, creativity, and authenticity, by encouraging them to participate and spread word of the release themselves. As saturated attention makes the entertainment ecosystem ever-more competitive, and social platforms transition into fully-fledged user-generated content platforms in their own right, successful marketing requires engaging with audiences where they are, rather than where they were back in the age of billboards and TV ads.