Yes, you read that headline correctly. The next generation of scrollers has banded together to create Ratatouille the Musical on TikTok, driving over 54.3m views of their creation. From set design to song creation, marketing and even dance routines, they have put together their lockdown boredom and creative skills to coordinate and choreograph an entire musical.
It’s either a huge cry for the lockdown to end or the best expression of creative collaboration that a social media platform has ever seen. Either way, this unique trend demonstrates how powerful the platform can be at creating viral moments.
Check out some of the videos created here. I argue that this is the best case study for a social platform I’ve seen. No other platform could host and bring together this collaboration of creative minds to form an entire musical.
TikTok is unique in the current market for driving relatively unfollowed and unknown accounts and blowing up one or two of their videos. The video that started the entire process was from Em Jaccs @e_Jaccs, before the @ratatatouillemusical TikTok channel by musical theatre actor Josh Abram took over. Their first ever video got over 1.2m views by asking people to join in and support the musical.
What made this work so well is that TikTok allows users to use the soundtrack from each other’s videos. So, when one person wrote the opening number, another person could take the audio and create a dance routine or showcase their costume designs for that song.
All of those videos are then nicely bought together under either shared hashtags or the same audio, and once you’ve engaged with one video about the musical you eventually see the entire thing from your ‘For You Page’.
This is truly a showcase of what can be achieved not only by those in the creative arts industry but through the power of social platforms that continue to share our content with new audiences and get discovered. This is how movements grow and develop, and we create beautiful (if not a little bizarre) art from it.
What can brands learn from this?
First of all, never overlook the power of communities and meme content to spread through platforms like wildfire. Secondly, take a moment to understand the power of TikTok. It’s no longer just the new platform on the scene that your kids are playing on. It has a significant impact on people’s lives and is just as influential as other platforms. While it may not have the e-commerce features of other platforms, it has its own unique features. You can reach huge audiences, grow communities and followings quickly and bring together movements of people to achieve incredible results.
The issue with TikTok is that not enough people understand it. While you’re there thinking about whether it’s the right thing for your brand or thinking about the time commitment your audience is already forming communities and conversations on TikTok without you.
This idea was so successful because it tapped into an entire industry which was looking for a creative outlet and became a wholesome community event. Everyone who has engaged with it has wanted it to succeed, the complete goodness of a children’s film about a rat becoming a Broadway musical thanks to their individual actions on TikTok is inspiring.
And brands can be this inspiring too. You can create movements where people are willing the project to be a success. Take, for example, Chipotle working with David Dobrik to ask people to share their favourite menu items in creative ways. The audience are excited because they get to see lots of creative content, there’s money on the line for the winner and their favourite influencer is presenting the whole thing.
The key here is understanding how TikTok works. It isn’t like any other platform which means it can drive results no other platform can. But you have to understand its nuances and the communities that power it.
Let this be a case study to inspire you, to show you the power of creators on TikTok and the incredible movements they can create through just their talents and the app.
To create your own TikTok campaign, or musical, contact us at Tailify.
Esme Rice is marketing director at Tailify.
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