This past summer, online fashion giant Boohoo launched a TikTok marketing campaign that produced user generated content (UGC). They created their own TikTok challenge, #itsfromBoohoo, for users to choreograph their own dance to a song created for the challenge. By participating in the challenge users entered a chance to win a £1000 cash prize. Boohoo enlisted popular TikTok influencers to take part in the challenge wearing Boohoo clothing to increase its exposure of the challenge while showcasing the clothes.
Boohoo’s aim with this campaign was to market to Generation Z and cleverly jumped on the TikTok dance trend. The song was used in over 14,000 videos on the app and #itsfromBoohoo was viewed over 137 million times, giving them their own viral moment. This really boosted Boohoo’s TikTok presence, the challenge made them one of the most popular fashion brands on the platform.
The success of the campaign came after the brand had scandal surrounding them to do with exploitation of worker in their factory in Leicester which subsequently led to Boohoo shares falling by nearly 18 per cent. Hence, the campaign was a big opportunity for the brand to divert their Gen Z audience attention away from the controversy. The content produced by influencers allowed for Boohoo’s following to growth as they are capturing the attention of the thousands, if not millions, of followers these influencers who took part in the campaign. Additionally, the participation of the everyday TikTok users also increased engagement and sales for the brand with people creating outfits with Boohoo products, essentially advertising for Boohoo for free.
As I mentioned there are two types of generators of this content: influencers and the everyday TikTok user, and they both gain opportunities and benefits from partaking in creating this user generated content. For the influencer, they got an opportunity to work with a well-known brand which can help with their career. If their content does well in this campaign that could lead to future campaigns with Boohoo and other big brands. Moreover, influencers will most likely be getting monetary benefits in the form of a payment or being sent free clothes. As much as the influencer is helping the brand by taking part in UGC, the influencer does reap rewards.
The average TikTok user that takes part in this challenge may be doing the most work but gaining the least in this example of UGC. They may take the time to learn or choreograph a dance, perhaps create Boohoo outfits, record and upload this TikTok but yet receive nothing, as only the tangible benefit on offer to them is the possibility of winning money. They shall be carrying out this labour for Boohoo without any guarantee of benefit. However, it may be argued that the users may benefit from the enjoyment or pleasure they gain from making TikToks but despite that it still seems like they have drawn the short straw.
Overall, it’s clear to see Boohoo gained the most from this user-generated content. The campaign, targeted at Gen Z consumers, gave Boohoo significant publicity amongst that demographic. It also distracted from the issues the brand was having at the time while also showcasing their products. The success of this campaign is very evident in the growth of Boohoo’s platform on TikTok, as they currently sitting on almost 500k followers and 4.8 million likes and by looking at their engagement with their audience and consistency on the platform they are due to have further growth.