TikTok has, with its mass appeal across a multitude of ages and demographics surpassed its predecessor’s success: one can practically find something for every need and interest. While entertainment and humor remain the leading content category, content within lifestyle is the runner-up. Here, creators within fitness, DIY/home renovations, beauty, and fashion respectively gather massive view counts.

A blooming portal for inspiration

For these creators, the platform serves as a way to share a more authentic, personal side of themselves compared to other social media channels. Also, there are also numerous influencers whose social media success primarily derives from their TikTok accounts.

Among these is fashion influencer Carla Rockmore, termed as the “real-life Carrie Bradshaw” by Vogue. Based in Dallas, Texas, Carla has worked as a fashion and jewelry designer for decades. However, with the covid-19 pandemic putting limitations on product development, she discovered TikTok as a platform for creative expression in April 2020. Since then, Carla has grown a large follower base sharing style advice and showing pieces from her impressive wardrobe.

VOCAST spoke to Carla about her experience as a lifestyle creator on the emerging platform:

@carlarockmore

An “essential” is a piece you see yourself wearing with more than one look. #fashion #fashiontiktok #fashionadvice #style #fyp #foryou #foryoupage

♬ original sound – Carla Rockmore

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Interview

From a creator’s perspective, how does TikTok differ from other social media platforms?

Carla: Tiktok Is a lot less formal. The follower expects less polish and production in the uploads. The platform allows for relatability more than the other platforms. Because my success in social media started on TikTok, all my videos on all platforms have an organic quality to them.

What type of TikToks do you find that your followers respond best to?

Carla: Fast and flash. Tiktok viewers need to get hooked with something fun in the first 5 seconds, or else they flip to the next video. So you need to understand how best to catch them. Your personality has to engage them enough keep their attention. They are also very visual.

In your opinion, what does it take to become a successful TikTok lifestyle influencer?

Carla: You need to be aspirational, entertaining, and informative all at the same time. Its also important to be consistent and authentic to your brand. If you take on too much advertising, or too many collaborations that don’t align with your brand, the followers see right through it.

What is the significance of TikTok in the world of fashion and lifestyle? Do you see it changing in the future?

Carla: Because Tiktok is less scripted, fashion is also less scripted on the platform. It has a frivolity and an authentic edge. Anyone can be a chef on Tiktok , anyone can be a beauty expert. You just have to have the right formula to be able to engage and keep your audience watching.

Making social media feel personal

One of the key features responsible for TikTok’s success is its technology. The app has become famous (or infamous) for its addictive algorithm, which curates a personal “For You” page specifically designed to make you want to stay on it longer. While older platforms to a larger extent rely on active online behavior, meaning following, liking, and commenting,

TikTok intends to capture its users’ passive behavior. This includes logs of how fast you scroll through content, how long videos are left on loop, as well as what category of sounds attracts your attention. This ultimately creates a hyper-responsive system of recommended content “For You”.

These personalized pages are the landing page of the app, and where 99% of the users’ engagement occurs, giving much real estate for aspiring creators to reach an audience. Being featured on the “For You” page is the way to gain traction and followers: creators thus try to growth-hack their way to being featured on as many users’ “For You” page as possible.

A unique and powerful algorithm

​TikTok’s technical features offer unique opportunities for engagement. Its personally customized feed drives organic interaction between user and creator, which allows smaller users to reach new audiences. Your personal feed features a curated mix of content from any account that is predicted to match your detected preferences.

Videos that are predicted to create widespread organic interaction will therefore be featured on more people’s “For You” page. This explains why the concept of going “viral” is so prominent on TikTok. Users can go from zero to millions of followers in a matter of weeks, and content trends come and go daily. This offers the opportunity for instant engagement; it can effectively help users gather a following in a small amount of time.

For brands, this can have great publicity value: gaining traction on TikTok can have a spillover effect, making new potential customers aware of your product and leading them to your other platforms. Consequently, the number of brands embracing the app is ever-growing.

Keep up with the trends but stay true to your brand

When starting a TikTok account for your brand, it is beneficial to consider the unique features of the app and plan a strategy thereafter. Firstly, the nature of the app is more fast-paced than major competitors like Instagram. On Instagram, content can gain traction over time, and a particular style of the content may persist for several months.

On Tiktok, however, these processes can occur in a matter of hours. This indicates that one needs to pay closer and more continuous attention to what is currently trending.

Although it may boost your account short term, following any trend that may align with your brand will not make you stick out from the crowd of people doing the exact same. To create an impact that lasts, you need to consider what you want your brand voice and personality to be.

The algorithm of the app offers intimate engagement and connection: keeping in mind the individual on the other side of the screen is thus a critical part of gathering traction long-term. After all, the content on TikTok users’ For You page is primarily curated based on what content they continuously engage with, not the accounts they actually follow.

This allows for letting loose and having fun: shifting from a corporate to a more personal tone. Making this shift may be intimidating and unfamiliar; therefore, numerous brands have successfully partnered with popular TikTok personalities, giving a face to the brand and making it more approachable. Thus, brands’ own content as well as collaborations with influencers benefits from maintaining this human, more relaxed tone.

Among the brands that have successfully adopted a more humorous approach is Ganni. For Copenhagen Fashion Week, the brand partnered with popular humor and fashion creator Davis Burleson. As part of his popular TikTok show, “What’s Poppin?” Davis interviews people on the streets of New York City about their clothing and life in a playful way.

For the partnership with Ganni, Davis roamed the streets of Copenhagen interviewing fashionable people passing by, highlighting both what makes Danish fashion and people unique. The collaboration demonstrates how one can convey a humorous tone while still keeping one’s brand offerings in mind.

@ganni_official

Who can do math, not us 🤗 #copenhagen #whatspoppin #ootd @davisburleson

♬ original sound – GANNI

We all know and love YouTube for its incredible ability to provide us with – well practically anything we could want and think of to watch, whether it be entertainment, practical skills or news. What started as an amateur video outlet has grown into the world’s biggest video platform and second most used social network ever. The Google owned company continues to be used and loved by millions year after year, and that growth does not appear to be halting any time soon. 

To better understand the platform and its creators we’ve gathered information and spoken to Kendall Creedon, Talent Manager at Scale Management, a talent agency based in Los Angeles to share why you should aim to work with YouTubers. Read along to gain insights about the platform’s success and how it ought to be utilised by those in the fashion and lifestyle industry;

No matter your interest you can be sure to find videos about it on YouTube. Though music videos and learning entertainment for kids are what gain the most views, product reviews, how-to tutorials, hauls, and vlog style videos are immensely popular and among those with the best engagement. YouTubers creating content of the latter mentioned type are oftentimes influencers, former bloggers, or socialites operating in and around the media and lifestyle industry who share lengthy intimate portrayals of their lives, with all that it entails.

Not only does the video format offer a calmer and softer impression, but the forum has been morphed into, and almost branded itself as a place where anything is given space, nothing needs to be too perfect, and where you are able to portray or talk about parts of your life that other platforms such as Instagram or Pinterest do not as easily allow for.

We spoke to Kendall Creedon, Talent Manager at Scale Management, an influencer agency with some of the most prominent US YouTube talent, such as Jackie Aina, Jess & Gabriel Conte, Nabela Noor, Summer Mckeen, and more, to better understand the platform. She highlights and confirms the above statements by saying that;

“Even with all of the developments of video on other social media platforms, YouTube is still the go-to for longer-form content. With longer-form content comes more time to be open, honest, raw, and vulnerable with your audience.

It allows for the creators to dig a bit deeper into themselves, show more aspects of their lives, and give audiences more moments with which to resonate“

Kendall Creedon, Talent Manager at Scale Management

Since thoughts about ‘rules’ and aesthetics are not as prominent on YouTube as on other social platforms the well-curated videos or channels are not necessarily the ones receiving the most views or subscribers. On YouTube it becomes less about the aesthetics and more about the authenticity. The simplicity of the concept has welcomed a large majority to create content and in turn attracted millions across the globe to view it. 

This relaxed approach to YouTube proved true throughout the pandemic when many found comfort in its entertainment. When deprived of IRL conversation and connection, polished conceptualized content portraying “perfection”, which is often offered by other social platforms, was not as fit as jobs were lost, relatives became ill and people were forced into isolation. We craved entertainment that felt authentic, intimate, and easygoing. Which, as stated above, constitutes the essence of YouTube videos.

Aside from its entertainment-providing purposes, YouTube also acts as a tool to amplify voices to create tangible change and raise awareness of social issues in the offline world. Back in 2016, the platform launched the global initiative ‘Creators for Change’ to amplify the voices of role models worldwide. This meant the company provided influential creators with funding in order to create videos tackling certain global and social issues. This was done as both the platform and its creators recognized the weight and incredible spread YouTube has.

So, regardless of whether you watch entertaining content from the comfort of your home or present videos at the UN, the platform’s impact is universally understood across generations and working fields as one that makes a difference; for the individual as well as the community.

Social media gives users the ability to become creators and producers of their own content. YouTube in particular has accelerated this blending encouraging content with sophisticated production and editing. Through videos and vlogs, YouTubers share their experiences as well as feelings and promote an affective and trusting connection with their audience.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that people feel they can easily connect and relate to these influencers. Creators share content that promotes authenticity and self-disclosure through these video diaries, by talking to the camera in a documentary-style way, which leads to closer and trustful forms of sociability with their followers, allowed into their daily life. Creedon attest to this when she explains that;

“Digital creators tend to share intimate and vulnerable parts of their lives, allowing their audiences to form deep connections with them. When you have a deep connection with someone, you are going to trust and believe in what they trust and believe in.

This is why brands see so much success with digital creator campaigns and why creators have become a lucrative aspect of marketing over the past several years”

This close bond becomes crucial for brands who are increasingly interested in getting immersed into consumers’ daily lives. YouTubers are perceived as more authentic and create content that resonates with followers who not only see them as approachable but believe them to be trustworthy.

YouTube being the world’s second-largest social media and search engine means incredibly high traffic and massive engagement. Between 2016 and 2019, the number of YouTube channels dedicated to fashion increased by 400% showing its steady growth that continued well into our recent ‘pandemic years’.

Simultaneously, the formats that work best on the platform (vlogs, product reviews, etc) can also be directly correlated with what fashion and lifestyle creators do, which again points to people’s will to take part in fashion-related content through YouTube.

Creedon delves into this when explaining the role and work of talent managers, like herself, as they work closely to help YouTube talent create strategies with tangible goals to advance their careers and challenge them to think outside of the box. “You want to shoot for the stars? Do it. And then let’s work backward to figure out how we get there.” As she puts it.

Though it’s clear that individual creators and viewers both want to promote and experience fashion through YouTube, it may not be as obvious that brands could (and should) too. Not only do almost 90% of YouTube users under the age of 25 say they look to discover new brands on the platform but its efficiency and impact have, though unintentionally, been put to the test throughout 2020 when many fashion brands were forced to go digital in order to showcase their creativity.

The CFDA, for instance, partnered with YouTube Fashion to share how the platform could support designers and brands through their shift from in-person events to virtual experiences, and brands like Louis Vuitton, Balmain, and Saint Laurent opted for creating virtual front row YouTube seats to showcase their new collections and invited both fashion and non-fashion people to participate.

Across their channel, VOCAST client, London Fashion Week was among the first to take place exclusively online last season and 68 brands launched their latest collections on YouTube.  A lot of brands also took the opportunity to highlight issues far beyond fashion. Halpern, for example, paid tribute to front-line workers and Bethany Williams replaced the traditional catwalk show with a YouTube video highlighting the work she does with homeless families.

Brands are increasingly gaining a bigger presence on the platform by creating original content but also through collaborations with creators. When we asked Kendall about what YouTube collaborations usually hit home that brands could have in mind she said:

“Every creator is different in what feels natural for them to promote. On the brand side, it’s important to do your research on the creators you think would fit well with your campaigns and give the creator the creative freedom to integrate the product in a way that feels natural to them.

Occasionally brands who are new to the creator marketing space try to treat these integrations like they would treat any other ad, which ends up coming across to the creator’s audience as rigid and unnatural. Creators know their audience best, trust in that!”

Youtube across different markets

Cerena is the Lifestyle Researcher for the US market at VOCAST. She has a degree in Media and Communications and has previously worked with fashion PR. She cares for inclusion within the industry and when not working she’s a dedicated snacker and music listener.

International markets value and perceive the importance of lifestyle brands being sustainable, ethical, and transparent differently. Scandinavia in particular is well-known and praised for standing at the forefront of sustainable development. Ranging from fashion weeks in Copenhagen and Stockholm aiming to be fully sustainable, to fashion brands having high sustainable standards, it is now challenging to find a Scandinavian fashion brand that does not use sustainable materials or openly shares its production processes. 

Two models which work exceptionally well for fashion and lifestyle brands are circular and slow. We have gathered exclusive insights from 3 Scandinavian-based sustainable fashion brands to find out more about these models and how to implement them.

There are multiple ways in which brands can now engage in a circular fashion, the most common way that sustainable brands use is to facilitate the recycling opportunities of a product. It is essential that brands guide consumers on how to recycle their products by the end of use. It is also worth noting, that circular fashion is not only about the use of sustainable and re-purposed materials, but also includes pre-owned selling and buying which has been rising in popularity.

Vintage fashion is no longer described as outdated, but has become sought after and recently expanded 21 times faster than conventional apparel model commerce since 2019. Pre-owned fashion brings fashion one step closer to being circular and is the most obvious way of extending the lifetime of a product.

The concept of circular fashion is fast-growing and is gaining much attention among sustainable fashion brands, as the fashion industry is facing pressure from a new generation of consumers who demand more sustainable options within fashion. In fact, the potential value of fashion’s circular economy is said to be at $5 trillion. Making circular fashion processes an attractive and promising alternative to fashion’s linear production model.

VOCAST spoke to two entrepreneurs who both founded circular fashion brands so you can learn more about what it means in the Scandinavian market:

Marie Louise Schultz | Founder at The Vintage Bar

At the end of 2017, Marie Louise Schultz started The Vintage Bar with a clear mission, she wanted to inspire people and make them inspire others by showing that secondhand can be as cool as new: “I hope to inspire people to sustainably participate in fashion by selling and buying secondhand. I knew I wanted to start something myself, and I was aware of the impact of the fashion industry on our planet, so it was also important for me to support conscious behavior.”

Yasmin Matos | CEO & Founder at reWear it

Yasmin Matos is the CEO & Founder of reWear it, Denmark’s fashion rental mobile app. Yasmin is Brazilian and moved to Denmark to launch her startup. The app was launched in the market last July: “Our platform was built for women who love fashion but also want to reduce consumption, giving them access to brands they desire at a lower cost. They can make an extra income lending their unworn items, and get to wear new clothing with more frequency, fulfilling the desire for fashion.”

In your opinion, what are some common perceptions consumers have about circular fashion and brands that market themselves to be sustainable?

Marie Louise: As we come out of the COVID-19 crisis, consumers are looking for even more purpose from brands than before. They are expecting brands to be authentic to who they are and to offer products with value. Furthermore, consumers are having higher expectations of brands when it comes to their sustainability goals, and also when it comes to the fashion life cycle, such as overproduction and overconsumption.

Yasmin: I believe that many consumers understand how important it is that fashion brands take sustainable initiatives but also that only “initiatives” are not enough. Fashion circularity is not a concept fully understood by many, but most of them are aware of the necessary actions. The problem is so big and the whole industry needs to change, but consumers are also changing by themselves as the industry is not really doing enough; choosing to buy less, going for second-hand shopping, upcycling, renting, and so on. I believe consumers will definitely appreciate seeing brands changing and taking major steps towards circular fashion and sustainability, but being very honest and transparent about the impact they still may cause.

What kind of role do you think that the Scandinavian lifestyle industry is playing in the global conversation about sustainability?

Marie Louise: Being the home of some of the most sustainable brands, Scandinavia is playing a major role in the global conversation about sustainability by showing forward-looking and innovative business models. Globally, the lifestyle industry is of course doing things to reduce the enrivonmnetal impact of fashion, but Scandinavia is without any doubt speeding up the industry’s transition in a more sustainble direction. With events like the Global Fashion Agenda (Copenhagen Fashion Summit), the Scandinavian lifestyle industry is guiding the global industry to take action by introducing more conscious and innovative approaches. These event gather an important list of stakeholder to spread the word.

Yasmin: I chose to found a sustainable fashion-tech startup in Denmark specifically because of the role Scandinavia is playing when the talk is on green solutions. Scandinavian lifestyle is all about being part of a community, making life simple, practical and meaningful, and these are essential values when considering changing our habits drastically to help the environment. The whole world is watching what we are doing here, to see how it goes, how it works, and I do think that Scandinavian companies are working to lead the actions.

Have you noticed any trends in circular and sustainable fashion brands when it comes to marketing?

Marie Louise: More than anything else the tone of voice has changed to a sustainability narrative that is attractive to the specific target audience.

Yasmin: The most recent campaign by Levi’s in the Nordics has the same saying as reWear it’s pitch deck (“Global clothing consumption has doubled in the last 15 years. We can change that.”), so I believe that mentioning a green solution in the same package of a new pair of jeans or a nice dress, is definitely a marketing trend nowadays. Many brands are using and will use that but as said before, the consumer is getting every day more aware of the problem. I believe that it’s also a trend that we will have tools to measure which brands are really making real efforts before buying them and which solutions really work.

The second model that fashion and lifestyle brands can implement to be truly sustainable is the slow fashion model. A slow fashion model follows the opposite principles of fast fashion meaning that collections are fewer, pieces are more specific and waste is rarer. Slow fashion brands tend to follow the idea that creativity and authenticity to the artistry, production, durability, and wearability are worthy of as much time as it takes to get the product right for the consumer.

Designers are given as much space as they need to create their art, tailors are given proper time to construct the products in a safe and ethical environment. This model easily leans into ecological sustainability because products are designed in such a way that will naturally produce less waste – in essence, they are created for honest direct demand rather than inauthentically driving sales.

Founder & Creative director Farah Ragheb sat down with VOCAST to discuss some of her insights as a brand builder and consultant on what slow fashion really means and how the industry can learn from a slow business model:

Farah Ragheb | Buena Onda Founder & Creative Director

Farah Ragheb is a visionary with 15+ years of global experience in the retail, fashion, and lifestyle industry. She is the founder and creative director of BUENA ONDA, the first brand in the world to release only 3 items a year taking slow to ultra-slow. In March 2021 she launched the ‘Simplified Retail Model, Elite MaterClass‘, empowering entrepreneurs, game-changers, and global businesses to achieve true sustainability driven by positive impacts.

What are some common perceptions brands have about what slow fashion means, and what advice can you give to those wanting to implement a slow fashion model?

Farah: Before I got into this space, some brands released six to eight or even up to 36 collections a year if not more – and when I used to read about slow fashion in the media, it usually highlighted the quality, craftsmanship and storytelling. So when the idea for Buena Onda came, it was to step away from everything I’ve known to do things my way –  I went slow because I saw the industry in front of me going really fast and that model not really working.

 

Creative directors can’t be creative at the snap of a finger, human creativity just doesn’t work like that. So we also started to see that sustainability elements and positive impact elements were becoming a part of the more simplistic model by default.

 

“The principle about starting a slow brand is putting you back in the equation.”

Would you also say that it’s not just about ecological sustainability but also humanitarian sustainability – people’s working and living balance for example?

Farah: Yes, it’s a holistic approach, we follow a full circle model meaning we radiate positive impact at every level of operation. So when you’re good, your business is good, nature is good and when you’re good to people nature and yourself your soul is good.

This holistic approach to brand building gives people the space to be human and give them time in what they are pursuing. It’s a mindset shift to go into this slow pace. What you see in the industry and on social media can make you feel like you’re out of the loop but you take the decision to be out of that loop.

So would you advise consciously removing yourself from the societal exceptions?

Farah: Yes, and I work with a lot of founders and co-founders consulting them on their brand building and the beautiful thing when they do slow down is that their engagement numbers go up, why? Because their quality is going up. So I would really advise those wanting to be a slow brand is find where their bliss is, how can they work in a way that suits their lifestyle, their mindset. So design a brand in a way that suits you and makes you feel blissful more often than not.

What kind of role do you think that the Scandinavian lifestyle industry is playing in the global conversation about sustainability?

Farah: Well, Scandinavia has some good PR across the globe about an area that is very conscious sustainably – it has a good reputation. In the space of fashion, having come to Copenhagen to consult for some major fashion brands here, I think that a lot of brands are still following a fast fashion model. So I believe that there is still a long way to go in terms of changing the mindset of the businesses in the fashion space, but I think that the majority of them are taking big strides towards that which is pretty incredible. I believe that they have the right intention around it but for any company running for X amount of years, it takes time to shift and change.

 

It really is about a mindset shift and it would be absolutely amazing to see more Scandinavian brands take that route and think smaller. I will say though that Scandinavia is having a great global conversation especially with the launch of Vogue Scandinavia with a perspective no Vogue has had before. But in general,

 

“we’re coming to a point now when consumers aren’t having it any other way and brands will be driven by consumer demand and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Have you noticed any trends in slow and sustainable fashion brands when it comes to marketing?

Farah: Sustainability isn’t just about the materials we use and the packaging we use, yes it’s intertwined into that but for us, we follow a path of true sustainability so that means the essence of how we do things is sustainable. Our marketing is very human-centred – we don’t say B2B or B2C it’s human to human for us. We don’t bombard our community pushing them to buy products from us, we tell stories, share chill summer destinations and share blissful imagery. We post our campaign and when our consumers wear them we repost them and people see them around.

 

“From a communications standpoint, our sustainability message is what we are – our brand speaks for its self: its three items every summer and every collection connects to the next over the years.”

With the relevance of sustainability in lifestyle marketing, it is essential to use it as a valuable aspect and not turn into what could potentially be considered as “green washing”. Greenwashing can be defined as when a company uses false claims to suggest its eco-responsibility, making it challenging for consumers to have a clear overview of how sustainable a brand is. It is for that reason that a brand’s sustainability claims should be humble and specific, sustainability is a journey and there is always work to do before reaching a point that fully satisfies consumers.

There are various ways in which brands can reach a stage of transparency through honest marketing strategies, while also avoiding any reference that could possibly be considered as greenwashing: