March 12, 2024 Industry news
How TikTok has helped one of the fastest growing drinks brand in the UK achieve over 50 million organic impressions.
TRIP Founders Olivia and Dan created their brand to offer consumers some respite from the stresses of everyday life. Containing CBD and other natural adaptogens, TRIP drinks help you find your calm and “unwind into your best self.”
TRIP is now one the fastest growing soft drinks in the UK and, since January 2023, has achieved fifty over million organic social media impressions. This incredible milestone was largely achieved thanks TikTok, which TRIP have skilfully used, not only to build a thriving online community of brand enthusiast, but also to drive sales.
Identifying the opportunity
TRIP have always considered themselves as omnichannel, and beyond selling direct to consumer (D2C) via their website, they operate in retail, health and wellness and food on the move (FOTM), as well dining, bar and hospitality.
One of the many reasons for their phenomenal success has been their commitment to keeping an open mind when it comes to finding new spaces and audiences for their brand.
That is why they lean on multiple partners across their channels to build brand awareness and tell their story.
Trialling and testing new channels has helped them pivot and react to changes in the market. It also helped them identify TikTok as powerful channel for Trip and focus their efforts accordingly.
Trial and testing new channels are paramount and if you can pivot and react to changes in the market, that is a great strength. Olivia and Dan planned originally to sell their drinks in bars and hospitality. Due to the pandemic, they were forced to pivot towards retailers and on-demand delivery with Deliveroo. This demonstrated the importance to keeping your business agile as you may need to adapt.
The power of TikTok
Even if you have a large advertising budget, building an organic community is vital.
Harnessing the power of TikTok has allowed Trip to generate fifty million organic social media impressions since January 2023.
The simplicity and cost effectiveness of the platform, not to mention TikTok’s thriving community of 150 million users across Europe, presents a huge opportunity for brands looking to expand their sales channels.
With over 23 million UK users and over 1.5 million UK firms now using the platform to boost their business, TikTok is rapidly becoming one of the most popular digital channels in the country.
Many benefits
Boasting high levels of user engagement, TikTok is already influencing the purchasing decisions of millions of consumers across the world.
TikTok's format is perfect for crafting engaging and relatable videos that resonate with the local market.
This enables brands such as TRIP to showcase their brand identity, personality and values in a more personal way, fostering stronger connections with their consumers and building brand loyalty.
Recent studies have shown that content on the platform impacts the purchasing decisions of 83 per cent of users and the UK boasts an exceptional average engagement rate of 14.7%. This translates to viewers actively liking, commenting, and sharing content, indicating a receptive audience for brands.
Boosting sales
When combined with a presence of TikTok shop, TikTok’s innovative new shopping feature, this community focused, content-led approach to marketing can be especially powerful.
Launched in the UK in June 2023, TikTok’s shop allows brands and creators to both promote and sell their products in a seamless end-to end transaction experience delivered entirely on-platform.
With UK consumers making an average of 10 annual purchases on the platform, contributing over £1.63 billion to UK GDP in 2022 alone, TikTok shop not only offers exciting new opportunities for growth, it can provide a valuable lifeline to any struggling SMEs looking to revitalise their sales amidst the cost-of-living and cost-of-doing business crises.
Tips from TRIP
Olivia’s top tip for driving organic growth on TikTok is to maintain an active presence on the platform. TRIP have adopted a test and learn approach when implementing new ideas and have empowered enthusiastic team members to take risks and experiment.
The TRIP team maintain a constant dialog with their growing community and keep a careful eye out for testimonials and stories from their community members.
This not only helps TRIP spread the word about their products and how they are benefitting consumers, it also keeps the brand focused on the challenges it is trying to solve, reminding both their team and their audience of the positive impact their work is having and how their drinks are supporting customers’ wellbeing.
Olivia and Dan also had immense success working with content creators and partners to further drive their message home. Their strategic partnership with Calm – a meditation app – has been particularly beneficial given their similar ethos, helping them to leverage brand awareness, gain attention and further disrupt the industry.
