Trending the TikTok World of Advertising: Content Analysis of TikTok Ads of Four Popular Beauty Brands

Digital technologies, such as the use of AI and big data analytics, have revolutionized the use of innovative strategies to market products and services, and the pandemic years of 2020-21 accelerated the digital trends as online shopping became the norm. TikTok videos have become a means of self-expression in the media, as young and elderly customers have embraced them, and become creators and sharers of short video messages via social media networks. Therefore, TikTok videos with their video-making and sharing characteristics, became multi-level money making technique, as companies and individuals utilize them, and decisively helping consumers engage conversations and conversions. This paper evaluates the rise of TikTok, and through case studies of four beauty companies, and a content analysis of a sample of 160 TikTok videos examines how companies are using the content strategies, the viewership, likes, celebrity influencers, and promotions through these videos. The data establishes how these small video streaming advertisements with their high levels of viewership, likes and interactivity would be the rage of, future advertising, as opposed to, or complementary to mainstream advertising.