TIKTOK STRATEGY

Forging a Disruptive Path through TikTok*

TikTok is a puzzling and rapidly evolving world. Its distinct humor and cultural nuances often baffle non-Gen Z users.

Approximately 79% of Gen Z get their comedy from TikTok, which can feel like a foreign landscape to others. (Source) Studies show that older generations often have difficulty understanding Gen Z's humor, which is deeply influenced by internet culture, rapid trends, and layered irony, sometimes even leading to confusion or misinterpretation of content (Source).

74% of Gen Z users prefer TikTok to Google as their main search engine tool (Source). This audience associates social media with truth and expects content that mirrors their own lives, along with humour that matches their own, including punchlines often lost on older generations. This significant generational gap means that traditional marketing approaches simply don't resonate. 

So let's talk about how I helped Garnier UK navigate these challenges.

*This page only covers my 'disruptive' content. For a complete view of my social content work, see SOCIAL CONTENT and ADS & E-COMMERCE.

Why Rebellion is the New Black

The beauty & skincare space thrives on trust, and simply looking good isn't enough anymore. Today's consumers are savvy and looking for genuine experiences and daring moves, not airbrushed perfection and safe branded content. Being real builds immense credibility, and there's nothing more real than being pretty and rebellious. 

When I joined Founders Makers in 2023, the agency's existing social video collaborations for Garnier UK were out of sync with our meta-ironic reality. The kind of content that blended into the background rather than standing out. A daredevil like myself was needed to help a global brand like Garnier truly fit into TikTok's dynamic and often bewildering micro-universe. 

Redefining Beauty for the Age of Meta-Irony: Irreverence, Spontaneity, Humour

The agency established with the client two broad content pillars: Entertainment and Education. While these provided a general framework, I found it insufficient for guiding the monthly production of dozens of assets.

It became my responsibility to translate these broad pillars into a concrete, repeatable TikTok-first content strategy. From ideation to post-production, I played a leading role in redefining Garnier UK's TikTok presence. Helping brands establish social legitimacy is important to me. Real stories, real people, real sense of humour.

This meant building social proof by:

► Pushing boundaries, and creating edgy, rebellious content that matched our Gen Z audience.

► Creating content that looked or felt like it could be achieved within CapCut or TikTok's native tools (even if more intricately produced).

► Embracing the aesthetics and limitations of phone cameras (definitely hard to a camera nerd's pride).

► Still portraying product as king, but not always at the forefront. Rather, capturing the mundane, and selling a lifestyle that includes the products.

► Adding personality to products, thus giving them more immediate meaning than their label and USPs.

I established a TikTok-first content strategy that revolved around three core values: spontaneity, irreverence and humour.

Spontaneity: Seizing the Moment

TikTok is rapid-fire quick and unforgivable. Timing is everything. Trends emerge and fade within days or even hours. 37% of users rely on TikTok to keep up with trends and cultural moments (Source), and brands that quickly capitalise on popular content can significantly boost visibility and engagement (Source).

My strategy embraced this through controversial means: producing videos without storyboarding or pitching the ideas to the client first. If I saw a trend at 9:00, it meant that by 10:00 I'd be shooting a TikTok, and by 11:00 our accounts team would be e-mailing the unexpected asset to the client. If the client liked what they received, they kept and posted it; if not, we scrapped the asset altogether. 

This agile, albeit unconventional approach allowed us to jump on trends and cultural conversions quickly, which is vital for engagement. 

Irreverence: The Wacky & Authentic

Content that turns heads equals loyal, curious and engaged followings. My primary goal was to have our audience entertained and surprised, then asking one particular question: “How did such a big brand have the guts to post something as wacky as this?"

This meant avoiding soulless, corporate-safe takes. Real recognises real, and therefore users recognise others users, even behind brand accounts. Often in the comment sections of the most daring or relatable content, you’ll see comments like “someone give the marketing team a raise.” 

You need your audience to believe the humans behind your brand account have a substantial say in its personality, rather than out-of-touch marketers and inanimate pie charts. 40% of TikTok users feel that brands showcasing personality are more relevant (Source). 

Month after month, I successfully pitched increasingly weirder videos to Garnier UK. And I'm proud to say they loved them.

Humour: It's Okay to be a Kid Again

My approach to humour on TikTok is deeply rooted in my personal understanding of modern meme culture - an unique tool I bring to the table.

Memes, at their core, offer a return to a more playful, unfiltered mode of communication. They make us feel like kids again, by combining text and visual input, rather than forcing a separation. Think of the childhood drawings your parents displayed on the fridge: a natural blend of visuals (a drawing of your family on a sunny day) and text (everyone's names above their heads).

This blend of expression is natural to us, but as we mature, we're often told to choose in order to be 'serious' artists or professionals. You're either a visual artist or a writer; if you do both, then you're making comic books, and those are for children, right? Think about it: do we not perceive reading a book as somehow inherently 'smarter' than reading a magazine?

Memes reject that. Funny images combined with funny captions. It's okay to be a kid again.

Decoding the Philosophy of Modern Memes (or: why TikTok is so hard to grasp)

Modern memes are highly fluid, evolving rapidly and often subverting convention or logical expectation. The meme-savvy among us will remember how in the late 2010s, a simple "🅱️" was considered hilarious.

TikTok is fascinating, because it has dissolved the invisible boundaries that once segmented internet humor and user communities. Meta-irony is everywhere today. Social content producers who fail to grasp these changes to our social ecosystem cannot deliver the authentic Gen Z content that truly sticks. This is why some brands resort to archaic motifs and cause their target audience to cringe rather than laugh.

This subject is far more complex from a semiotics perspective than you'd initially think.  We could delve into how different types of irony can subvert narrative and structure, thus fundamentally affecting how memes look or act. But for now, let's stick to the basics. After all, if I explained everything for free here, you wouldn't need CRUCIBLE35.

To understand TikTok humour, it's vital to understand the internet's 'layers of irony' and, more specifically, Meta-Irony. Naturally, I made a chart:

Bringing Meta-Irony to Skincare (or: Strategic Shenanigans & Tomfoolery)

So how do we tie all of this together? How do I fit spontaneity, irreverence and humour into the world of beauty & skincare? Well, if you've watched the body of work on this page, you know exactly how.

The intrinsically carefree nature of a skincare routine contrasts perfectly with the absurdist nature of Meta-Irony. Especially when the absurd element in the room is not fully acknowledged. The presumed 'shallowness' of skincare can be embraced in stories where characters are unable to recognise the dangers or priorities around them. For instance: while being robbed at gunpoint, should your main concern be fixing your messy make-up? Most likely not, but wouldn't you be surprised if a global skincare brand posted a TikTok depicting such an absurd situation? Would it not make you ask yourself “how did such a big brand have the guts to post something as wacky as this?"

We can make our audience of ‘skincare addicts’ feel seen, while concealing our true meaning. Is being obsessed with skincare good or bad? It doesn't matter, the truth is irrelevant, and confusion is our ally - we laugh. Regardless of your age, on Garnier's TikTok, we can be all kids again.

Real Laughs, Tangible Results

Beyond building trust and sparking laughter (which are important KPIs on their own), this approach delivered tangible results:

► +18% follower growth between 08/23 - 04/24

► +3879% engagement increase between 08/23 - 04/24

►  An average 4% engagement rate between 12/24 - 02/25

►  As many as +32,000 new followers between 03/25 - 04/25

► +11,000% engagement increase between 03/25 - 04/25

► Garnier consistently led on reach & comment engagement compared to competitors Nivea UK and Neutrogena

I'm also proud to have created Garnier UK’s top-performing organic (non-promoted) TikTok of all time. This comical video exploded with:

► Over 300,000 views within its first 24 hours

► Currently sitting at 1,000,000+ total views & 77,000+ likes

► Over 99% of total views and likes for April (month of publishing)

► 8.7% engagement rate (94% above average), with an impressive 2550+ comments

► Average watch time of 7.7 seconds

► Generated 2,565 new followers

► Accounts for 37% of all shares, 15% of all comments, and 6% of all likes of Garnier UK's entire account history

This level of impact for a global brand is proof that my disruptive, yet performance-driven TikTok strategy hits the mark.

Ready to Forge your own Disruptive Content?

If you're looking to transform your brand's TikTok with disruptive videos that genuinely resonate and perform, I'm here to help you.

Let's disrupt your industry.

kelvin@crucible35.com