In a relatively short time, Pulse has launched TikTok channels in all its operating markets in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire, and has seen these channels record enormous and consistent growth. We’re seeing Africa’s biggest demographic (young people) show up more and more on TikTok, and by the audience’s behaviour, we can now say for certain that young people in Africa, like the rest of the world, are more engaged through short form, easy to understand video content.
We have seen that when presented in this format, the audience will consume most topics including news, and politics. Young people are the largest demographic in Africa, and the target for most brands. If your brand targets young people, you should consider setting up a TikTok account or if you already have one, being more intentional with your strategy and content on the platform.
Having built our cumulative TikTok community to over 5 million across the continent, we have learned a thing or two about the channel. In this article, we’re speaking to TikTok channel managers in our 6 operating markets about their strategy for winning.
I’ve posted a lot of Vox Pop and Fun Fact content format videos
I have been able to manage the channel by understanding the audience and the kind of content they consume, being consistent, and making sure I put out posts on time.
The format I’ve leaned heavily on is Entertainment posts, green screen format, celebrity updates, and fashion content.
For me, it’s by posting as many videos as possible per day, and using trending sounds to boost videos. Also, publishing Pulse Lists worked a lot at the beginning, with green screen content, videos of events, video content where I appear and also Vox Pop content.
Since I started managing the Pulse Uganda Tiktok channel, there’s been immense growth
There can be both great and bad months however the great outweighs the bad
I started trying new formats, jumping on trends and breaking stories quite fast. This has been a positive aspect of the channel
Our channel’s growth can be attributed to most of our Pulse formats in addition to content I create from events we are invited to. When it comes to the Pulse formats our Pulse Celebs and Pulse VoxPops have really contributed to our growth.
I started managing Pulse Kenya’s account in mid-2021 and the account has grown significantly since then. I found the account at 55K followers and now we are close to 400K and are the leading media publisher on TikTok in Kenya.
When it comes to growing on TikTok, I have ensured that we stay consistent as a brand. Consistency in the type of content we publish, the number of videos we post, and when we publish has been our biggest hack.
Another factor that has contributed to our growth is giving our audience what they want and what they know us for. As a trusted media publisher, there is a way our Kenyan audience perceives us and has some level of expectations from us as a brand and understanding that has helped us grow on TikTok and remain the top media publisher on TikTok in Kenya.
Originality has to be top of it all for us as a market. We ensure we publish quality original content on our TikTok. Our aim is to share short-form videos that cover news and events, educational and informative videos, entertainment, and lifestyle content in the most original way.
We publish various content formats that engage our audience and It’s been a learning curve for us as a brand. From experimentation and results, Listicles, our original format ‘Pulse Fun Facts’ and Entertainment/Celebrity content have been our best-performing formats and we have leaned on that.
I have a very responsive and involved community.
I have noticed that you have to be familiar with trends and hop on trending sound as fast as they come, our audience love a funny and relatable post, you also have to identify your niche and stick with what works
I have the impression that the more the number of subscribers increases, the easier it is for people to subscribe.
They like when we surf on the trend, on buzz, and when we offer them entertaining content.
The Pulse Uganda Tiktok channel attracts youth who are interested in the Uganda news and entertainment industry
I’ve realised that our TikTok audience is interested in content around TikTok Influencers and Celebrities. They mainly comprise the youth, more women than men. We also have audiences in other African countries like Nigeria and Ivory Coast and quite a few in the US and UK. Our audience loves to criticise celebrities and our content and usually put emphasis on using Ghanaian music in our content.
The Kenyan market is one unique group that knows what it wants and we have been able to give into their content needs and wants.
They have embraced our major content formats with a great interest in Celebrity and Entertainment content. Our audience engages most with short, interesting, and engaging video content that they can easily share, and comment on.
The Kenyan market has a love for Trending topics and discussions and every video we publish about a trending topic, person or event performs extremely well. This cuts across different categories mainly Entertainment and News.
We have a very engaged and trusted community so brands can easily gain visibility on our page.
Brands can leverage my channel by sticking with the format that works and connects with our audience. The platform has different categories of content that users consume, ranging from entertainment, movies etc So it is definitely worth it to try to find your own audience.
Tik tok is currently one of the social networks with the most users, it is a young and fun platform. As soon as we adapt their content (products and services) to ours, I think it can work.
The Pulse Uganda Tiktok channel attracts youth who are interested in the Uganda news and entertainment industry
Big Brands could focus their campaigns around youths and trends to reach a greater audience
Most brands have the youth as their major customers; since our channel’s audience is mostly the youth it makes sense for them to market with our channels. Short videos with trending sounds or dances can easily reach a way larger audience than tv commercials or activations.
I think it’s worth it for brands to leverage our channel especially if their target audience is between the ages of 18-35 and have a great interest in Entertainment, Lifestyle, and News. We have the numbers and a good number of successful campaigns on our TikTok.
So far, we have worked with various brands on our channel who have been able to leverage our audience during their campaigns and I would say we have had quite successful campaign executions on the channel. We have partnered with Nike, ALX Africa, Tecno, TikTok Kenya, HBCC, and ABAK among others.
In March 2023, we partnered with Nike for their IWD 2023 Campaign and two of the videos published had over 27K views.
In 2022, we had a dance challenge #SafishaNaDance to celebrate Global Handwashing Day with HBCC and the campaign had over 291K views on TikTok.
Most of these campaigns are executed through short-form educational and informative videos and influencer content. Nike and HBCC Campaigns have been the most successful executions and we worked with influencers for both projects thus reaching a wider audience through the Pulse TikTok page and the influencer’s reach.
Pulse has a cumulative following on TikTok this month of over 5 million, at the time of the publishing of this article. Our audiences are young, active, outspoken and engaged. If you’re a brand looking for distribution among young people, our TikTok communities and extensive TikTok influencer network can give you access to millions of users in your target audience, guaranteeing distribution. Drop us an email and we’ll help.
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