Stories has been a popular feature across social platforms and TikTok has been testing out ways to incorporate stories into their own. Shifts like this may make TikTok a more appealing platform within the healthcare and pharma landscape (disease-state education most specifically), as stories limit engagement opportunities and require less community management.
Overall, TikTok offers a plethora of opportunities for pharma brands, whether that be through organic content, branded campaigns, or creator partnerships. Intrinsically, TikTok is looking to shift traditional advertising’s status quo; it’s tagline, “Don’t make ads. Make TikToks,” highlights the importance of brands learning about their audience(s) prior to posting to see what will engage them. The platform offers pharma marketers an outlet to be more creative, and to produce material that genuinely resonates with patients, caregivers, HCPs, and beyond.
However, targeting capabilities are still extremely limited. For example, if a healthcare company dedicated to alleviating autoimmune diseases is trying to build up a community related to lupus nephritis, TikTok would be a great extension of Facebook or Instagram. But if a brand is trying to reach patients likely diagnosed with Crohn’s disease leveraging targeted ads, the waste would be too high due to the current inability to narrowly target by health condition on TikTok.
