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At the start of 2020, Switzerland Tourism ST became one of the first Swiss companies to adopt TikTok. This is a targeted way to address the visitors of tomorrow and beyond.
When was the social media platform TikTok launched?
- 2014
- 2016
- 2018
TikTok was developed by Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, and was launched in September 2016. Media company ByteDance bought musical.ly in 2017. The musical.ly name was axed in August 2018, and users were transferred across to the TikTok app service.
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High engagement rate
Authenticity and credibility of social media content are paramount when reaching out to the TikTok community. ST’s videos achieve just that: the @switzerlandtourism TikTok account achieved an engagement rate of 5,750 likes per post in 2020. This makes it one of the most successful Swiss corporate accounts. The second video, a thrilling toboggan ride, had already been viewed more than 800,000 times and attracted more than 95,000 likes by the end of 2020.
Four official ST TikTokers appointed
The TikTok community is young, is very responsive to trends and has its own language. That is why ST recruited four TikTokers to its ranks in June 2020 – just in time to capitalise on the easing of the Covid-19 travel restrictions, which had made holidays and excursions very difficult between mid-March and the first week of June 2020.
Four digital natives responded to a job ad that was tailored to the social media generation and emerged as the successful candidates from a field of around 50. They are Georges Fournier from Geneva, Chris Harmat from Basel, Ophélie Stöckli from Lausanne and Gina Thoenen from Lucerne/Gstaad.
They each have their own style and different areas of interest, and they create content for ST. That means they mainly produce videos for the ST account @switzerlandtourism, and not for their personal accounts. This enables ST to learn what makes the target group of the future tick and how they can be drawn in by messages around tourism. “Our TikTokers are all in their 20s and have a feel for what will or will not go down well in the TikTok community. We therefore give them maximum creative freedom in the selection of topics relating to Switzerland as a destination and in implementation,” says Dominic Stöcklin, Head of Social Media at ST.
Media presence and knowledge transfer
ST’s TikTok presence has also attracted a lot of interest in the Swiss (specialist) media. For example, Switzerland’s Blick, TeleZüri and 20 Minuten all reported on the flagship project, while beyond national borders the specialist media outletInternetworld.de also covered the topic. The job ad was described as the “coolest job posted in 2020”.
By researching the potential of new digital communication channels like TikTok and sharing its knowledge with the tourism industry, ST is continuing to fulfil its role as a digital pioneer for Swiss tourism marketing.
