In the world of digital marketing, innovation and change are the only constants. In a bid to revolutionize the industry and stay ahead of the curve, TikTok is constantly coming up with new features. 

The latest in a series of such features is the new “Out of Phone” or “Out of Home” (OOH) feature that promises brands a new way of advertising their products and services. Here’s the down-low on what this feature is, how it works, and the various ways in which it can benefit your brand. 

What is TikTok’s New “Out of Phone” Feature?

TikTok’s “Out of Phone,” also known as “Out of Home” or OOH, is a new advertising feature for brands that enables them to expand the TikTok experience beyond the platform. This means brands can now take content produced and viewed within TikTok and expand it to other surfaces such as billboards, movie theaters, transport systems, restaurants, airports, gas stations, in-store displays, and so on. 

In short, the Out of Phone features allows brands to take TikTok content and bring it to a multitude of big screens in the real world. 

How Does The “Out of Phone” Feature Work? Who Are The Partners?

The TikTok “Out of Phone” feature currently has three main elements:

• Out of Phone: Billboard allows brands to handpick existing TikTok advertising campaigns (including influencer marketing collaborations) and expand them to billboards everywhere, getting more eyes on their adverts. 
• Out of Phone: Cinema lets brands bring the TikTok experience to the big screen- before or after the films, or during the intermission. This will be similar to watching trailers inside the movie hall and gives brands a ready-made audience. 
• Out of Phone: Other Screens encompasses pretty much everything other than billboards and cinemas. This means brands can collaborate with partners and bring their existing Tiktok campaigns to restaurants, stores, bars, airports, and even gas stations- basically any public place that gets a lot of visitors. 

The best part is that the Out of Home solution will be personalized for each brand, and the repurposed ads will be tailored to each specific location. The video clips shown will also be updated regularly so that the content stays fresh and on trend.

Several partners have already jumped at this opportunity, partnering with brands to get their TikTok ad campaigns out into the real world. The partners are location-specific. Let’s look at a few of them:

ReachTV aims to bring TikTok to airport screens, ScreenVision will expand its reach to cinema theaters, Redbox will feature TikTok clips on kiosks, while GSTV will bring ads to gas stations. Adomni and DIVE Billboards are taking TikTok to outdoor billboards everywhere. Some other partners include VEVO, Raydiant, and Loop TV. 

How Does The “Out of Phone” Solution Impact Brands?

The “Out of Home” feature by TikTok promises to revolutionize the digital advertising industry and bring several benefits to businesses globally. 

A Broader Reach

The majority of TikTok’s user base comprises of Gen Z. However, being in their late teens to early twenties, this demographic doesn’t have as much purchasing power as the millennials and baby boomers. This means that to effectively target older generations, brands need to expand their presence outside of TikTok as well, which is exactly what “Out of Phone” enables them to do. 

By using TikTok’s Out of Home solution, brands will be able to expand their reach as well as diversify their audience – all in public places that are visited by people of all ages. And since TikTok’s content tends to be short as well as engaging, it will attract more offline engagement with the brands. 

A Different Way To Advertise

The younger generations – especially Gen Z and millennials – prefer creative advertisements to traditional brand advertisements. And there are few types of content more unique than the ones that get posted on TikTok. So, repurposing TikTok’s short and engaging video clips into ads is bound to get more attention than normal ads. The dynamic nature of TikTok’s ads is also a big plus and is bound to stand out in the advertising landscape. 

Furthermore, TikTok’s “Out of Phone” feature is very versatile since it allows brands to advertise in fresh spaces such as cinema halls and gas stations without needing to come up with a brand new campaign for the same. The ads will also be tailored according to the venue.

Increased Brand Awareness and Trust

Not everyone uses TikTok, and a lot of people are actually too busy to even use social media. The Out of Home solution, bridges this gap by bringing TikTok ad campaigns to the entire population, thereby increasing brand awareness. 

It’s also a great way to highlight influencer marketing campaigns or user generated content (UGC) on the big screens. This will work as social proof, which will appeal to many people and instill a trust in the brand. Influencers also end up getting more recognition, which is a win-win. 

Real-world Interaction

The “Out of Phone” feature brings the digital to the real world, facilitating an integration between the two. This will allow non-smartphone users to enjoy digital content and enrich customer experience as a whole. 

Examples of Successful “Out of Phone” Campaigns

Brands have already begun leveraging the “Out of Phone” campaign to increase their visibility. Each OOH ad contains a scannable QR code that takes you back to the app. 

A TikTok OOH campaign shown in a gas station in partnership with GSTV.
Source: Marketing Dive.

Here are a couple of examples of OOH brand success stories:

CeraVe by l’Oreal

CeraVe, the skin care brand by l’Oreal, repurposed UGC as well as creator’s content from TikTok into ads and showcased them on billboards across Times Square, New York, in its #CleanseLikeaDerm campaign. This was carried out in partnership with Adomni. A very prominent collaboration in this campaign was CeraVe’s partnership with @grandma_droniak. She thanked the brand for making her dreams come true and also included instructions on how others could appear on billboards as part of this campaign. 

Destination Toronto

Destination Toronto partnered with DIVE billboards to become the first Canadian brand to make use of the OOH feature. The brand showcased its “You Gotta See What We See” campaign on the billboards in Times Square, New York. 

Destination Toronto – TikTok Out of Phone Campaign

The ads played a total of 2.5k times, giving the Canadian company a chance to share its message on a global stage. 

Paula Port, Destination Toronto’s VP of Global Marketing mentioned that the “exposure and the impressions were all strong,” and that they had “heard great feedback from their partners and stakeholders.”

Should Your Brand Leverage TikTok’s “Out of Phone” Solution?

So far, the “Out of Phone” solution seems to be getting a lot of positive reviews. However, the answer to this question depends entirely on your target audience and marketing goals. 

If your goal is to increase brand awareness among all age groups and your omnichannel advertising efforts, OOH ad campaigns may be a great idea for you. This is because you will be taking in-app content that’s already resonated with millions and translating it to wider screens, engaging more people. You will essentially be showcasing what your brand’s all about in public spaces where people are actually bound to see the content. 

However, if you’re a small brand with a very specific target audience, then OOH might not get you the same results.