TikTok Success Story

Tik-Tok Bridges an Old Industry to AI Technology and Contemporary Customers

“In seeking for distinct marketing strategies to transform Sarine’s brand perception among diamond professionals & revolutionize the industry, partnering with Xtra-Mile proved to be more effective than ever imagined. Their wholesome marketing approach as well as their admirable detail & accountability levels in resolving concerns, created & fertilized the 50K+ follower TikTok campaign for our B2B. We look forward to more innovative frontiers with Xtra-Mile as we challenge new markets & regions together.”- ROMY GAKH- BARAM, Global Marketing & Brand Director – Sarine

SARINE IN A NUTSHELL

Located in Israel, with a vast network of subsidiaries, distributors, service centers, and technology labs worldwide, Sarine Technologies Ltd is a publicly-traded diamond technology company, dual-listed on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange. Imagining how the diamond industry could be different and better is at the core of Sarine’s DNA, as disruptive innovation is key to stimulating their industry-wide growth. Sarine offers the first automated, AI-based diamond grading diamond reports, providing the world’s most accurate, reliable grading information in an interactive digital display.

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE

Redefining the diamond retail industry and the consumer experience to the traditional retail diamond world, which has had an orderly agenda and unbothered sales methods for decades and centuries, seems unfathomable. Yet, the customers at the end of the market chain, those who would like to buy the diamonds have changed significantly. 45% of all diamond purchases in the world are by Millennials, while in the US they make up 59% of the demand, according to De Beers. They care more about the provenance of the diamond, where the diamond came from, what it has encountered along the way, its sustainability, if it was produces and sourced ethically, etc.

Initially, Sarine needed to educate the diamond retailers, persuading them that using Sarine’s AI- based technology solutions would increase their sales and empower their customers, offering them a richer and a more engaging purchasing experience. Diamond sellers are not always aware of the fast-changing transition in their customers’ demands and Sarine needed to reflect that back to the retailers. Sarine turned to Xtra Mile, a B2B, global lifecycle-marketing agency with more than 20 years of experience working with the high-tech, medical, and technology industries all over the world, to help them through this predicament.

THE FRONTIERS & XTRA MILE’S NEW ANGLE

Together with Xtra-Mile, it was decided that educating the market must be launched simultaneously on two distinct fronts. The first was to continue the advertising on the main digital platforms, such as LinkedIn, Google, etc., targeting the retailers, explaining the sense and advantages in using Sarine’s technology for their diamond marketing.

The other front was targeting the consumers who are in the market for diamonds. Once they understand the new and proper way to assess the data surrounding purchasing a diamond offered by Sarine, the demand for Sarine’s grading reports will generate upwards. TikTok was chosen by Xtra-Mile and Sarine, as a trendy ‘young’ platform, to draw the interest of the generation which has seen just about everything. Sarine’s “Tech-Tok style” content was injected into a series of bite-size infotainment videos explaining the technology and digital experiences, in a light and amusing dialect. The theory was that the young, and the not so young, content consumers on TikTok are open and ready to learn about new technologies and once they realize what Sarine’s diamond report vouches for, the demand will rush soon after.

Sarine has been a trendsetter in the industry, bringing the advanced technology for decades, and now, with this move, Sarine stepped up as a trendsetter also in:

  • Storytelling
  • Digitalization
  • Investing in technology-driven data & traceability
  • Delving into new social trends
  • Pioneering within new platforms

 

LAUNCHING OFF

The goals of the campaign included increasing awareness and followers to Sarine’s TikTok account while generating many video views for Sarine`s content. Targeted at diamond, gems, luxury brands, and new technology consumers ages 25 and up, the campaign blasted off.

The first few months were most fascinating, as this is a new platform whose Ads Manager is Beta based, and there was no history of performance yet. That meant that new benchmark and KPIs were needed to be produced from scratch. The astonishing results did not hesitate to follow, as the estimation weighting with other platforms, led us to predict cost per follower in the initial month at $30 with a conversion rate of 3%. Yet, when two months of activities have passed, the cost per follower was stabilized at $0.65 (!) with a 7.5% conversion rate.

21,923 new and relevant followers were directly added to Sarine’s TikTok account, and 5K followers joined organically. Sarine has received over 1.8 million views for its content on TikTok and more than 400K views of ‘6 seconds or more’ videos with a view rate of 22%. Today, Sarine obtains 49K followers on TikTok and the numbers keep growing.

 WHEN ALL IS SEEN AND DONE

After seeing the immense organic impact on Sarine’s TikTok account, to increase engagement and generate even more views, a decision was made to launch 8 videos a month instead of the planned 2.

  • The close-captioned videos proved to work better, so only closed-captioned videos were uploaded from then on.
  • Videos that had a strong hook in the first 3 seconds showed better performance. A good example of a strong hook is starting the video with a question.
  • Uploading a paid campaign on TikTok is not enough to achieve good performance, uploading organic content daily and continuously responding to user comments on behalf of the company must accompany the sponsored campaign.
  • Maintaining the organic posts on a regular basis, thus keeping a more “alive”, responsive, and attractive page is crucial.

Together, Sarine Marketing team and-Xtra Mile plan to keep expanding impressions on TikTok to embrace the new way of assessing and buying diamonds. Additionally, collaboration with relevant TikTok influencers, a common play for the platform, is contemplated to keep on strengthening the Sarine brand among their target audience.

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