What I WISH so badly people would understand about The Last of Us is that its not about zombies. Its about people. It has always been about people. When i see people being like “why are there ‘politics’ in my zombie show” I want to rip my fucking hair out. Neither the game nor the show are about the fucking zombies. Its about Joel and Ellie. Its about Sarah. Its about Bill and Frank. Its about Riley. Its about Tess. Its about Tommy. The zombies just happen to be there. Its about the human condition and its about how humans continue to love each other and fight for survival even after enormous tragedy. Its about learning to love and care again. Its about loving someone so much you would sacrifice the entire world for them. If you cannot grasp that concept then maybe consuming media isn’t for you.

SP Influences: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunted Palace

CONTENT WARNING FOR DISCUSSION OF RAPE (NOT JUST THE FANTASY METAPHOR KIND) AND SLAVERY. ALSO SPOILER WARNING FOR THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, AND BOTH THE FIRST AND FINAL ARC (INCLUDING THE ENDING) OF STRANGE PARADISE.

Although it never directly copied from other works, the 1969-70 soap opera Strange Paradise appears to have drawn inspiration from several classic works of Gothic fiction. Unlike its more famous cousin Dark Shadows (1966-71), which lifted most of its major plotlines from public-domain horror classics like Dracula and The Turn of the Screw with relatively few changes, the influence of other works on the plot and characters of Strange Paradise generally took a subtler form. Many of the early advertisements and articles promoting the serial compared its protagonist Jean Paul Desmond and villain Jacques Eloi des Mondes (both played by Colin Fox) to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, but--as Curt Ladnier has pointed out--there are only superficial similarities between the plot of the serial’s Maljardin arc and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, making the two works less similar than readers likely expected. Instead, the plot more closely resembles that of another, lesser-known story about a protagonist controlled by his evil counterpart: the 1963 Roger Corman/Vincent Price film The Haunted Palace, a loose adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The plot and characters of Strange Paradise have too much in common with those of The Haunted Palace to be mere coincidence. In particular, the character of Joseph Curwen and his characterization in the film strongly resemble the portrayal of Jacques Eloi des Mondes, enough to conclude that Curwen must have inspired his backstory and his interactions with the other characters. While it is likely that Lovecraft’s original 1927 novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward also directly influenced the serial, there is stronger evidence for indirect influence by way of the film adaptation.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The plot of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward shares a common theme with the Maljardin arc: the evil ancestor from the seventeenth century who returns from beyond the grave and assumes the identity of his lookalike descendant. In both cases, the ancestor was involved in the occult during his lifetime and reviled for his rumored diabolical activities. During his lifetime--which he used magic to prolong--Curwen practiced necromancy, tortured knowledge out of the people he resurrected before murdering them again, experimented on living people, and summoned the god Yog-Sothoth for assistance in his occult activities using spells from the Necronomicon. Two fellow warlocks named Simon Orne and Edward Hutchinson assisted him with his occult studies, and were both still alive when his descendant Charles Dexter Ward brought him back to life. In the early episodes of Strange Paradise’s Maljardin arc written by Ian Martin, Jacques is portrayed as the literal Devil: an accusation about which he often jokes. He has many supernatural abilities, including possession, manipulation of electricity, telekinesis, the ability to magically alter messages written in sand, and--most importantly--the ability to resurrect Jean Paul’s dead wife Erica (Tudi Wiggins), which is why he frees his spirit in the pilot. He has an interest in voodoo, although he himself does not appear to practice it and instead fears its power. Unlike Curwen, no accomplices of Jacques’ return from the dead in the Maljardin arc, although it is possible that Martin intended for the seventeenth-century witch Tarasca, an earlier incarnation of wealthy widow Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell), to fulfill this role after possessing Elizabeth.[1]

But these occult matters are not the only common interest that Joseph Curwen and Jacques Eloi des Mondes share. Both character were involved in the more earthly evils of the slave trade. A merchant by trade, Curwen also bought and sold slaves, importing enormous numbers of enslaved people from Guinea into his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island in 1766. He sold few of them, however, and Lovecraft heavily implies that he used most of them in his experiments. The televised version of Strange Paradise never explicitly references slavery (although Jean Paul’s immortal servants Raxl (Cosette Lee) and Quito (Kurt Schiegl) are implied to be Jacques’ former slaves), but the non-canonical book series by Dorothy Daniels does on occasion. In the second book Island of Evil, Jean Paul lists “black gold, another name for the importation of slaves” along with piracy and brigandage as one of the sources of the des Mondes’ family fortune.[2] A flashback sequence in Island of Evil confirms the past enslavement of Raxl and Quito, as well as an African voodoo priest whom Jacques forces to turn Quito into a zombie: the closest event in the Strange Paradise expanded universe to Curwen’s experiments.

Both Jacques and Curwen also met their ends at the hands of locals. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Ezra Weeden begins spying on Curwen because he suspects him of illegal activities including witchcraft. Eventually, he turns most of the prominent figures in Providence society against him and they band together to raid and destroy Curwen’s Pawtuxet farm. During the raid, Curwen dies for the first time, but only after devising a spell for his future resurrection. Likewise, in Strange Paradise, Jacques dies after the natives of Maljardin turn against him, although the trigger and cause of his death are different. When Jacques murders his wife, the princess Huaco, by pushing her off the island’s cliff, a group of natives including Raxl and the Conjure Man band together to kill Jacques using a conjure (voodoo) doll and silver pin. These weapons curse Jacques to throw himself from the cliff and keep his spirit "shackled to the Temple [of the Serpent, Raxl’s god]” until the day he tricks his descendant Jean Paul Desmond into removing the pin from the doll, thereby setting him free.

Jacques’ disappearing portrait from Strange Paradise Episode 12.

Also significantly, both The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and Strange Paradise give the evil ancestor’s portrait a prominent role in the plot. In both cases, this portrait hangs at the ancestor’s former residence and disappears either temporarily or permanently when he takes control of the man who resembles him. When Charles Dexter Ward is researching the history of Joseph Curwen, his sources lead him to an eighteenth-century townhouse at Orney Court in Ward’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, where Curwen settled after fleeing Salem, Massachusetts. He hires a restorator to restore the painting, has it moved to his study, and discovers some documents of Curwen’s hidden in the wall behind it. When he finally succeeds in resurrecting Curwen, the painting disintegrates into dust: an end which Curwen himself later meets. On Strange Paradise, Jacques’ oil painting sometimes disappears when he possesses Jean Paul, but the show is inconsistent about this cue from episode to episode.[3] In contrast to Curwen’s painting, Jacques’ portrait always returns after he leaves Jean Paul’s body and appears to be indestructible: when Jean Paul sets fire to Maljardin in Episode 65, the portrait survives and later re-appears in the attic at Jean Paul’s childhood home Desmond Hall in Episode 131.

In spite of these similarities, I should note that the method of resurrection differs from one work to the other. In Strange Paradise, Jacques achieves this by possessing Jean Paul: after Jean Paul frees him by removing the silver pin from the head of his effigy, Jacques’ spirit can enter and exit Jean Paul’s body at will. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the title character literally resurrects Curwen, his great-great-great-grandfather, using his essential salts, after which Curwen murders him. Ward behaves as though Curwen has possessed him--he has the speech and manners of a man of the colonial period and knows extremely specific details about the history of Providence--but the pit above his right eye which Ward did not previously possess and the lack of the olive birthmark on Ward’s hip indicate a different body. When Jean Paul opens his casket in the pilot, he finds only the conjure doll and silver pin; the absence of Jacques’ body is never explained and could be for any number of reasons, which we shall not discuss here.

The Haunted Palace

A lobby card for The Haunted Palace asking the question, “What was the terrifying thing in the PIT that wanted women?” (Source)

In 1963, American International Pictures released The Haunted Palace, a loose adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Roger Corman. Due to alleged executive meddling (a theme which should already be familiar to regular readers of this blog), the film was marketed as an adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name, which Vincent Price quotes throughout the film. In the adaptation process, Beaumont made many changes to the source material, the most notable of which was the decision to have Curwen breed human women with the elder god Yog-Sothoth, as alluded to on the lobby card above.[4]

Though an entertaining and visually enthralling film, most of the changes made to The Haunted Palace weaken the plot. In my opinion, Beaumont added too many Hollywood horror conventions during the adaptation process, which did not always work effectively considering the unconventional source material, not to mention left many plot holes unfilled. The dated and sleazy sexual angle which he added to the film makes the cosmic horror of Yog-Sothoth less cosmic and more carnal; whether this makes him more or less frightening depends on one’s personal opinion, but I feel it contradicts his otherworldly characterization in Lovecraft’s works. For the most part, the talents of the director and the actors (especially Price, who is fabulous as always) make up for these problems, but I prefer--and highly recommend--the far more faithful radio drama adaptation by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

The most notable influence of The Haunted Palace on Strange Paradise comes from its characterizations of Charles Dexter Ward and Joseph Curwen. Despite many similarities with The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the characterizations of both Jean Paul Desmond and Jacques Eloi des Mondes owe far more to the portrayals of the protagonist and villain in the The Haunted Palace than in its source material. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, neither Ward nor Curwen shows any romantic or sexual interest in women whatsoever.  Lovecraft’s Ward only cares about antiquities, the local history of Providence, and the story of his ancestor; at twenty-six, he is unmarried and either asexual or simply too absorbed in his studies to pursue any romantic or sexual partner. The sexual orientation of Lovecraft’s Curwen is just as much of a mystery: although he took Eliza Tillinghast as a wife during his lifetime and their union produced a daughter, theirs was an arranged marriage for the sake of elevating Curwen’s social status within Providence society.

Both Price’s Ward and his Curwen, in contrast, show a marked interest in women. While their marriage is never outright stated to be a love match, Ward and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) appear to feel mutual love and devotion and have enough chemistry to imply a mutual sexual attraction. Like a dark mirror of Ward, Curwen shows a marked interest in the sexual and sexualized domination of women. In The Haunted Palace, the people of Arkham consider him a threat primarily because he lures local women to his palace to use in his rituals. While possessing Ward, Price’s Curwen rapes Ann--whom he later offers to Yog-Sothoth as well--and resurrects his former mistress, Hester Tillinghast (Cathie Merchant), who assists him in his sorcery in the film’s climax. If Lovecraft’s Curwen never did any similar actions, he does not mention them in his novella.

In Strange Paradise, romantic and sexual desire for women motivates both Jean Paul and Jacques. Jean Paul resurrects his ancestor neither out of an obsession with his history (as in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) nor by accident (as in The Haunted Palace), but because Jacques�� spirit promises that, if the recently widowed Jean Paul frees him, he will restore life to his beloved wife Erica (Tudi Wiggins). Many episodes show Jean Paul mourning her death and narrating a tape-recorded journal to her, and he obsesses over protecting her cryogenically-preserved corpse from danger. Jacques romantically pursues several female characters over the course of the Maljardin arc--including Erica, her sister Dr. Alison Carr (Dawn Greenhalgh), and the wealthy widow Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell) and her 20-year-old daughter Holly (Sylvia Feigel)--and makes many sexual innuendos about them. After resurrecting Erica, she obeys Jacques as though he were her husband and assists him by murdering most of the guests on Maljardin. This makes her character’s role comparable to that of Hester in The Haunted Palace.[5]

On a more superficial note, neither Jacques nor Curwen wears a costume appropriate to his era of origin. In his portrait and in flashbacks, Jacques wears a side-parted 1960s hairstyle and clothing, including a doublet and lace collar and cuffs, more appropriate for the 1630s than the late 17th century when he lived (1660-1689, according to the plaque beneath his portrait). Similarly out of place, Curwen has short hair and a beard and wears a historically inaccurate lace bib in his portrait and in the prologue at the beginning of the film. Unlike the others, this similarity is almost certainly coincidental.

An even greater similarity, however, can be found in the scene forty-five minutes into the film where Curwen speaks to Charles through his portrait.The scene occurs after the second instance of Curwen possessing him, during which he unearths Hester’s coffin and has his fellow warlocks Simon Orne (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and Jabez Hutchinson (Milton Parsons) deliver it to his cellar laboratory. Ann catches him down there and he sends her away, still possessed by Curwen. When Curwen leaves his body, they have this conversation:

JC: (from painting) "Charles Dexter Ward…" CDW: "Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!" JC: "I will never leave you alone. Your blood is my blood, your mind is my mind, your body is my body. It will do you no good to resist me. Your efforts grow weaker every day." CDW: "No! NO!" JC: "You cannot keep me out, Ward. My will is too strong." (he possesses Ward again) "Too strong for you, Ward. Too strong for you."

Similarly, most episodes from the Maljardin arc of Strange Paradise feature at least one scene where Jean Paul communicates with Jacques’ disembodied spirit, represented by his portrait. In some scenes, they use a shot of the portrait hanging in the Great Hall; other times, they superimpose Jacques’ painted face over that of his identical descendant. One of the earliest examples of Jacques referring to them as one comes in Episode 5, when he taunts Jean Paul about his attraction to Alison. “She’s so delectable a woman. How could I--you--we--ever resist or let her go?” he says, snickering throughout. During another such conversation in Episode 27, Jacques refers to Jean Paul’s body as “our body” and commands him to rest because he is tired. In still another scene ten episodes later, he complains to Jean Paul that he is “waiting for the use of our body” as Jean Paul begs him not to “enter”; the dialogue in the scene has undertones suggestive of fantasy-metaphor rape, which Jacques’ sickeningly sweet tone of voice underscores. These are only a handful of examples of the recurring theme of Jacques viewing Jean Paul’s body as his own and seeking to dominate it completely.

Comparison of a shot of Joseph Curwen glowering in front of his portrait with a similar one of Jean Paul glowering in front of the portrait of Jacques from Strange Paradise Episode 41.

Surprisingly, unlike in the novella, Curwen's portrait does not disintegrate when he possesses Ward. As Strange Paradise eventually started doing with Jacques’ portrait, Curwen’s portrait remains hanging until the end of the film, when it burns along with the rest of the palace (which begs the question of how it is even physically possible for stone to burn). Jacques’ portrait meets the same apparent end when Jean Paul sets fire to the château and flees Maljardin, but later returns to him at Desmond Hall, seemingly undamaged by the flames. It does not vanish for good until the final week of the show (Episodes 191-195), when a group of characters force him out of it by rubbing his brother’s ashes on his eyes and lips; this drives him out of the painting and into Jean Paul’s body, which he leaves at the end of the penultimate episode.[6]

Still another similarity comes from what is, in my opinion, Beaumont’s most ingenious change to the plot: the implication that all the human townspeople in 19th-century Arkham are reincarnations of identical people from the previous century, not just the necromancers. The same actors even portray their descendants: for example, Leo Gordon plays both Ezra and Edgar Weeden, and Frank Maxwell portrays both Dr. Marinus Willett and his ancestor Priam. Implied reincarnation figures heavily in the original outline for Strange Paradise, with Jean Paul, his sister-in-law Alison Carr, and the young heiress Holly Marshall all having dreams about previous lives on 17th-century Maljardin. Much like Jacques who possesses his descendant, Holly’s mother Elizabeth Marshall may have also been possessed by her previous incarnation, the native priestess Tarasca, under this outline, as foreshadowed in the clips in this video. The second Desmond Hall arc (Episodes 131-195), likewise, involves reincarnation from past ancestors (including the return of Jacques), but this final arc otherwise shares little in common with either The Case of Charles Dexter Ward or its adaptation.

Conclusion

There is strong evidence that Strange Paradise drew inspiration from both The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunted Palace for the story about Jean Paul Desmond’s possession by Jacques Eloi des Mondes. We see elements from both the book and its first film adaptation in the serial: Ian Martin’s characterization of Jacques, the possession, and the talking portrait owe more to the film, while the disappearing portrait and certain elements of Jacques’ backstory are more reminiscent of Lovecraft’s original novella. Despite this inspiration, Ian Martin added many other elements to the story of Maljardin that were not present in either work, including the conjure doll and silver pin, the strange circumstances surrounding Erica’s death, and secondary protagonist Holly’s pursuit by several male characters and victimization by a mysterious spirit. The result is a serial combining the plots of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and its adaptation with original ideas to create a unique and--yes--strange new story.

Notes

[1] For more information on the aborted Tarasca storyline, see “The Secret of Tarasca“ and the section of my review of Episode 40 titled “The Lost Episode 40.”

[2] Dorothy Daniels, Island of Evil (New York: Paperback Library, 1970), p. 45.

[3] The Paperback Library novels do not just portray this consistently, but portray the other characters as seeing an empty frame while Jacques is controlling Jean Paul’s body. See also my review of Episode 15.

[4] For an in-depth plot comparison, see the blog post “The Films of Charles Dexter Ward” by Fake Geek Boy.

[5] According to an early newspaper summary for Episode 35, Tarasca would have endangered the life of Jean Paul’s love interest Alison, also shows some signs of possible influence by this subplot. See also this video.

[6] Many of the events of the final month of Strange Paradise are unclear and/or unexplained, so this interpretation should be taken with a grain of salt.

The what, why, and how of TikTok’s advertising gold rush

30-second summary:

TikTok is emerging as the next social media powerhouse—so the platform represents an incredible opportunity for marketers.

It’s a particularly powerful method for engaging with younger audiences (such as Gen Z).

Brands need to take advantage of both organic content creation and paid advertising.

Get started as soon as possible to avoid missing out on the gold rush. 

For years, Facebook and Instagram ran the social media show. Twitter certainly has its niche, but when it comes to user-generated content—the supposed ‘Holy Grail’ of marketing—Facebook and Instagram ruled the roost. However, there’s a new hotshot in town: TikTok.

The video-sharing social media platform has certainly been gaining plenty of traction in recent months. This, combined with Instagram’s steadily declining reach and the fact that fewer teenagers are using Facebook than ever before, make TikTok an attractive prospect for global marketers.

But what exactly is TikTok? How does the platform differ from other alternatives and what unique opportunities does it present? How can your company set up an all-encompassing TikTok strategy to take full advantage of this emergent social media powerhouse?

In this article, we’re going to take a deep-dive into the what, why, and how of TikTok’s upcoming advertising gold rush. 

What is TikTok?

On the face of it, TikTok is hardly revolutionary. 

The platform essentially allows users to share short videos (under a minute long) which are then augmented with the help of music samples, filters, stickers, quick cuts, and more.

It launched way back in 2014 under the name Musical.ly, though it only began to experience meteoric growth after ByteDance, a Chinese media and tech company, bought it for a hefty $1 billion back in 2017. 

Since then, the app’s growth has skyrocketed.

TikTok passed 2 billion downloads back in April 2020. To put that into perspective, an estimated 4.78 billion people worldwide own a phone.

What’s more, the platform has around 800 million monthly active users according to a leaked internal marketing document obtained by AdAge back in late 2019. The average user opens the app 8 times a day, spending a total daily average of 52 minutes on the platform.

The message is clear: TikTok is big business, and it’s only likely to get bigger. 

Why is it beneficial to marketers?

Marketers are quickly flocking to TikTok—and rightly so. The app is an attractive marketing tool due to three main reasons.

The size of its audience

The primary demographic

Its (supposed) authenticity

Let’s explore each of these aspects in a little more detail.

The size of its audience

TikTok is an attention goldmine due to its heady concoction of hyper-personalised algorithms, our inclination to keep on scrolling for dopamine-inducing content (something known as the ‘Zombie Scrolling Syndrome’), and catchy songs that get stuck in your head for days to come. 

This is a powerful enough combination as is. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic—when people suddenly had more time on their hands (due to furloughs and layoffs) and were seeking forms of escapism—TikTik exploded. 

The app added 52.2 million users worldwide in March 2020 alone. Not only that, but the time spent on it also increased. In the US, for example, the average user spent 8 hours on TikTik throughout March—a 10.8% increase from January.

Needless to say, this is great news for marketers. Marketing has always required one fundamental thing: attention. As with real estate, marketing is all about location, location, location.

You can have the best copy in the world and a jaw-dropping design, but if your advert is on the underside of a bus rather than on the side, it counts for nothing. 

The sheer size of TikTok’s audience (and the attention they pay the platform) is a mouthwatering prospect for marketers the world over. It has opened up a brand new platform to explore, far away from the increasingly mistrusted world of Facebook and the oversaturation of influencers on Instagram.

The primary demographic

Not only does TikTok have a burgeoning audience, but it also attracts some of society’s younger generations. For example, it’s estimated that Gen Z accounts for 60% of all TikTok users. 

Why is this? Well, there might be the common phenomenon where young people move away from social media platforms once older generations begin to come on board—this was certainly the case when it came to Facebook.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, TikTok was built with young people in mind. The videos are short and snappy. If they don’t capture a user’s attention immediately, they’ll simply scroll onto the next one. 

Young people are happy to give their attention away to platforms—however, they expect a quick return on their investment. They won’t wait around for things to get interesting; they’ll make a snap judgement in a few seconds.

Interestingly, this isn’t necessarily exclusive to young people. Research has shown that we generally form snap judgements about people in around 7 seconds, and this phenomenon even extends to businesses. 

Gen Z certainly aren’t necessarily unique in their reliance on snap judgements. When this applies to content consumption, however, they’re arguably more cut-throat than older generations.

Moreover, research suggests that the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory plays a key role in explaining Gen Z’s motivations to participate in TikTok’s #Challenges.

This theory posits that users themselves play an active (not a passive role) in seeking out and using media. When it comes to TikTok, this sense of ownership is baked into every aspect of the platform. 

Okay, so it’s clear that the platform has a wide-ranging appeal to the youngest generations. But why should brands care? Well, Gen Z is now the world’s largest demographic, comprising 32.5% of the global population. Therefore, it’s little surprise that marketers are keen to target them. 

Sure, they won’t all have that much purchasing power right now—but it’s important for brands to get in early and make a name for themselves. If they do, it’ll make marketing to this generation far easier in the years to come. 

Its (supposed) authenticity

According to market research company Attest, “The team behind TikTok say that the authenticity of the social media platform is what sets it apart, and they hold it as one of their core values.”

While this statement might be slightly dubious, the platform has certainly distinguished itself from its large-scale competitors due to its supposed authenticity.

Every second or third Instagram post these days is filled with some endorsement or other. Even if it comes from people whose opinion we fundamentally respect, it’s still exhausting to feel like we’re constantly being sold to.

What’s more, the lavish influencer-style lifestyles—staying in 5* hotels, constantly having perfect hair, a polished outfit, and expensive-looking tastes—just isn’t going to appeal post-pandemic. 

When so many people have had to suffer so much, the last thing they want to see are endless images of people who are better off. While TikTok still has obvious applicability for influencers and the like, the fundamental goal of TikTok videos is still entertainment.

Instagram images focus on impressing and wowing users—TikTok videos set out to entertain. 

This, combined with its so far unblemished reputation (courtesy of being the newest social media giant to gain popularity), has helped it establish an air of authenticity. 

Top tips to developing your brand’s TikTok strategy

We’ve explored what TikTok is, why it’s so popular, and what makes it an attractive proposition for marketers.

Now, let’s dive into how you can develop a successful TikTok strategy. This will obviously need updating on an ongoing basis to match the platform’s evolution. That said, here are a few top tips to help get you started.

Understand your target audience

Like every other successful social media platform, TikTok leverages the power of community to bring people together.

Every community will have their own likes, dislikes, ways of communicating, sense of humor, and more. As such, the first step for any discerning TikTok marketer is to get to know your community.

So how can you do this? For starters, understand what brings your target audience/community together. Is it a love of vintage clothes? A passion for extreme sports? Or how about a deep desire to see the world’s most beautiful places? 

This shouldn’t be hard for you to identify. It’s not like your target audience will have drastically different characteristics when they use TikTok as opposed to other platforms. However, this research may well demonstrate if your brand needs to adopt a slightly different angle than before.

Take the above example of people who love beautiful scenery/places. Pre-COVID, you might think of littering your TikTok feed with some of the world’s most exotic destinations—this is a very Instagram-type strategy.

Nowadays, however, that won’t hit the mark. If people are unable to fly all over the world then consider creating TikToks for each of your target locations. For example, you might try to entertain UK users with a video showing some lesser-known (but still stunning) spots around the country.  

By researching your target community, you can gain critical insights into the way they communicate, the hashtags they use, the content they respond well to, and more.

This should be the catalyst of all your TikTok marketing efforts—if you lack the appropriate research to guide your content, you’ll more than likely miss the mark. 

Create your own organic content

Armed with your target audience’s preferences, you can now begin to create content tailored to that specific community. This will then have a snowball effect.

The more content you produce, the better a grasp you’ll gain on your community’s preferences. The more you understand what your target audience is looking for, the better content you’ll produce—and the more engagement you’ll receive.

If you do this then you’ll grow your following in no time at all.

Remember: keep your videos entertaining. Grab the users’ attention as soon as possible. This doesn’t mean that they all need to be funny.

‘Entertaining’ is a fairly wide-reaching and subjective adjective—for those interested in beauty, an informative skincare video might be classed as entertaining. For those interested in baseball, however, a video explaining the subtleties of how to pitch a knuckleball will likely be very popular. 

Over time, you might achieve Business Privilege status (like Apple), which will allow you to develop relationships with popular TikTok creators.

In order to get there, however, you should first build up your own organic content so that you build your following and gain a firm grasp over what works and what doesn’t.

Potential strategies:

Branded Effect: With branded effects, brands can create their very own effects (like filters or augmented reality objects) that users can then add to their own videos.

Hashtag Challenge: If you want to quickly leverage the power of community, come up with a hashtag challenge. Create your very own video with an accompanying hashtag and encourage users to do the same thing. Retailer GUESS launched their own #InMyDenim campaign where they encouraged users to flaunt their GUESS denim outfits as creatively as possible. They ran the campaign for 6 days, achieving a staggering 37.4 million views in that time.

Hashtag Challenge Plus: This is essentially a combination of the two previous strategies, integrating branded effects with Hashtag Challenges to form powerful brand-specific movements. According to Econsultancy, this can “generate more brand-related conversations, drive engagement and empower user intent”.

Set up your TikTok ads

TikTok offers far more than just organic content. Despite its reputation as being less ad-filled than other social media platforms, the TikTok Ads Platform offers a great opportunity for marketers to get their brand out there.

Setting up TikTok ads is a pretty intuitive process:

Create a TikTok Ads Account

Create a campaign

Define the placements and targeting

Control the details (such as ad spend, duration, and goals)

Make your Ad using their video creation kit

Publish it to the masses

But that’s not all. You can also get in touch directly with your regional TikTok office to discuss how to take advantage of their full range of advertising products. For example, you can arrange commercial partnerships with popular TikTok creators—though this will obviously come at a price.

We all know just how powerful influencer marketing can be, and TikTok is no different. MAC Cosmetics partnered up with three well-known TikTok influencers back in September 2019 to create their own Hashtag Challenge ad campaign called #YouOwnIt.

The campaign, which lasted a mere six days, ended up creating 635,000 videos which received a combined total of approximately 1.6 billion views.

Potential strategies:

TopView: When a user opens the apps, this large canvas (which occupies the entire screen) will be the first thing they see. It can last up to a minute—giving you an unbridled opportunity to express your brand’s creativity. 

In-Feed Video: On top of organic content, brands can also pay for the privilege of having their video pop up within a user’s personalised ‘For You’ feed. These are usually accompanied by the brand’s name and a short CTA.

Want to learn more about how to leverage TikTok?

Join us for our upcoming Peer Network briefing on the 28th August, Engagement for the Next Era: How Brands Are Creating Communities and Cultural Moments on TikTok, where we’ll hear from Sam Christie, West Coast Lead – Global Business Solutions at TikTok US. 

Sam will dive into how brands are using creative storytelling and community building to better connect with their target audiences.

He’ll share key insights from some of the platform’s top-performing campaigns to date, helping you devise and execute your brand’s own TikTok marketing strategy for maximum impact. 

Don’t miss out on the TikTok gold rush. Sign up now and take the first step to achieving your brand’s TikTok marketing potential.

The post The what, why, and how of TikTok’s advertising gold rush appeared first on ClickZ.

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Villain Archetype: Nihilist

"Listen and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." ~ Kyle Reese The nihilist lives only to destroy: the universe, the world, the city, or just a single unlucky individual. EXAMPLES: Thanos (Marvel); Mageddon, Doomsday (DC) RELATED ARCHETYPES: Nemesis, Cosmic Menace, Force of Nature, Twisted Genius, Psycho POWERS AND ABILITIES: Nihilists need a means by which they can accomplish their destructive goal. A villain who intends to personally destroy the city will need the power to do so, and as his target gets ever larger (today, Champion City, tomorrow.... the world!) his powers must increase in -- or indeed out of all -- proportion. This is how a Nihilist becomes a Cosmic Menace, but while the Cosmic Menace cannot be defeated through physical force and must be tricked or reasoned with, the Nihilist is eminently punchable. But a Nihilist does not need to fly off the top of the power rank structure. Many exciting stories can be told about a Nihilist who focuses on the destruction of a particular hero or NPC. This is how a Nihilist becomes a Nemesis. The Terminator, while not a super-villain in the traditional sense, is a Nihilist of this sort; it desires only Sarah Connor's destruction, and will stop at nothing to attain this end. This kind of Nihilist has incredible Willpower, Strength, and Stamina, Invulnerability and Resistances, but is slow moving, an implacable killing machine. He cares nothing for public exposure or subtlety, which is how he differs from an Assassin. Instead, his story resembles those told by the Force of Nature archetype. Finally, nothing necessarily requires that a Nihilist have any powers at all. He may be a Twisted Genius with a doomsday weapon, a Psycho with a cunning plan, or an Heir to Lovecraft whose masters are, themselves, pure Nihilists. OTHER QUALITIES: Why does the Nihilist desire destruction? Some characters (Doomsday, the Terminator) are simply programmed for death, and they can experience no other emotion ... at least not until a sequel in which their skeletal backstory is fleshed out. Revenge is a common motivator for Nihilists, especially if the villain has been a lesser threat in previous stories and has suffered defeat at the heroes' hands before. Thanos's motivator -- love of Death -- has become iconic. Regardless of what it is that drives him, the Nihilist should have a Quality that describes his motive, so that he can call upon it when things get rough for him. The Nihilist's origin is another source of qualities, because they are often inhuman or alien "Others" with little sympathy or empathy for humanity. Nihilists who are relying on an armada of spaceships, a zombie army, a satellite that flips the Earth's gravitational field, or some other equally grandiose plot will need Qualities which describe these things. STORIES: Stories which feature Nihilists are typically unsubtle. The nature of the Nihilist's goal makes him unsympathetic, and the role of the heroes is clear: they need to get close enough to hit him repeatedly over the head with a shovel (or whatever their weapon of choice might be). This can make the Nihilist an excellent villain to launch a new Icons campaign, as he draws together many heroes from across the city or around the world. Even a Conqueror can earn the grudging admiration of heroes if, in his twisted utopia, the trains run on time, but no sane person cheers for the Nihilist; this is his distinguishing feature. However, one of the potential pitfalls of the Nihilist story is that the players all know he will fail, even if their characters do not. That is, if your Nihilist intends to destroy the Earth, well, unless you are prepared to send all your PCs into space, the Earth is not going to be destroyed. Some GMs are happy to enable such storylines, all in the name of "actions have consequences," but you have many options at your table and it all depends on the story you want to tell. Even if the Nihilist's doomsday weapon is activated, it might not have the effect he intended. Perhaps some other, third party, prevents the Earth's destruction, and now the heroes owe them in return. And, for that matter, so what if the players know the villain will fail? This describes almost every episode of almost every series on television, and yet we continue to enjoy these shows. It's far more important that your players have fun, and sometimes hitting the villain with a shovel is all the fun you need. Because the Nihilist plot is fairly straight-forward and lacking nuance, it also makes a good "main plot" behind which more personal subplots flourish. In other words, if your heroes are caught in a romantic triangle, or are learning secrets about their own origin, or are struggling to master their own powers (all classic superhero subplots), fighting the Nihilist and his Faceless Minions can give the heroes something fun to do in between intense roleplaying scenes. In a similar vein, because the Nihilist is often an embodiment of raw power, he can serve as an origin for one or more heroes, who have either been shaped from birth to defeat the Nihilist (Aztek) or who divide the powers of the defeated Nihilist between them and become its caretakers (the Infinity Watch).