From the editor:

This blog is part one of a four-part TikTok exposé brought to you by FearWorm in conjunction with our client Fear Factory SLC. Chris Strebel, their Media Director, has had wonderful success with this new, exciting social platform. FearWorm is proud to bring this information to our industry. Take it away, Chris!

Introduction:

My name is Chris Strebel, I’m the Media Director at Fear Factory Haunted House located in Salt Lake City, UT., and I’ll be sharing with you what we’ve learned and discovered about the app TikTok. First, let me give you some background about who I am. I’ve been in the haunt industry since 2011 and started my haunting career with Fear Factory SLC when they first opened their doors in October of 2011. 

I had always wanted to get into the scaring business, but I never saw an ad in the paper for scare actors, yes I am that old to admit to still remembering want ads in the paper vs. the ease of online that we have today. I always thought that actors from local plays were going to these auditions and using the haunted house experience to help them gain skills to improve acting. I didn’t consider that these were a mix of actors and people who just had a passion for making others jump. 

In 2011 I saw that a new haunted house was opening up; ever since then, I have been on one incredible journey that is not only pushed my skills as an actor but has allowed me to grow in other areas of my life and my career. I’ve spent the majority of my haunting/acting career developing many personalities of my clown character while growing in other areas as Fear Factory created positions based on their needs to grow as a business.

History of time with Fear Factory
2011 – 2012: Clown Actor
2013 – Zone Leader of the Clown Zone
2014 – 2016: District Leader
2017 – 2018: Casting Director
2019 – Present Year: Media Director 

History about Fear Factory SLC

In the late 1800s, a factory known as the Portland Cements Works opened its operation. In those days, manufacturing was a dangerous career requiring the use of boiling liquid and heavy machinery powered by the grinding of giant gears. In this environment of early industrialism, the margin for error was small. Throughout the history of the factory, numerous workers learned this reality too late. Today Fear Factory is one of the top Halloween attractions in the world, made up of 6 buildings, up to 6 stories high, with 2 underground passages, and is a massive haunted attraction in Salt Lake City.

What is TikTok?

To understand what TikTok is, we need to know where it began. Are you familiar with Musicaly.ly? This app launched in 2014 founded by two Chinese entrepreneurs Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang. Through this app, users could create and share short 15 second and 60-second videos. Where they would lip-sync to music videos and choose sounds tracks, different speed options such as time-lapse, fast, slow motion, and regular adding other filters and effects. You could even browse other popular “musers,” content, trending songs, and hashtags. 

Before begin acquired in November 2017 by a Beijing-based tech company called ByteDance, which already owned TikTok, which was a Musical.ly equivalent based in China. (They call it Douyin.) August 2018, TikTok absorbed Musicaly.ly and all of their current accounts and merged them into the TikTok platform. Creating the TikTok craze that we know today.

What changed?

Besides a rebranding from Musical.ly into TikTok, not a lot changed between the two. TikTok got to work creating new creator tools and filters, along with bug and performance fixes. With the added ability to post reactions and personalized recommendations based on your own user experience. Users can still shoot, edit, and share 15-60 second videos with or without filters, music-animation, special effects, and more. You can download it on iOS and Android systems.

Who’s using TikTok?

The average users range anywhere from the ages of 12-26 Generation Z. It’s not just kids who are jumping on board. Celebrities, Bands, Venues, and even Brands are starting to join TikTok Brands like Hp, Apple, Guess, NBA, NFL, & Chipotle, just to name a few. 

Here are 10 statistics I found handy about the current users on TikTok from Oberlo.com; that may help you prepare for 2020 as you use this app for your own Haunt Marketing.

1. TikTok has 500 million active users worldwide.
2. #3 most downloaded app in 2019 with users growing 70% from Q1 2018.
3. TikTok was the most downloadable app on the Apple Store, with over 33 million downloads since Q1 2019.
4. 41% of TikTok users are between 16-24.
5. TikTok has a close gender divide, 56% male and 44% female.
6. The average time users spend on TikTok is 52 min per day.
7. TikTok is available in 155 countries.
8. 90% of all users access the app daily.
9. In 18 months, the number of US adult users grew 5.5 times.
10. 1 billion videos were viewed each day in 2018.

Despite its rapid growth, TikTok’s still in its early days. If you’re unsure, there are many articles you can read like this one that should help you to understand the app more before you begin creating your account for your business. Do your research, download it and give it a 1-3 month test to see if it’s worth doing. Remember, it doesn’t cost you anything, and the worst that could happen is you post some silly videos.