K18 Hair
Using custom audio to inspire content creation on TikTok
The objective
Driving product consideration through creator collaborations
K18 is a haircare brand rooted in science and biotech. When K18 launched on TikTok, it focused on creating strong connections with the hair community. The brand's authentic content quickly won over new audiences through the success of its #K18hairflip (11.2 billion views) and #K18Hair4U (78.1 million views) campaigns. The K18 Hair team wanted to keep this momentum going, and looked for innovative ways to connect with new and existing audiences in the US. They also wanted to understand how their TikTok campaigns could drive lower funnel results.
K18 reached out to Song Candy Media (SCM), a badged TikTok Sound Partner, to collaborate on the TikTok challenge #K18Results. In comparison to earlier campaigns, which focused on driving awareness and encouraging co-creation, the objective of the #K18Results challenge was to drive consideration. K18 invited salon pros and #HairTok creators to show off their hair transformations using the K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask. K18 looked to SCM to create an on-trend custom sound that would encourage creators to get involved.
The solution
Catalyzing action among users through a trendy custom sound
For this campaign, Song Candy Media crafted custom audio with the goal of encouraging content creation by building an emotional connection to the brand. Inspired by trending voiceovers on TikTok, the SCM team created a science lab-sounding voiceover inspired by K18’s signature hair tech. This was accompanied by a beat drop transition moment for creators to show off their before and after hair transformations, and a backing track pulling inspiration from trending TikTok pop and indie artists. The audio was designed to be broad enough that it could outlast the campaign and be leveraged ongoingly as a sonic branding asset.
The results
Inspiring users to document their hair care successes
By implementing an audio-first strategy on TikTok, K18 Hair campaigns drove a combined +24 billion hashtag videos between December 2021 and January 2023. Additionally, the campaigns inspired more than 2,900 UGC videos showing off authentic results with K18 products, which set the #HairTok community ablaze. The activations also grew K18’s TikTok community to over 160,000 followers, a testament to the TikTok campaigns reaching the right audience.
Our #K18HairFlip challenge put us on the map for brand awareness and virality on TikTok. Song Candy created a platform native song and strategy for K18’s first big TikTok media campaign. It was such a success that we did another challenge campaign with a custom Song Candy sound. We didn’t think we could live up to the hype, but #k18results exceeded our expectations. The campaign went viral at 12B views and K18 was the top hair brand in earned media value for the year.