I-SPY
Activating ads and generating a million impressions with Irish activewear brand
The objective
Tapping into new audiences for clicks and conversions
I-SPY, an Ireland-based and female owned activewear brand, was founded in 2016 by mother and daughter duo Paulette and Louise Egan. It was conceptualized with the intention of inspiring confidence and supporting women on their fitness journeys. As a yoga teacher, Paulette witnessed first-hand how lesser quality activewear affected both confidence and performance of her students. With brands selling ill-fitting or see-through items, she knew that higher quality fitness clothing would help women to focus on their workout without worrying about what they are wearing.
Seven years later, the brand has enjoyed success, with women in Ireland and across the world choosing their activewear apparel for their workouts.
Already having established an organic presence on the platform, under the handle @theispyteam, where their posts showcase their products, capitalize on trending topics, and share behind-the-scenes looks at the brand and its founders, the brand was chosen to participate in TikTok Advance, a local Irish programme designed to help emerging brands like I-SPY to get their feet wet within the world of TikTok advertising by setting them up with support to test different ad products and strategies.
As part of the programme, I-SPY kicked off their advertising initiatives with a focus on driving overall clicks and conversions on their website, while also increasing brand awareness and their TikTok follower base.
The solution
Testing custom audiences and Spark Ads for conversion success
With their first ever TikTok advertising campaign, the I-SPY team opted to focus on campaigns that were optimized for website and traffic conversions. They ran Spark Ads exclusively since this ad product, which enables advertisers to make use of organic TikTok content from their own pages and from other creators or collaborators, paired well with their existing content strategy.
Throughout the campaign period, they shared a host of different content, including showcases for their newly launching sherpa line, order packing videos, and collaboration videos with creators. These videos were utilized for Spark Ads, and were able to seamlessly integrate into users’ feeds for optimal engagement potential.
I-SPY’s campaign also benefitted from their experimentation with custom audiences. They developed audiences based on their website traffic demographics as well as those closely related to their TikTok business account followers. Testing these lookalike audiences helped solidify successful targeting for their campaigns, while also unlocking valuable insights for the brand.
The results
Finding campaign success thanks to dynamic targeting and the ADvance programme
Running between September and December of 2023, I-SPY was able to generate remarkable results with their inaugural TikTok campaign. The brand’s main targets were women over eighteen within Ireland for one campaign, then women and men over twenty-five within Ireland for another.
Throughout the length of the advertising period, they saw a 58% increase in their TikTok follower base, as well as more than 1.1 million total impressions. They generated over 21,000 clicks which ultimately resulted in more than 55 conversions, ideal in the build up to the Christmas gifting period.
In addition to their measurable campaign successes, the I-SPY team saw an increase in brand awareness and recognition on a national level, with their page’s organic videos garnering increased engagement and more views than prior to the advertising period. Even their ads received love from TikTok users, with more than 150 positive comments being shared on their Spark Ads.
With the help of their TikTok Ads Specialist who provided direct support, I-SPY was able to make use of custom and lookalike audiences to leverage their website traffic and existing followers for optimized targeting. Their success was also due in part to their creative strategy, which included regular and differentiated content, from unboxing videos and seasonal content to creator partnerships and more.
Owing to all these strategic decisions and influences, I-SPY’s first foray into TikTok advertising was a successful one, bringing them closer to reaching their overarching digital advertising goals.
I was absolutely delighted to be chosen to be part of the inaugural Tiktok Advance Programme, and I have to say that I found it incredibly helpful and insightful. As a small business owner, we have a small budget for advertising and it can be daunting to get started with a new platform. This programme took us from start to finish and showed us exactly how Tiktok ads should be utilised. We learnt so much from this programme and we're so grateful to Tiktok for choosing us to be part of it!
