Tiktok, the world's fastest-growing social media platform, has hired Japanese advertising giant Dentsu to help it attract more advertisers in the Nordics.
A joint TikTok-Dentsu "Marketing Mix Modeling" study that measured "the sales effect from advertisements on TikTok in...Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland" for 15 Nordics market brands" was published in February.
The study used Dentsu's "Total Contribution of Marketing" methodology, which seeks to measure "both short-term and long-term effects from marketing."
The brands examined had advertised on TikTok consistently over the past 2-3 years, comparing spend on the platform to that on radio, other paid social, Google, broadcast video on demand, YouTube, television and out-of-home.
According to the study, TikTok ranked tops in short-term return-on-investment (ROI), ahead of Google, broadcast video on demand, and other paid social.
Dentsu said TikTok ranked third in long-term return-on-investment, behind radio and other paid social.
"TikTok is a powerful driver of short-term sales in all four Nordic markets," Dentu said in the report. "(Nordic) Advertisers who used TikTok consistently (always-on), rather than in campaign bursts, saw the greatest sales effects."
Dentsu also compared different types of TikTok paid marketing, comparing "professionally-produced ads" running on the platform to "paid content" with explicit promotional messaging and "storytelling" content with a narrative approach, that didn't include explicit promotional messages.
It found that advertising on "storytelling" TikTok content outperformed the other types by 70 percent.
To alleviate data privacy concerns, last fall TikTok began moving its European user data to a data center near Hamar city in Norway's Innlandet region. The TikTok investment in Norway is $13.15 billionl; the company is planning three data centers total in the country.
TikTok opened an office in Stockholm in 2021 and one in Copenhagen in 2023
TikTok was the fifth ranked social media platform in Sweden and in Denmark, after Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and SnapChat and ahead of Linkedin, Pinterest and X.com.
Dentsu-owned agencies have long been dominant in the Nordics, ranking among the largest billers in the region.
Carat and Dentsu X, both owned by the Tokyo-based giant, finished #1 and #2 in the 18th annual MyImage Bureau ranking of the top agencies in Denmark, released last month.
Dentsu International, led by Hiroshi Igarashi, operates in 145 markets worldwide.
Paal Fure is CEO of Dentsu Norway and Northern Europe.