Ruset: Award-winning TikTok Audition Campaign for IQ
- Cases
- August 12, 2024
- Wavemaker Sweden
Background
IQ is a Swedish government-funded organization that aims to promote and empower a smarter approach to drinking.
Young people today drink less alcohol than those in past generations – a fact very few of them are aware of as alcohol is still associated with being cool. But by spreading awareness of the new norm, IQ hopes that more people will identify with the positive trend and feel empowered to turn down or make more conscious decisions when it comes to alcohol. Which, in turn, will only further strengthen this societal change.
Meanwhile, a majority of this age group spends hours on TikTok each day. It’s a platform that satisfies their need for entertainment and, as recent research has found, it’s the primary reason for using social media in the first place. So, to reach this trend-sensitive, ad-fatigued, and entertainment-craving audience, Team IQ (with ABBY.WORLD as the creative partner and Wavemaker Sweden on media) decided to convey their campaign message by creating a drama series – on the platform where the audience already exists.
As a result, Ruset, Sweden’s first drama series on TikTok, came to life. A 10-part series about a young girl’s secret infatuation with her best friend, and the choice she has to make of whether to confess her secret or not. A piece of fiction that explores complex alcohol-related topics of peer pressure, feelings of worry, and how to reflect on your own drinking behavior.
Activation
The campaign started with an activation where the target audience was invited to audition for one of the lead roles in the series. This was done exclusively on TikTok, where users were instructed to ‘duet’ IQ’s casting videos and read lines from the actual script, side by side with traditionally cast professional actors.
The massive engagement that this activation received set the tone for the remainder of the campaign, with media coverage in print, online, on TV, radio, and on TikTok spanning the entire six months between the casting activation and the series’ premiere.
The premiere included an exclusive press and creator’s event, as well as a nationwide campaign in metro stations, malls, universities, OLV, and on social media. Each day, a new episode was released on TikTok. The episodes continued for ten consecutive days alongside reflective, in-depth content and short, to-the-point outtakes.
Result
All in all, the launch on TikTok was a unique combination of suspenseful, heart-wrenching drama and fourth-wall-breaking content – where the actors delve into all nuances of the series’ themes. The campaign vastly exceeded goals, resulting in over 450 open auditions and the drama series reaching over 1,9 M TikTok users (Sweden’s population is 10 M). The campaign has won awards in IAB Mixx Awards, Guldägget, and Nordic TikTok Awards.
Read more on this campaign on the ABBY.WORLD site.
