When relaunching the Cirque du Soleil TikTok account, our objective was to bridge the gaps between the brand, its performers, crew, and fans, while simultaneously attracting new audiences and highlighting the brand's relevance in TikTok's unique culture.
Our team's focus was to build a connection with younger audiences and demonstrate the brand's ability to live organically on the platform. To achieve this, we aimed to leverage TikTok's various in-app features and creator tools, including duets, trending sounds, text-to-speech, video comment replies, as well as livestreams to bring these “super humans” down to earth by communicating directly with fans in real-time.
When people think of Cirque du Soleil, they think gymnastics, aerials or heart-racing physical feats. Rather than the polished performances you see on stage, our team focused on telling the story of the countless hours of practice that happen behind the scenes, the motivational journeys that cast and crew have overcome, the wholesome relationships they share, and fun facts surrounding the mysteries of the largest contemporary circus producer in the world.
We highlighted the humans behind the characters and the bodies behind the skills to reach new and younger audiences by captivating them with a side of Cirque du Soleil that was not traditionally shown before. Below are significant videos, series, and livestreams we produced:
Top Performing Videos:
Top Series:
Livestream Series:
One of the main challenges our team faced was working with over 700 cast and crew members, many of whom were not familiar with creating content for TikTok. Another challenge was to gain the support of other internal teams who were concerned that sharing informal behind-the-scenes content could negatively impact the in-person show experience. Additionally, producing content that equally showcased everyone across all of our 20 shows while consistently adapting to platform changes, trends, and new features, with a small team, was quite the task to juggle.
With a production team of three people, minimal production budget and no promotional dollars, we hit 1.5 million followers (+1,600 % increase) in 15 months. Other metrics include (all organic!):
We successfully reached younger audiences in comparison to our other social media platforms, with 70% of followers being under the age of 34 years old.
Our total of 25 livestreams attracted an average of 50,000 to 200,000 viewers each, and 12 were selected by TikTok for global promotion on their in-app Discover Page, push notifications, social channels and the Apple Store.
Our cast and crew also saw growth in their personal social media followings with 200-10,000 new followers within 72 hours of being featured on Cirque du Soleil TikTok.
Other highlights and recognitions:
