Fonterra Malaysia has harnessed the viral nature of TikTok to great effect by filling their brand-owned account @dairyliciousmalaysia with tasty, shareable recipe videos.
Producing native content for TikTok required a departure from the traditional video production methods previously used by the brand who have since discovered more effective ways to create engaging videos. As a result, recent TikTok videos uploaded by Fonterra have hit views in the millions with hundreds of comments from enthusiastic consumers wanting to try their recipes.
Find out how switching up creative partnerships and production methods has helped Fonterra increase brand awareness and reach new audiences.
Fonterra Cooperative is one of the world's leading dairy food service companies that produces high-quality natural dairy products for consumers around the world. In Malaysia, Fonterra offers a variety of well-known dairy brands to the domestic market, such as Anchor, Anmum, Chesdale, Mainland and more.
With a rapidly rising 14.59 million TikTok users aged 18 and above in Malaysia, Fonterra’s local brand management team understood the importance of building their own audience on the platform. However, this addition of a new channel to market, and no extra budget to execute, meant that Fonterra needed to find a way to fill their TikTok content calendar that was agile and affordable.
TikTok audiences love consuming short videos that are entertaining or informative, a format that is well suited to sharing recipes and cooking tips. After a number of viral food trends, TikTok has become a go-to platform for aspiring cooks and food lovers alike looking for fun recipes that can be easily created using everyday ingredients.
There was a huge opportunity for a brand like Fonterra, that offers staple items like cheese and butter, the opportunity to provide value to their audience through simple to follow recipe ideas and culturally relevant serving suggestions for their local markets.
To execute their vision it was essential for Fonterra Malaysia to find a content partner that had experience in recipe design and video production that could harmonise the brand requirements with the native, user generated style videos that are popular on the app.
Due to the low-fi, youthful aesthetic of TikTok, Fonterra knew that they didn’t need to adopt a high-level of commercial production for this campaign to be successful. In fact, sharing content that looks over-produced would appear out of place on TikTok and can be highly detrimental for a brand. It’s vital that any brand-owned content shared fits seamlessly into the user experience or else it risks becoming instantly dismissed by audiences.
As well commercial style video not being fit-for-platform, the traditional way of producing content through agencies, food stylists and hired test kitchens came with large overheads that would require significant investment - well above their allocated budget.
It was clear that the previously used methods of asset production weren’t going to allow Fonterra to create as many videos as they needed, nor would they be in the appropriate formats to satiate their hungry TikTok audience, so they looked for an alternate solution.
Having already partnered with Creatively Squared to produce a range of still imagery and recipe ideas for their Anchor and Chesdale product lines, Fonterra knew that this platform provided the perfect opportunity to engage enthusiastic home cooks and experienced food photographers to produce their TikTok videos.
Creatively Squared’s standardised pricing meant that Fonterra Malaysia was able to allocate the exact amount they needed to cover production. Expectations were aligned upfront so the team knew exactly what deliverables they would get and how long the content would take to produce.
A process that would have previously taken months for the brand team to execute was now compressed into the simple act of submitting a short creative brief into the platform. From there the project was fully managed with the entire booking, production and submission process taken care of by the platform and their dedicated account manager.
Through Creatively Squared, Fonterra was able to partner with a number of video-savvy creators based in Malaysia to help design and produce culturally relevant recipes that would appeal to local audiences.
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Recognising that food is an important part of the Malay culture, and sharing food with friends and family is a popular way to celebrate special occasions, Creatively Squared helped Fonterra create a series of short videos inspired by local festivals.
Recipe ideas catering for events such as Raya and Chinese New Year, as well as simple every day meals, were prepared and filmed by Creatively Squared food creators in their home studios and kitchens. The video content was then professionally edited in-house by Creatively Squared and submitted to the brand for publishing.
Simple breakfast idea featuring Chesdale cheese that has clocked up 4m views and cookies made with Anchor butter for Raya with 2.8m views
Sound is a huge part of the TikTok experience and Creatively Squared was also able add ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response) style sound effects to bring a deeper sensory element to the videos for Fonterra.
The combination of local Malay creators with a layer of professional project management and post-production ensured that the resulting videos would both resonate with the local market on TikTok and present the brand in the best light.
The results speak for themselves and out of all the content shared on the @dairyliciousmalaysia TikTok account, the videos produced by Creatively Squared have had the highest performance to date - many of them in the millions of views!
Cookies made with Anchor butter for Raya with 1.9m views and Tiger themed cookies for Chinese New year with 3.8m views
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