Polish TikTokers and promotional campaigns on TikTok

What is TikTok, and why isn't it Musical.ly anymore?

TikTok is a phenomenon on the social media “market”. Previously known as Musical.ly, it was bought by a similar start-up in 2017 for a billion dollars and changed its name to the one it goes by today. Everything suggests the investment paid off, because the app is going through a genuine boom among young people. Now that we know what TikTok is, we can move on to the latest report, which records as many as 500 million monthly active users. 65% of users are aged 13-15. Almost 60% spend more than 30 minutes a day on TikTok, and some of them open it to check what's new as many as 10 times a day (around 34%)!

If the numbers above aren't convincing enough, take a look at the follower counts — the most popular Polish TikTokers have several million followers each, and the view counts run much the same.

Polish TikTokers and the app's algorithm

We probably don't need to explain how TikTok works. Plenty of people do wonder, though, what makes TikTok the place that hands creators the kind of reach they can only dream of on YouTube or Instagram. There's no single clear answer here — but you can guess that the content is global in character and very much alike: built above all on short video clips and captions in English. TikTok's algorithm plays a big part too, suggesting content that is similar by topic rather than by location.

TikTok analyzes user behavior — watch time, interactions (likes, comments, shares) and trend detection through machine learning, among other things — which lets new creators land on the “For You” page fast, even without a large follower base. The algorithm also tests different audience archetypes, sometimes serving content that goes beyond a user's established preferences in order to gauge its viral potential. The upshot is that even Polish TikTokers can pick up global reach by making universal, catchy material that fits international formats, with no need for elaborate SEO strategies or local ad campaigns.

Brands on TikTok?

There are two ways to promote yourself on this platform — some brands decide to set up their own account, others work with creators. You do have to keep the target group in mind, though. There's no point running campaigns in a place dominated by teenagers if the product or service is meant for a more mature audience, although it's worth noting that the pandemic brought in a few more users in the older age brackets. Unfortunately there are no current reports on what percentage of users are over 30.

Brands that set up their own profiles often invest in creative campaigns built on challenges (#challenge) and engaging filters, which raises the odds of a wide audience joining in on something viral. Working with influencers, on the other hand, lets you reach precisely defined niches — especially when the brand picks creators by the demographics and interests of their audience. According to Sotrender data, in 2025 as many as 83% of the biggest Polish brands were actively running social media and an account on TikTok, with automotive and FMCG companies standing out for the highest engagement thanks to a mix of educational and entertaining content.

Making money on TikTok through campaigns

One of the first Polish brands to run a campaign on TikTok was mBank. TikTokers encouraged people to pay by phone — among them @kompleksiara, @marlenasojka, @colorowyy and @kamelemona. The videos picked up more than 500,000 likes in total.

Coca-Cola ran an interesting campaign too, bringing in as many as 18 Polish TikTokers who showed off interesting moments from their lives and tagged them with the hashtag #WOWmoment. It went widely viral, because users liked the hashtag enough to start using it in their own videos. Videos carrying that popular hashtag were watched more than 16 million times.

Social causes turn up on TikTok as well, among them Szlachetna Paczka, Poland's big Christmas gift-giving charity, which set up an official profile and encourages people to post videos with the hashtag #dziękitobie (“thanks to you”). The videos are meant to popularize volunteering and freely given mutual help. The singer Margaret took part, among others, though the lead hashtag could have used more thought — “dziękitobie” also covers plenty of videos that have nothing to do with the campaign.

More and more influencer campaigns are appearing on TikTok in Poland — Pepsi, MAOMAM, Huawei and McDonald's among them. Our own client is in that group too — Manta.

Event agencies are keen to invite creators to work with them as well — they show up at shopping malls, theme parks and festivals, with the job of pulling their fans to the event. A meet-up with TikTokers like that is a good image-building move, and it can pull in the fans of the person involved.

More and more brands are setting up accounts of their own too — among them the PZPN (Poland's football association), Zimowy Narodowy (the winter park at Warsaw's National Stadium), Eobuwie.pl and… Social Lama! 🙂

TikTok Ads

Creating paid campaigns on TikTok isn't possible in Poland yet, but you can already register and wait to be contacted. The best place to do that is here. All you have to do is sign up, and the app's makers will let you know once they unlock the option for you. The platform's guiding idea is Don't make ads. Make TikToks. TikTok keeps working on new formats for businesses: promoting selected #hashtags (or a #hashtagchallenge), sponsored TikToks (aimed at growing followers and engagement), and a look at the stats of the most popular TikTokers worth working with. Industry rumor even has it that you'll be able to build mobile games personalized for your brand with a dedicated builder. We can't wait for that to reach Poland, and we'll certainly let you know about it on our blog or Facebook.

If you're looking for a social media agency to support your product or service and promote it to Gen Z, get in touch!