Within hours of TikTok announcing that it would allow alcohol advertising in North America, alcohol companies began running recruitment ads for TikTok specialists.
What’s surprising is how few wine companies joined in. Maybe wineries don’t realise how big the TikTok phenomenon is — or how transformative.
To see how it could play out in wine, look at what happened in publishing.
Introducing #BookTok
Back in lockdown times, teenage girls started posting TikToks about their favourite books, using the #BookTok hashtag. The formula was simple enough: someone, generally standing in front of a bookcase, would talk about her latest book discovery. Or she held up a single book, or sometimes a stack of them.
Mostly, these books were romance or Young Adult. But if the BookTok went viral — and, for algorithmic reasons, it often did — sales of those books went up. And up. And up.
It’s no exaggeration to say that those bedroom book chats have changed the entire trajectory of publishing, an industry that had despaired about falling sales and — worse — falling engagement with the written word.
Today, bookstores from Waterstones in the UK to Barnes & Noble in the USA use #BookTok branding. Bestsellers carry #BookTok stickers. In 2022, TikTok even launched the TikTok Book Awards at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
#BookTok is now an unstoppable force in books. As of November 2023, the hashtag had generated 190 billion impressions.
Those bedroom book chats have changed the entire trajectory of publishing, an industry which had despaired about falling sales.
Impressions aren’t dollars, but the dollars are rolling in too.
“It’s one of the strongest drivers that we’ve seen in the US market in the last couple of years. It is the only area of the market right now with very strong growth,” said Kristen McLean from Circana BookScan, in a 2023 interview with Vox.
“When I look at the data, there’s no other area of the US publishing market that we can pin that’s seeing that level of year-over-year growth right now. That’s the third year of growth for these authors.”
Prior to BookTok, according to Vox, the US book market grew around 3% to 4% per year. From 2019 to 2021, it grew a whopping 21%, though that extreme growth has tapered off; in 2021, BookTok helped sell 20 million books in print.
Individual authors who catch the eye of BookTokers also achieve outsize success. “[In 2023], they’re seeing an increase of 43% over their 2022 sales figures,” according to the Vox article.
The impact on authors
If there’s one name that encapsulates the BookTok phenomenon, it’s Sarah J. Maas. She was a reasonably successful fantasy author when BookTokers began talking about her A Court of Thorns and Roses series (known on BookTok as ACOTAR).
The other name for it is “fairy smut” — Maas’s books often feature fairies performing complicated sexual acts with the heroine. Wings are sometimes involved.
The GenZ audience adores these books so much that Maas’s publisher, Bloomsbury, lifted its annual profit forecasts for 2024.
Another BookTok name to know is Colleen Hoover, whose sales have gone into the stratosphere since she became a BookTok favourite. And it’s not just her recent books that are selling — thanks to BookTok, her 2016 book It Ends With Us came out of retirement to sell millions of copies and get optioned for a Netflix series.
Initially, most BookTok conversations revolved around the romance, fantasy and Young Adult genres, but the New York Times reports that BookTok is now driving the sale of adult books too. One beneficiary is Madeline Miller, whose 2012 book Circe went on to sell two million copies after it went viral on BookTok.
The authentic approach
What makes TikTok unique among social media platforms is that users can achieve virality without needing millions of followers.
TikTok’s algorithm prioritises content that aligns with users' interests, so a video can spread because it’s inherently appealing — many users have reported going viral despite having a tiny number of followers.
TikTok’s For You page also serves up videos to users based on their preferences, which is another reason that lesser-known or even new creators can go viral.
And what attracts BookTokers is a shared love of books.
And what attracts BookTokers is a shared love of books. Top BookTokers don’t produce filtered images like Instagrammers, or record from well-lit, professional studios like the YouTubers. Instead, they set up a camera in their bedroom and just start talking.
More often than not, they talk about how the book made them feel. Tears may flow. When it comes to connecting with other book lovers, emotion is key.
Will it be the same with wine?
What wineries need to know
According to Backlinko, 25% of TikTokers are aged 18-24, while 30% are 26-35. That makes it the perfect platform for anybody who wants to engage emerging wine drinkers.
But there are rules of engagement. First and most important are the legal rules. Advertising for alcohol is generally not permitted by TikTok, the only exceptions being the USA and Canada. And even there, strict rules apply (see grey box below). For a start, payment cannot be involved.
Then there are the emotional rules. Rule number one is no slick marketing.
And, probably, no talk of malolactic fermentation or soil types.
If WineTok is to succeed, it will need ordinary people speaking straight from the heart about a specific wine and what it means to them.
What's next?
TikTok now offers new possibilities for those in North America. But given the alcohol industry's advertising budget and the increasing age of TikTok users, it's more than likely that liberalisation may spread. TikTok itself has said it is exploring this, or as they put it: "Select alcoholic beverages are currently undergoing testing in some markets."
It's interesting to consider what could happen if the rules are relaxed even further, particularly for other countries. TikTok is an important — if not the most important — platform for the next generation of buyers.
As always, nobody should rely on one platform for their marketing, particularly not this one. TikTok has been in the firing line of US legislators for some time, as they worry that TikTok may be revealing user data to ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the platform — and that the Chinese government may be accessing that data.
Or TikTok could simply change its algorithms, so wine TikToks never surface. Social media platforms are capricious that way.
But for publishing, BookTok has been a lifeline. And even if it disappears, it managed for a time to turn a new generation into avid readers. Which is not a small thing.
The law around alcohol and TikTok
- Collaboration with a TikTok sales representative
- No alcoholic products with add ins, such as wine, beer or spirits that include THC or CBD
- No homemade alcoholic products or beverages
- No retail or e-commerce ads that promote the sale of alcohol or alcohol delivery services
- No targeting or appealing to individuals below the legal drinking age
- No featuring people below the age of 25 or pregnant women
- No excessive drinking, intoxication or irresponsible behavior under the influence of alcohol
- No offering alcohol as a prize or reward
- No hangover relief products
- No discounts
- Moreover, you have to state the alcoholic content and strength of a beverage and carry a responsible drinking disclaimer on ad content and landing pages.
The requirements are set out in TikTok's Advertising Policies dated August 2024, where the rules for other countries are also listed. In most countries, advertising alcohol, accessories and often also non-alcoholic substitute products is not allowed. Caution is also advised at events. Some background information can be found HERE. You can also find more information on influencer marketing there. And if you're still curious, here's everything you ever wanted to know about wine advertising laws in Germany.
