Alshaya Group and TikTok in world-first 'brand camp'

28 Sep 2021

Alshaya Group, one of the world's leading international franchise operators and TikTok, the leading destination for short-form videos, have joined forces to conduct a uniquely and exclusive virtual 'brand camp' for Alshaya's marketing community.

The camp was designed to help Alshaya marketers explore new ways to effectively engage with its customers. TikTok, with its authentic and community driven approach, challenges traditional marketing thinking and offers new ways for companies to connect and develop meaningful customer relationships. Alshaya, has become TikTok's regional partner, helping it to develop practical training content for TikTok's dedicated online learning platform, 'The Hive', while supporting Alshaya's goal of continuously developing the brand building and digital marketing capabilities of its marketing community.

The Hive focuses on how companies can benefit from using TikTok's creativity and authenticity to challenge traditional, closed perceptions of marketing. The objective of the brand camp collaboration was to show how a meaningful two-way dialogue can be developed with customers who are part of the TikTok community.

The Alshaya Group/TikTok virtual brand camp, took place last week and used a combination of pre-recorded video sessions on The Hive, Teams and Zoom Intro sessions, and on-line workshops. The camp brought together brands and marketing representatives from across all of Alshaya Group's customer facing divisions, with tailored sessions covering Alshaya Group's unique range of Apparel, hospitality, and wellness brands. Over 300 members of Alshaya's marketing community and divisional business leadership attended the brand camp from across Alshaya's MENA and European operating markets.

Paul Morris, Chief Digital Officer, Alshaya Group said: "Our customer today is digital first and we constantly explore innovative new ways to connect with them. We have already built a strong relationship with TikTok, working with them to deliver some very successful brand campaigns. We were very pleased to expand that know-how to a wider audience through a series of digital events that brought all our teams together in one interactive space."

"Our partnership with TikTok is mutually beneficial. Our teams have been able to learn a lot about how TikTok can benefit ourselves and our customers, and TikTok has been able to gain fresh, practical insight into how its platform can relate to customers across multiple retail sectors."

Aref Yehia, Head of Retail and E-Commerce, TikTok Global Business solutions, METAP said:

"At TikTok, we aim to encourage brands to unleash their creativity and engage with their customers in real and authentic ways that they can't do anywhere else to drive best in class returns. Marketers are essential to our ecosystem and our mission is to help them optimize our community commerce solutions to maximize their campaigns' potential and drive conversion. We are thrilled to partner with a renowned omnichannel retail group such as Alshaya for our first-ever Brand Camp. The aim of this first-of-its-kind, virtual camp is to rip up the traditional marketing playbook and inspire creative connections with our highly engaged communities, while also gaining fresh insights and first-hand feedback from the experience. We can't wait to see the brilliant campaigns that the Alshaya brands will be bringing to life on our platform."