TIKTOK AND ITS ADDICTION

MARKETING PROJECT REPORT

Domecq Vergara, Beatriz

MARKETING MANAGEMENT | BACHELOR’S 3. GROUP 1

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 INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1 Social ill: what is the issue? why is it important to change?
1.2 Description of the group targeted
2. ADVERTISING PLAN
2.1 Message development: what was the message? why that message?
2.2 Advertisement development: adds, what were the major design elements
2.3 Advertisement placement
3. RESEARCH RESULTS:
3.1 Brief summary of campaigns results: Measure, questions simple descriptive
(sample size, averages, necessary demographics). Pre- and post- campaign
results.
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 Reflection: how did I do? what worked well? what would I change if I did it
again? why?

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 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 SOCIAL ILL
According to the most recent statistics, TikTok is currently considered as the most
addictive social media. TikTok got its name in 2019, since then, it has grown in tandem
with the number of users, until the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, when it saw a significant
increase in users and began its rise to fame.
Although TikTok does not provide anything that has not already been seen on other digital
platforms, it does combine several features that make it particularly appealing:
Provide brief videos; the information is thus concentrated and presented in a concise and
appealing manner. Display completely personalized content to each user; an algorithm
accurately captures each person's interests in order to offer them the most appealing
content. As the user scrolls the screen, the short videos play one after the other
indefinitely. In this way, it gives the impression that fantastic content is "just around the
corner" that we won't be able to miss.
This is how TikTok works on the brain; the dopamine releases brought on by watching
each of its videos strongly activate the reward system. This not only provides immediate
pleasure, but it also records the use of the application as a desirable activity that we will
likely repeat. Health professionals, parents, and educators have noticed that it is getting
harder for young people to focus for extended periods of time. And there's no denying
that social media platforms, screens, and particularly programs like TikTok have an
impact in this area. It takes about 25 years for the prefrontal cortex, which is in charge
of impulse control, memory, and attention, to reach its full development. And being
exposed to this kind of stimulation, where information and satisfaction are available
immediately, can have a negative impact on how these cognitive abilities develop.
Overuse may be harmful to actual human interactions. Even though virtual socialization
can be rewarding, human interaction and the development of support networks are crucial
for our wellbeing, and it is becoming more and more common for us to overlook this by
putting our time and effort into the networks. The algorithm might even exacerbate recent
or ongoing mental health issues.
It is important to change the habits of frequent TikTok use as without realizing how much
time has passed, we can lose track of other important tasks and activities as we spend
hours exploring an application. Furthermore, even when we feel that we have been using
an application for too long and want to stop, problems frequently prevent us from doing
so. It is feasible to take pleasure in it and benefit from its contents but with measure.
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 1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP TARGETED.
In order to measure TikTok addiction on young people I chose a sample of 60 university
students, most of whom are ICN students, between the ages of 18 and 26. 35% of the
sample was between 18 and 20 years old, 50% of them between 21 and 23 years old and
15% between 24 and 26. Moreover, 65% of them were females while the 35% remaining
were males. These answers remain the same for both surveys (before and after the
campaign)

According to my survey, 75% of the total answers do have a TikTok account. The 20%
remaining do not have one. In addition, the 40% of the people who downloaded it, did it
in 2020, which coincides with TikTok’s boom during the Covid-19 lockdown. During
this year people used to download the app in order to entertain themselves this way
became fashionable.

The 65% of the sample spend one hour or more on TikTok, most of them between one
and two hours. However, there is 35% of the sample that do not spend time on TikTok.
What I wanted to measure with this survey is if there is a correlation between the hours
spent on this app and the free time a week he or she has.
Results show how almost an 83% of the sample have many free hours a day (among 3
and 5 hours or more). This might be one of the main causes of young people's excessive
use of TikTok and subsequent addiction to the app. However, in order to prove this, I

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 asked some other questions to check which is the main objective for this
sample when consuming TikTok videos. Watch videos for entertainment, create content
with a lucrative purpose or create content for fun are the main options TikTok gives you
as an entertainment app.

The main purpose

of the sample of
having TikTok is
entertainment
followed by create
content for fun.

Young people download TikTok so they can have fun. Which leads us to the conclusion
that youth have little to no hobbies and a lot of free time. Furthermore, some other
questions were asked so I could confirm this. I asked my sample if they have hobbies to
practice in their spare time.
The majority admit that they do have
interests in their free time. Despite this,
almost 27% of the sample size of 60 people
do not participate in any hobbies, which is a
significant percentage.

I asked to those who answered yes on the previous question of the survey, which ones are
their hobbies that practice on their free time. The most repeated answers were reading,
music and sports or something related to sports.
Finally, I asked the participants to
rate their own level of addiction to
this app. The majority of them do not
consider themselves to be addicted in
any way. However, nearly 55% of
the sample is addicted at some point,
since 3 out of 5 is already considered addicted.
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 2. ADVERTISING PLAN
2.1 MESSAGE DEVELOPMENT
- What was the message? Why that message?

Following these findings, I wanted to reach out to the survey respondents. I knew it would
be difficult because many people do not care about being addicted to something, and they
may associate it with their tobacco "addiction," or they may be addicted but refuse to
admit it.
I initially tried to compare the response produced by TikTok with that of other well-
known drugs, like heroin, by researching what it did to the brain. I've read a lot of articles
that link these drugs to TikTok's potential for addiction. I also discovered that TikTok
produces the same kind of dopamine as chocolate. My initial thought was to create a
poster with these statistics on it. I ultimately reasoned that it wouldn't resonate with young
people and wouldn't have an impact. Instead, I decided to create a poster where the word
“drugs” was in it but without introducing any informative data.
After thinking about the survey questions and responses, I decided to make another poster.
This time, it's an informational one. I opted to search for articles that discussed how much
time young consumers spent on this application. I discovered a study that claimed TikTok
users spend more than 28 hours per month on the app, making it by far the most popular
social network. For greater impact and force when someone reads it, I converted those 28
hours per month into days per year. It changed to 14 days annually which comes out to
be the same as two weeks.
"You spend about 14 days a year on TikTok," the poster stated.
The main goal of this statement and the message I wanted to convey to the participants in
my sample was that if a year has 365 days, you could reduce it by 351 since the average
is 14 days lost per year due to TikTok addiction. In this way, the impact on the participants
may be greater because they will believe they are wasting two weeks of their lives by
spending a few hours a day on TikTok. Furthermore, they will consider that many things
can be accomplished in two weeks, such as planning a trip, spending time with loved
ones, going on vacation, disconnecting, and so on.

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 2.2 ADVERTISING DEVELOPMENT
- What were the ads?
I did two models of advertisement: the first one launches a comparative idea between
drugs and TikTok while the second one informs you with a consequence of using TikTok.

Ad Option 1 Ad Option 2

- Major design elements

The first ad option was designed with a division of two colors black and white in order to
grab the readers’ attention. In addition, I added a syringe representing drugs and the logo
of the app. From the other hand, I designed the second model by using a phone as a picture
which shows the typical message when you reach the time limit you set for the app.
Moreover, I used black and red colors in order to highlight the important information, this
way people would focus their attention on that.
2.3 ADVERTISEMENT PLACEMENT.
I used social media as a main distribution channel. Instagram and WhatsApp are the
applications that young people use the most, therefore it was easier to reach the target
audience. I also hung some posters around the university since most of my sample
studies at ICN.

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 3. RESEARCH RESULTS:
3.1 BRIEF SUMMARY OF CAMPAIGNS RESULTS.
With those surveys, I aimed to gauge how the ads affected the hypothetical actions and
whether their claims would have any bearing on how much this people used the app in
general. In order to improve the accuracy of the results, I also took the same sample. I
had anticipated that the campaign would yield more impressive results, but to my surprise,
everything else about them—aside from a few minor details—was pretty much the same.

Survey 1 Survey 2

variable fi xi xi*fi variable fi xi xi*fi

0 19 0 0 0 21 0 0
[1-2] 23 1,5 34,5 [1-2] 21 1,5 31,5
[3-4] 15 3,5 52,5 [3-4] 13 3,5 45,5
5 3 5 15 5 5 5 25
60 102 60 102

mean 1,7 mean 1,7

Surprisingly, the outcome is the same even though the results appear to be somewhat
different. That is, the sample's participants spend the same amount of time on TikTok on
average, according to the calculation. Therefore, even though the percentages have
changed from one survey to the next, the average daily time spent on TikTok, which is
1.7 hours, has not changed.
The same thing has happened when it comes to the questions about how many hours of
free time young people currently have, why they use the app, and whether they have any
hobbies they like to do in their spare time. Their outcomes have been essentially identical.
With 65% of the responses in both surveys, the sample's participants overwhelmingly
chose to use TikTok for entertainment, this is the mode.

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Survey 2 Survey 2

xi fi xi*fi xi fi xi*fi
1 30% 0,3 1 33% 0,333
2 15% 0,3 2 25% 0,5
3 20% 0,6 3 22% 0,651
4 22% 0,868 4 12% 0,468
5 13% 0,665 5 8% 0,415

mean 3 mean 2

This is the most significant difference among all of the survey questions. The sample
participants perceived themselves to be more addicted to TikTok in the first survey than
in the second survey, with all other results remaining unchanged. That is, after seeing the
advertisements, the participants decided to respond that they were less addicted to
TikTok, even though they answered the same way in the other questions.
The first survey yielded a result of 3 out of 5, which is quite a high number, whereas the
second yielded an average of 2 out of 5, resulting a difference in one point of addiction.
These findings suggest that, while the ads had no effect on usage activity, they did have
an effect on their minds, as they altered their perception of their addiction to the
application.

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 4. CONCLUSION
5. REFLECTION: how did I do? what worked well? what would I change if I did it
again? why?
Once these results were obtained, I assumed that my campaign had been a complete
failure because all the responses were nearly identical, and I wanted to have a greater
impact in order to reduce the use of the application. However, one thing surprised me:
there had been a significant change in one of the responses. The question of "from 1 to 5,
how addicted do you consider yourself to TikTok" had changed a lot since having the
same answers.
This led me to believe that the advertisements influenced my sample of participants. I
didn't manage to get them to stop using the application or devote their time to other things,
such as their hobbies, but I did leave an impression on their minds.
It is difficult to change people's habits in a short period of time and with a poster ad, but
at least I was able to send the message that I wanted to send and make them aware of its
use. That is, when comparing the app's addiction to drugs or informing them of the time
they waste per year, it has had such an impact on the participants that they are scared.
Despite the fact that their usage habits have not changed, they have decided that after
seeing a warning with that information, they are not "as addicted" as they previously
stated.
Finally, while my work did not turn out as planned, I believe it will have a greater impact
in the long run. However, some of the things I did in the project would be changed. If I
truly wanted this to have a greater impact on people, I would have changed the ad model.
In other words, instead of making a poster, I would have made a video, a short ad lasting
a few seconds, and posted it on TikTok so that I could play with the application and have
a much greater impact on the participants, as well as reach a larger audience. On the other
hand, if we continue talking about the posters, I would have looked for another design in
which the problem and its consequences appeared somewhat more graphically. Perhaps
a more realistic photo would have had a greater impact.

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 REFERENCES

- https://apb-news.com/tiktok-users-drawing-attention-to-more-serious-social-
issues/
- https://computerhoy.com/noticias/tecnologia/usuarios-tiktok-ya-gastan-28-
horas-mes-plataforma-convierte-red-social-usada-diferencia-1082929
- https://dot.la/a-tiktok-timeline-the-rise-and-pause-of-a-social-video-giant-
2647649026.html
- https://lamenteesmaravillosa.com/como-afecta-tiktok-cerebro/
- https://medium.com/digital-reflections/how-tiktok-impacts-your-mind-
7f114cb945dd
- https://nypost.com/2022/03/12/tiktok-has-become-a-dangerous-mental-disorder-
breeding-ground/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/01/18/digital-crack-cocaine-the-
science-behind-tiktoks-success/

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