Case 03 · Paid social & TikTok launch · Oct 2024
Ivy & Gold: taking a founder-led brand to TikTok, with budget behind it.
A handmade jewellery brand with a loyal Northern Ireland Instagram community. I was given paid budgets for ads and creator seeding, and a brief to grow a brand-new TikTok audience without losing the warmth the brand was built on.
- Role
- Social Media & Marketing Intern
- Timeline
- Oct 2024 · two weeks in-office, remainder remote
- Channels
- TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok Ads, Meta Ads, creators, events
- Team
- Founder plus a team of three
2
Paid budgets managed (ads and creator seeding)
3
Platforms tested (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook)
01
Context
The brand had grown on Instagram through the founder's personal story, with an audience of mainly mums based in Northern Ireland. My task was to introduce it to TikTok without the community feeling sold to, and to use a paid budget to find and grow a new audience there.
02
Approach
- Paid social:
- Designed and A/B tested ads across Instagram and Facebook in Meta Ads Manager, and ran TikTok ads to test and grow a new TikTok audience.
- Creator seeding:
- Managed a separate budget for influencer seeding and gifting aimed at driving TikTok traction, and supported influencer outreach.
- Creative angle:
- Tested sentiment-led creative against straight product pushes. Founder stories, customer stories and meaningful posts, with platform trends adapted to the brand's soft, personal aesthetic.
- Production:
- Directed a teammate through a full day of content filming, writing the script and guiding the shoot.
- Events:
- Designed campaign graphics and supported in-person activations, including workshops and the Bead Bar.
This two-slide post shows the creative angle. The first frame is the bracelet. The second frame is the real reason someone buys it: a family moment. The caption and sound tied it to an emotional story rather than a sales pitch.
04
Learnings
I set TikTok growth expectations based on what had worked for my own brand, before researching this audience properly. A mum-focused, Northern Ireland community behaves very differently from a Gen Z fashion audience. Now I research the audience before I forecast.
It also taught me to read a community before creating for it: a trend that works for one audience can feel completely wrong for another, especially when the audience is built on trust and founder proximity.