Dive Brief:
- Fifty-three percent of millennial TikTok users have visited a restaurant after seeing it on the social media platform, according to an MGH survey of 1,139 U.S. TikTok users.
- The app’s ability to drive sales from other age groups is also evident in MGH’s data, with 38% of all surveyed users visiting a restaurant after seeing it on the video-sharing platform. Though this represents a 2% increase over MGH’s survey results from last year, it is within the survey’s 3.06% margin of error.
- Presentation is an important driver of restaurant visits resulting from TikTok, with 72% of surveyed users reporting that the visual appearance of food prompted them to seek out eateries.
Dive Insight:
The appearance of food on video outstripped all other factors as a driver of visits, though 45% of users reported new menu items influenced their decisions and 42% visited a restaurant because it appeared to have a fun atmosphere. Visual appearance is a factor that has grown in importance, since a similar survey conducted by MGH last year found only 55% of users were drawn in by appealing looking food.
TikTok’s reach in the U.S. could make it a powerful force for restaurant marketers, according to MGH. The app has over 136 million users in U.S., according to Statista.
“TikTok has completely changed the way people behave, where they spend their time, and importantly, how they spend their money," Ryan Goff, EVP and social media marketing director at MGH, said in a statement. "TikTok truly is a restaurant marketer's dream-come-true.”
MGH’s survey indicated about 30% of users would travel farther than they normally would to visit a restaurant if they saw the restaurant on TikTok. This ability to influence consumer behavior may drive restaurant marketers toward digital ads, especially on TikTok, which unseated Netflix in October as the second most-used app among Americans under 35. TikTok’s widespread adoption has driven other platforms to adopt similar advertising practices.
