By Mark Seavy 

With a TikTok ban in the U.S. looming, many companies are adjusting their marketing strategies to limit their reliance on the platform’s influencers and viral videos. 

Licensing executives we polled said they will shift emphasis to Instagram and other social media platforms as a hedge against the U.S. TikTok ban, which is scheduled to take effect on January 19th. That decision follows the U.S. Supreme Court having appeared likely during a January 10th hearing to uphold a law banning the social media platform in the region. Federal lawmakers, meanwhile, are pushing President Biden to extend the ban’s deadline. 

The First Amendment case carries weight given that 170 million Americans use the platform and uploaded 5.5 billion videos to TikTok in 2023 (with those videos being viewed 13 trillion times). And while TikTok content ranges from dance videos to makeup tutorials, 40% of American adults under 30 years old get their news from the platform.  

Despite its large audience, many within the licensing industry were not concerned about the potential ban. TikTok Shop, which launched in September 2023, is relatively new and hasn’t yet proven to be a sales driver. There have been, however, a number of viral videos that resulted in significant brand exposure.  

In one, Nathan Apodaca’s car broke down so he decided to skateboard to work all the while recording himself drinking Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice with Fleetwood Mac’s song “Dreams” as the soundtrack, a video that got millions of views. And creators like Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang, whose The Woobles crochet kits went viral on TikTok and feature licenses for Squid Game, Harry Potter, have also taken advantage of sudden exposure through the app.  

“I think what you will see less of, if the ban goes through, is fewer videos going viral about some wacky licensed product that sells out at brick-and-mortar retail,” said Trevor George, CEO at Trevco. “We’ve seen that happen a few times and we never saw this type of viral effect before TikTok.” 

In addition to viral moments, which are unpredictable, many emerging and direct-to-consumer brands have used TikTok to launch and promote products. But Beanstalk expects to see little effect if the ban goes through since few of its brands and their licensees use TikTok as a major sales platform, said Caren Chacko, SVP for Brand Management at Beanstalk.  

“While there may be a slight impact on collaborations and trend-driven products, it’s not a major concern since a new or existing platform would likely replace TikTok,” Chacko said. 

In fact, those competing platforms have been quick to seize on the uncertainty around TikTok in the U.S. 

Meta’s Instagram is “doubling down” on prioritizing original and creative content in its algorithmic rankings this year, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said in a video outlining the platform’s focus for the year. TikTok creators have also been asking fans to follow them to other apps, including Instagram as well as the Chinese app Xiaohongshu, colloquially known as RedNote. 

“For us, the jury is out on some of these viral TikTok videos because for every one that has resulted in sales blowing out there is a lot of content that is meaningless,” said Bill McClinton, President at the agency Global Icons, which has used TikTok to promote Hostess brands. “From a sales perspective, TikTok Shop hasn’t been around that long, so we are not going to have to replace a lot of revenue, and Shopify and Instagram aren’t going away. If TikTok goes away I don’t feel that will be detrimental to the business.”