Hilton's 10 minute ad proves TikTokers are here for a good time and a long time

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Hilton's 10 minute ad proves TikTokers are here for a good time and a long time

Ask TikTok users if they spend more than 10 minutes at a time on TikTok, and chances are they’ll say yes. In fact, the average user clocks up almost 1 ½ hours on the app in a single day. 

But asking them to devote 10 precious minutes to watching a single TikTok ad? Forget about it. 

Unless you’re Hilton, that is. 

The hotel chain dropped its 10-minute long TikTok ad yesterday. It’s the absolute upper limit of TikTok video uploads - practically long-form content. To put it into context, WIRED says TikTok’s ideal video length is anywhere between 21 and 34 seconds.

But Hilton bets you’ll stick around, not only because you could be rewarded with loyalty points, merch and experiences if you do, but because it’s entertaining, dynamic, and brilliantly self-aware of the fact that “10 minutes on TikTok is like three years in the real world.”

As marketers and social experts, we wax lyrical about a TikTok’s ‘hook’. Best practice tells us shorter content is better because it caters to our ever-shrinking attention spans. Basically, communicate your key information in as little time as possible. Ideally the first three seconds, or you’ll risk being lost among the millions of other videos fighting to stop audiences scrolling past.

With the wrong concept - say, a continuous clip featuring one person talking about how great Hilton hotels are - 10 minutes could feel like a lifetime. But with a lot of creativity and a revolving door of guest appearances from TikTok creators like Chris Olsen, Robyn DelMonte AKA GirlBossTown, celebs and the iconic heiress herself, Paris Hilton, it doesn’t.

Instead, Hilton keeps viewers hooked with a video that’s almost Russian doll-like in its approach. Multiple mini-ads exist within the ad, leveraging creators and native features for each. The first minute or so might even make you second guess whether you’re still watching or whether you accidentally scrolled to a completely different TikTok.

There’s nods to all the things that make TikTok what it is - a stitch or two, cooking content, memes, crazy filters, a Storytime on how eggs benedict got its name, and that all-important, and weirdly catchy, music remix.

Does this mean all of our TikToks should be 10 minutes long? Probably not. But does it prove there’s an appetite for long-form content on the platform? Yes. Hilton’s ad suggests TikTokers are happy to stick it out - just give them content worth their time.

by Melissa Harvey, Content Marketer at Social Chain by Brave Bison