Last Thursday, Camera IQ, an easy-to-use AR design tool, announced its support for the increasingly popular short-form video platform and its augmented reality development platform Effect House, enabling quick and easy creation of AR effects.
TikTok finally opened Effect House beta to all creators, developers, and designers this April. The Effect House platform allows users to create Community Effects for TikTok videos. Thanks to Camera IQ’s support, brands will now be able to easily create interactive and engaging AR experiences, with no technical expertise required.
Partnership With Cartoon Network and Smashbox
Even before the official public release of Camera IQ’s support for TikTok’s AR effects, two major brands have already partnered with the company to create AR effects via Camera IQ – Cartoon Network and Smashbox.
So far, the most popular Cartoon Network’s AR effect created for TikTok via Camera IQ is the well-known “That’s all folks!” effect. Without any paid promotion, the AR effect has already got over 4 million views. Also, more than 14,000 TikTok users already included it in their videos.
Another popular AR effect by Cartoon Network is also “Garnet Glasses”, an effect based on the glasses that the character from the network’s popular Steven Universe show, Garnet, wears.
As for the cosmetics brand Smashbox, the “Smashbox Illuminate” AR effect, created for its new line of Photo Finish Primers, became the company’s most-viewed branded content on TikTok, earning over 50% engagement during the first 10 days after launch.
“With ‘Smashbox Illuminate’, we became one of the first beauty brands to launch an organic AR effect on TikTok, and based on its initial success we plan to continue expanding our AR strategy on TikTok,” said Smashbox’s Global Content Strategy and Production Manager, Maddy Wilson, in a press release shared with ARPost.
What Camera IQ’s Support for AR Effects Means for Brands
TikTok is a newer social media platform, by comparison to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Snapchat.
Initially created as a place where children and teenagers can create video snippets, it has quickly grown into a major platform. With 1 billion monthly active users in 2021 (a massive growth from 55 million users in 2018), TikTok has become increasingly attractive for brands.
The format of TikTok posts – short videos with an average length of 15 to 60 seconds (though the company has recently expanded the maximum length to 10 minutes) – is great for brand storytelling, especially for a younger target audience.
The opportunity to build AR effects with Camera IQ and launch them to TikTok organically will allow businesses to increase customer loyalty, through increased interaction with their branded AR effects.
Aside from creating new AR effects, Camera IQ allows brands to build cross-platform AR experiences by transforming previous augmented reality campaigns into TikTok effects. “We jumped at the opportunity to create and launch TikTok AR effects with Camera IQ. They helped us easily translate our Instagram effects into effects for Tiktok, driving our cross-platform strategy for the new Photo Finish Primers,” said Wilson.
Camera IQ allows brands to create an AR experience once and launch it on all popular social media platforms supporting augmented reality, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and now TikTok. In addition, the company offers AR expert support, real-time analytics, and AR effects performance insights.
The Benefits of Social Media Interactive AR Content for Businesses
Cartoon Network already reaps the benefits of publishing TikTok AR effects via Camera IQ.
“AR represents an incredibly effective way to engage our fans, enhance our storytelling capabilities, and expand our reach through organic and viral growth,” said Sarah Lively, Cartoon Network’s Director of Social. “Camera IQ makes it easy for brands like us to create, deploy and analyze the performance of AR experiences for all of the top photo- and video-based social media apps.”
AR is already known for its ability to transform the way brands engage with their consumers on social media, and the co-founder and CEO of Camera IQ, Allison Ferenci, recognizes its importance for boosting engagement.
“With the launch of Effect House and the obvious fit for AR effects with TikTok’s short-form video content, AR is going to be a huge driver of consumer engagement and virality throughout the TikTok app,” she said. “We look forward to helping brands uplevel their social strategies by being among the first to publish TikTok AR effects.”
