Fear Marketing Works

Robert Oliver sees TikTok as a gold rush opportunity similar to the early Amazon era - a platform where entrepreneurs can create substantial value without needing significant startup capital or investment. He believes TikTok represents a paradigm shift in how people discover products, places, and information.

Key Points:

• TikTok represents a massive opportunity similar to the early Amazon era:

  • "I look for these moments in time where you don't need a ton of start up capital"
  • "You don't need to raise money and you can basically just find something that works"
  • "Create something of substantial enterprise value and tiktok represents that"

• TikTok is changing fundamental consumer behaviors:

  • Search behavior is shifting from Google/Yelp to TikTok for visual discovery
  • 30% of Gen Z uses TikTok as their primary news source
  • Shopping is becoming more live and visual

• Success strategies for TikTok brands:

  • Marketing to fear is highly effective: "Whenever you see the ability to market to fear like big pharma or insecurities, run into that"
  • People engage with content where "they feel like they're learning something"
  • Brands can leverage TikTok success to improve organic rankings on Google and Amazon

• Real examples of success:

  • Evil Goods (beef tallow skincare): Leveraged holistic wellness trends and anti-toxic skincare sentiment
  • Top Shelf (cologne): Building "a Creed for Gen Z" doing close to a million dollars monthly
  • Multiple brands collectively generating over $100 million in revenue using the TikTok model

• Research tools for TikTok opportunities:

  • Kalo Data (kalodata.com) is "directly plugged in to TikTok's API"
  • Shows top products and top videos to study what's working

• Philosophical approach:

  • "Be an observer not a consumer" to spot opportunities
  • "Pick something you like and see some area of disruption and make stuff for yourself"
  • "Be relatively delusional about the future while being very aware of where you're at today"