Limit Less TikTok campaign

As part of the Limit Less campaign to support more young people from underrepresented and underserved groups to do physics post-16, the IOP has taken to TikTok. As of July 2023 we have had more than 5 million views across the platform.

Our TikTok videos are not designed to teach physics, but instead aim to communicate the messages of the Limit Less campaign and make the idea of physics more accessible. They aim to challenge the misconceived ideas that young people are told about physics – such as it is boring or it’s not for them – with engaging content that communicates the key campaign message that ‘physics is for everyone’.

2021

Over the Christmas break in 2021, when social media consumption by young people was very high, five prominent TikTok influencers, including the fourth most popular in the UK, introduced the Limit Less campaign to their followers through the medium of standing on eggs.

​​​​​​View the videos:

• Tamzin
• Shauni
• Ishaan
• Matthew and Ryan
• Morgan M James

2022

Then in March 2022 the Limit Less campaign released a further four new TikTok videos showing that an everyday piece of cloth can seal a full glass of water even when it’s held upside down (over someone’s head!), and that this can be explained by physics.

Watch the ‘Don’t ruin my hair’ videos:

• Matthew and Ryan
• Ishaan
• Rhia
• Okulaja

2023

In 2023 we have taken a slightly different approach to our first tranche of TikTok videos. Knowing that we had built the foundations for continued engagement with our target audience for Limit Less, we decided to utilise the TikTok videos to advertise and promote The Eurekas competition. The first four videos, so-called ‘influencer dark posts’ that cannot be reshared on this page, but which have been viewed a staggering 3.8 million times, introduced viewers to the competition and its question “How does Physics Power your Passion” and have so far resulted in more than 19,000 clicks through to the competition website.

The second round of videos went live in June 2023, and featured three prominent influencers undertaking physics challenges, namely the Water Bucket Swing and Antigravity Maltesers.

Watch the videos:

• Dan Webz
• GraySkitz
• Big Manny

Media coverage and awards

We are very pleased that the TikTok campaign has generated media coverage in The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mirror and Daily Star. Furthermore, Rachel Youngman, Deputy Chief Executive at the IOP, was interviewed on Radio 4 and Radio 5 and Ray Mitchell, our Head of Campaign Strategy, was interviewed on Times Radio. The campaign was also featured in Nature.

Since the videos were launched, the TikTok campaign has been shortlisted for three different awards:

• We received a ‘Highly Commended’ at the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) UK Awards, described as the UK’s most prestigious PR awards.
  
  The TikTok campaign was nominated under ‘Digital and Social Media Award’. We were shortlisted to a final six, competing against campaigns from Lenovo, Bodyright, Netflix, the O2 and PurpleBricks. See more about the PRCA UK Awards entries.

• The Creative Moment Awards celebrates the creators and the makers of exceptional creative work across the PR, advertising, marketing and communications sector. The awards consider innovative thinking, exemplary execution and memorable ideas as the foundations of the creative industry, and recognise and reward “brilliantly exciting creativity”.
  
  The TikTok campaign was nominated under ‘Most Creative Social Influencer Campaign of the Year’, alongside Lenovo, Goodyear, Netflix, Sports Direct and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. See the list of Creative Moment Award winners.

• The Drum Awards is a global awards program which recognises best practice, the best companies and the best people from across the marketing and communications industry.
  
  The TikTok campaign was nominated under ‘Most Effective Use of Influencer Marketing’. We were in the final six, competing against campaigns from Persil, Heineken, Pantene, McDonald’s and TiNDLE. See more about the Drum Awards entries.