Groupe Mutuel on TikTok - Challenge, experiences and learnings

The steep learning curve in online communication of the three-person team led by Gaëtan Theytaz is impressive. Groupe Mutuel was one of the first insurance companies to venture onto TikTok. In an interview with WebStages, the organizer of the largest Social Media Marketing Conference Switzerland, the two community managers, Christelle Travelletti and Livia Zimmermann, tell us more about the challenges, experiences and learnings.

Webstages: How long have you been active on TikTok?

Christelle Travelletti and Livia Zimmermann: We launched the TikTok experiment in September 2021. Groupe Mutuel is active with two accounts - namely language-separated: one in French and one in German.

What was the deciding factor to start as an insurance company on TikTok?

We had Zeam look through our social media channels. In their findings, it clearly stood out that in order to communicate with Generation Z, a company needs to be active on TikTok. As a Switzerland-wide insurer, we took this recommendation to heart and were one of the first health insurers to venture onto this platform. The aim is to target young people who are on the threshold of entering the job market.

What was the first challenge you had to overcome?

One important question we had to ask ourselves is: Who will be in front of the camera? Groupe Mutuel offers apprenticeships and internships - so it was natural for us to include the apprentices and interns. The real Generation Z. That was and is a great benefit! The young know what's trending and help us better understand the TikTok platform. We host TikTok workshops with the learners to make videos. The biggest challenge was to cover the German. We work in Martigny and most of the participants are from French-speaking Switzerland. We can also address German-speaking Switzerland directly thanks to our collaboration with Zeam. The German videos are made for us by Cloé Salzgeber.

What are your biggest successes on TikTok so far?

As you would expect, it is a dance video. The dance video is one of the early trends that the young have been following. However, we do not simply publish dance trends. We added the advantages of our learners as text: half day for homework, flexitime and so on.  The video has given us around 192,000 views on the French channel and german even brought in 203,000 views. And it was published in November 2021! This is our most successful video so far.

What are your learnings since launching your TikTok account?

You can't always take yourself too seriously. That is very important. Humor goes down very well with Generation Z. But tips and explanations are also welcome. Besides, simply cropping an existing video and posting it on TikTok doesn't work. It never has the same reach or effect as a video you create directly on the platform with the sounds and effects available.

How important is TikTok in your overall strategy now?

We know that we need to be more present online in order to inform our customers and also other target groups and to be able to establish a dialog with them. This applies to all social platforms - Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and also Twitter. TikTok is now an important medium for advertising apprenticeships as well as internships, and the Groupe Mutuel as an attractive employer. In the overall strategy, however, the medium is not yet at the top of the list - and probably won't be. The unsteady algorithm and fast-moving trends are exciting, but not very reliable.

What's next for your TikTok channel?

Today, the German-language channel is largely run with content from Zeam and our so-called "Face". Cloé Salzgeber cared for. This was a good decision, as we lack the resources internally. Cloé gives health insurance tips or talks about Swiss facts and crazy insurances - things you don't learn in school, entertaining but still educational content. That's the draw. The French speaking channel will continue to feature content from our own learners and interns. Some faces are already familiar to the community. For example, we have Stefan, our computer science apprentice, who filmed a short portrait about his apprenticeship with us. In the comments, he was asked if he was forced to do it and to put on a certain color shirt in case we caught him - we were then able to shoot a funny "answer" via video.

The article was created in partnership with Webstages.