James Brooks, CEO of Team Brooks, and plant-based food brand, Squeaky Bean have partnered up to launch the world’s first food-based TikTok house, based in the UK.
He convinced plant-based food brand Squeaky Bean to ditch paid advertising in favour of the bold £250,000 project “to create the perfect environment for influencers to fall in love with its brand”.
Seven social media stars have been selected to temporarily move into a £3 million mansion – called The Squeaky House – in the hope that many of them can give up meat and dairy.
The campaign’s boldest move is that it’s focusing not on promoting the brand itself, but instead setting online challenges and activities based around being broadly vegan – bringing other companies and products into the mix.
“Marketing in 2021 in so vanilla. Companies need to be bold. They need to be daring,” said James.
“Squeaky Bean is a brand that understands it needs to be different. People are on their phones using social media more than ever before and aren’t watching traditional TV programming like they used to.
“The Squeaky House got over one million views in its first week. It has drawn a line in the sand for how we can promote the brand and engage with fans. What we’ve done is create the perfect environment for influencers to fall in love with its brand – and then share that love with their millions of followers.”
Creating a life of luxury
The young content creators have travelled from all over the UK to spend 21 days in the mansion. The exact location remains a closely guarded secret.
Each of the creators are being paid £3,000 to live in luxury at the ten-bedroom, 14-acre estate with a fully-stocked fridge, outdoor swimming lake, indoor infinity pool, and a stylish gym. They also have an army of staff to cater to their every need – not a bad gig!
The influencers staying in the house include:
Ginger Jess – a feisty redhead who shares her unpopular opinions and acting skills with her 750,000+ audience.
Morgan M. James – a pop singer and all-around funny guy with an army of 725,000 teenaged fans.
Ashley’s Bowl – At just 18 years of age, Ashley has amassed a fan base of over 260,000 followers, creating adorable oatmeal bowls.
Elburritomonster – aka Oliver Paterson creates recipes which he sings out to the tune of popular songs. Having a loyal audience of over 245,000, his burrito recipes have been liked on TikTok over eight Million times.
YLWSQR – European Comedy champions Bec and Sam perform hilarious sketches for their nearly 200,000 strong online audience.
The housemates will be joined by vegan, Ella Blake, who will be trying to help convert them to a plant-based lifestyle.
Known online as Ella Vegan, she is a vegan food blogger whose Instagram platform is full of foodie recommendations. She is enjoying viral fame after her TikTok creation paying homage to Elburrito Monster’s sung recipes racked up over 215,000 plays.
“The world has to stop eating so much meat and dairy, and I’m super excited to reach millions of people and change how they think about what they eat,” said Ella.
Squeaky Bean, who has fronted the cash for the mansion, has also made its own TikTok account, which racked up over one million video views in its first week of being live.
“This is the marketing campaign that other brands wished they were brave enough to do,” said Squeaky Bean brand manager, Sarah Augustine.
The influencer guests will produce content for their own social media channels as well as Squeaky Bean’s channels over the 21 days. TikTok houses have boomed after the past year as a great way for creators to collaborate with one another in an environment designed for their content to thrive. With the first-ever food-specific TikTok house opening, it will be great to see how more houses open covering new niches.
