“Cause First, Not Brand First”: An Inside Look at The National Trust’s Unhinged TikTok Strategy
Interview with Oliver, part of National Trust's social media team.
When you think of the National Trust, you might picture sprawling country estates, afternoon tea, and a quiet reverence for history. You probably don’t picture meme-ified fish, 10/10 bench reviews, and a brand voice that resonates deeply with 18-24 year olds. Yet, the 130-year-old conservation charity has become a celebrated and disruptive force on TikTok, masterfully using the platform to change perceptions and connect with a new generation.
How did this "traditional legacy brand" crack the TikTok code? I sat down with Oliver, part of the social media team at the National Trust, and a key architect of their TikTok success.
He pulled back the curtain on the strategic shift that ignited their growth, the "unserious" content pillar that drives their engagement, and why being "cause first, not brand first" is the secret to winning on a platform that famously tells brands to be quiet.
Let's start with your role. What does the social media team at the National Trust look like?
I'm part of a six-person social media team and have been here about two and a half years. We handle all the organic social content you’ll see on National Trust channels, as well as incoming messages – with a bit of freelance support.
But a big change for us happened about a year ago when we moved to being platform-specific in terms of our outgoing content.
Previously, our roles were campaign-led. For instance, I'd handle the summer campaign across all platforms, and someone else would take autumn. The problem was we were trying to be experts on all platforms at once. The change to being ‘platform experts’ meant someone could focus all their energy on particular areas, according to the needs of the platforms.
So, we have one person focussing on Instagram and Threads, someone on Facebook, and my main focus became TikTok, with a little bit of YouTube and Shorts. The main goal was to free someone up to actually put time into TikTok, rather than spreading ourselves too thinly and risk TikTok becoming an afterthought.
So was that when the National Trust's TikTok journey really began?
We've had an account since 2021, but before this shift, it was largely re-purposed content from elsewhere. It was fine, but it wasn't fulfilling its potential.
I recognised TikTok needed some work when I joined and, in 2023, with the support of others in the organisation while we were still in the campaign-led model, I was pushing TikTok and trying new things. That year was all about testing and learning. Then, around this time last year, we went full focus on the channel, and things have progressed from there.
What is the core strategy for TikTok? Are you trying to drive footfall to your properties?
Our primary goal on TikTok is being audience-first, we want to reach a younger demographic, specifically the 18 to 24-year-olds that we aren't reaching on our other platforms. Our traditional audience is on Facebook; they're older and they know who we are. Instagram is slightly younger, but again, a good portion of them already know us and our work.
TikTok was about attracting a new audience. The goal we set out a year ago wasn’t about views and engagements, it was for as many videos as possible to have 18 to 24 (the youngest measurable age range) as their largest audience percentage.
Fundamentally, our central team is about awareness and storytelling. We don't try to measure direct conversions like footfall or ticket sales; that's more for our local property teams. For us, TikTok is about expanding our audience and reaching younger people we aren't connecting with on other platforms. It's not about being heavy-handed and trying to convert people.
It sounds like you're trying to solve a perception issue. What is the problem you're trying to fix?
It's not necessarily a problem, but a goal we want to get to is changing perceptions a little bit. Obviously, the National Trust is a grand old charity with lots of years of history, which is a great strength. But we're trying to flip it on its head a bit and get younger people to see that this is something for them, rather than thinking it's not.
We want to foster more positive sentiment from those younger people. The hope is they see our TikTok account, enjoy it, and hopefully they’ll be more likely to engage with our cause from there. The ultimate goal isn't necessarily a donation in 10 years, but yeah, I suppose changing perceptions is the bottom line.
Was there a specific "we're onto something" moment that validated this new approach?
There wasn't one particular video, but two that stand out. The first big hit was in April 2023. It was a clip of a fish with that "if I were a fish" song that was going around.
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That got just short of half a million views. We’d had a few decent hits before, but that was the first time we had the evidence to back up that we knew we were doing the right thing. From a slow start when we needed a bit of patience, finally having a hit was like, "Alright, good, we're going in the right direction".
More recently, what solidified things was the beaver story.
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That wasn't a trend or a meme; it was just remarkable content that showed there was an appetite for nature storytelling. I suppose those two successes, at two different ends of the spectrum and two years apart, have combined to help us think, "You know, we're doing the right thing, let's keep it going.”
How is that success celebrated internally? Does the rest of the organisation "get" the often-niche content?
Within our social media team, we acknowledge successes in our regular weekly and monthly reporting. But, wider than that, this content isn't generally for the staff around us; it's for people who don't work for us, people who don't know who we are, so we focus on the numbers.
With a couple of exceptions, we won't generally show the content itself internally. Not that people will say, "Oh, please take it down, it's terrible," but it's just not for them. We mainly celebrate with the numbers and reaching the right demographics, not much deeper than that.
How do you approach content planning? It feels very reactive and trend-led.
There isn't a plan or a schedule. We used to have a broader content plan where we'd post so many times a day on different platforms, but now it's just: if we've got something interesting or fun to post, we'll post it.
We might do three posts in one week and seven in another.
I suppose there are two vague pillars to it. The majority, maybe 75-80%, is what I'd call "unserious" content. That’s trends, memes, and things that tap into general younger person culture. For example, I did a post about having a flat sandwich with a view, because I quite enjoy that, and it went down well!
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The rest is more storytelling-led, where we’ll try to adapt a news story we’ve been part of or pull up a piece of history. Our storytelling tends to be mostly history content, but we want to do more on nature going forward.
How do you decide which trends to jump on?
I scroll on TikTok for a few hours a week with content in mind. If I see something, I'll do a bit of a search to see what other people are posting, whether we can jump on it and identify any key words we’d need to use in a post. But the main question is whether it's worth doing. If we're too late to the trend, maybe it's not something we'll do.
And if I have a really deep think about it for five minutes and can't come up with an authentic way for us to jump on, I'll just leave it. We're happy to let things slide and not risk being a brand that gets told "silence, brand" in the comments.
But if we can jump on a trend and be authentic, we'll absolutely do it.
And who is behind the camera and the ideas?
The ideas and execution are largely me, with some contributions from others in the team. But the rest of the team is focused on their own platforms, and we all know what we're good at.
A lot of the videos you see are just from my phone's camera roll. When I visit properties, I’ll film loads of random clips and keep them - I used a video the other week that I filmed two years ago! We’ve found this phone-filmed, authentic style tends to perform better.
What does the sign-off process look like? It seems you have a lot of freedom.
There isn't one, really. Very early on, I was a bit unsure, like, "Are we allowed to do this kind of thing?".
But since we've got those good numbers and good audience outcomes, I’ve felt a lot more freedom with it. My manager is happy for me to do my own thing and be as creative as I like. If I have something that's a little bit risky, I might run it past someone, but there's no obligation to.
The storytelling content will usually get fact-checked to make sure there are no errors, but the trends, memes and fun stuff, that's just, "Yeah, go for it".
What advice would you give a social media manager who is struggling to get that kind of buy-in?
It's a tricky one because we never really came across those problems. But if you are struggling and your content is flopping, just report on it. Say, "the numbers are really poor on this, we need to do something different".
Report on the things that are not going well. Come up with a plan according to your organisation’s overall strategy and say something like, "the last 10 posts I've done have all done really poorly, they've got no views, they've reached our traditional audiences, they're not reaching anyone new".
I suppose reporting is the backbone of what gave us the freedom to do what we want to do. People are often afraid to report on the bad, but it can be the key to getting more freedom to experiment.
What advice would you give to other charities on TikTok?
I think you should wear the brand quite lightly. People don't care about the brand as such; but they will probably care about the cause or what you’re offering and what you're working towards. So if you can be "cause first" rather than "brand first," that's a nice way of starting off.
For us, that means we're not saying, "please come and visit our shop"; we're saying, "please enjoy nature and history". It's unintentional, I suppose, but we are cause-first. A great example of this is the RSPB, they are "birds first, not RSPB first," which is perfect.
Are there any other brands on TikTok that you admire?
The RSPB is a great example. They just get it. Their content is fun, engaging, and often quite silly, but it all ladders back up to their core cause of protecting birds. They are a perfect example of that "cause first, not brand first" approach.
I also think Currys is a really interesting one. They're a well-known brand, but their strategy seems to be built on humour. They're not constantly trying to sell you a washing machine; they're trying to make you laugh. That builds such positive sentiment that when you actually do need a new appliance, they're top of mind.
In the sports world, I think the Ligue 1 TikTok account punches well above its weight and does some really fun content you might not expect from them. And Hull City have cracked the tone of voice - their TikTok is so different from the content they do on any other platform, which has lent itself to some good outcomes.
What's next for the National Trust on TikTok?
More daft stuff, more benches, a bit more storytelling. And I suppose more of the same, which is a little bit risky to say. It's funny, but there isn't a plan as such. It's just sort of, whatever we like the vibe of, we'll try it. So yeah, more fun stuff, I guess.