TNT Sports Brazil's TikTok Playbook: Scaling Digital Performance

Forbes

a day ago

How this major player redefined their TikTok strategy for success
What if the roar of the crowd is no longer the most powerful sound in sports? In the
age of TikTok, a new, more dynamic currency is emerging, forever changing how fans connect with the game.
While reach and awareness remain foundational, publishers are now realizing that true victory lies in genuine connections, viral search visibility, and a relentless stream of fresh content.
This shift presented a unique challenge for TNT Sports Brazil (@tntsportsbr). Despite boasting one of the largest TikTok followings among sports publishers in the country, their impressive fan base wasn't translating into significant video views. They had the audience, but they needed to unlock its full potential. So, TNT Sports decided it was time to move beyond mere reach and implement a bold new strategy designed to deliver deeper, sustained engagement and create meaningful impact through increased visibility.
In early January 2025, TNT Sports introduced a series of platform-first adjustments centered on six key pillars: frequency, discoverability, timeliness, creativity, personality, and content longevity.
Let's take a look at how they pivoted to better align with the way modern audiences discover, consume and engage with sports content.
1. Scaled Up Their Posts
Within a week, TNT Sports more than doubled its posting volume, creating more touchpoints with fans and improving their chances of capturing attention. This shift allowed for increased experimentation and positioned the brand to respond quickly to emerging trends. For publishers, this means prioritizing volume and agility over rigid content calendars. Embracing a test-and-learn approach is the easiest way to scale up your posting cadence and deliver content that truly resonates.
2. Redefined Discovery Through SEO
With TikTok rapidly becoming a go-to search engine, discoverability has shifted from a creative nice-to-have to a core pillar of content strategy. Recognizing this, the team evolved beyond conventional hashtagging. They began focusing on intent-based search behavior — making captions clear and concise to match how the TikTok community actively looks for content. Hashtags, in turn, were streamlined for maximum relevance and broader discoverability.
3. Amplified The Moment
Internal data revealed a significant lift in search traffic for videos posted within 30 minutes of a major event. TNT Sports responded by prioritizing real-time posting and minimizing the lag between live moments and content uploads. In one example, a Neymar goal was posted to TikTok within nine minutes of the play itself — delivering higher visibility and virality.
For publishers aiming to boost views, capturing and posting content when a moment is at its peak, isn't just an advantage — it's a fundamental strategy for maximizing reach and engagement.
4. Experimented With Content Formats
Forget repurposing traditional assets — to truly meet TikTok's rapid pace and audience
expectations, format experimentation is essential.
With this in mind, TNT Sports re-edited content from their original programming and actively experimented with overlays, carousels, and shorter cutdowns, all designed for mobile-first, attention-driven viewing. This approach allowed the team to increase their posting cadence and ensure all content felt relevant and resonant.
5. Led With Personality
Audiences respond to people, not just logos. Featuring recognizable talent in your content fosters trust and authenticity, ultimately creating a stronger bond with your viewership.
TNT Sports exemplified this by integrating their on-air personalities and analysts directly into TikTok content. This strategy added depth, context, and relatability, which in turn helped build loyalty and made the brand's presence feel more conversational and genuinely connected.
6. Leveraged TikTok Tools
Publishers can significantly extend the impact their content has by strategically leveraging TikTok's native tools. For example, 'pinned posts' can help transform high-performing videos into ongoing growth drivers.
TNT Sports utilized this by identifying their highest-performing videos through analytics and pinning these videos to their profile, essentially curating a greatest-hits collection. This turned momentary wins into lasting entry points for new viewers, maximizing discoverability and converting casual browsers into loyal followers.
TNT Sports' dynamic strategy offers a powerful blueprint for navigating the platform's ever-evolving landscape. Here are the key lessons from their successful story:
As TikTok continues to redefine the modern sports fan experience, TNT Sports powerfully demonstrates what's possible when a publisher boldly evolves with the platform, transforming strategic insights into undeniable, measurable growth.