TikTok has no sooner evolved into a marketing gold mine, wherein promotions can shine brightest for a mere 60 seconds of screen time. Gaming startup Liithos, however, aims to make its mark with something a bit different: an entire adventure video series that will star TikTok creator Michael Le, who currently claims host to 52.2 million followers and 1.4 billion likes on the social media platform.
Le and another TikTok influencer by the name of Slider Jesus will be helping Liithos promote its Web3 game titled Ashfall. The promotional effort will feature a so-called narrative TikTok series, one that will introduce viewers to Ashfall's world. Ashfall will first debut as a comic book series this March and will go on to become its own game at an unspecified date.
Liithos is being led by ex-director of the SCEA Worldwide Studios Visual Arts Department under PlayStation, Michael Mumbaeur, and Days Gone co-creator John Garvin. On its website, the startup claims to be about "Creating a unified entertainment eco-system," wherein Liithos "aims to connect worlds in ways we could only dream about before."
Web3 is in a tough spot of late, given the downfall of the NFT market and ever-dwindling interest in the metaverse concept. But despite this, for Liithos CEO Mumbauer, it's still full steam ahead with the Ashfall concept and TikTok will be one of its main avenues for (hopeful) success. The five-episode series, which will begin airing on January 29 on Michael Le's TikTok page, will also come equipped with an accompanying digital collectible produced by Liithos, which can be acquired only on CoinZoom.
Related Article: TikTok Can Track Every Tap You Make On Other Sites Via iOS App, New Research Claims
All five digital collectibles will feature art drawn by DC and Marvel veterans, from John Cassaday, known for Astonishing X-Men, to Tom Raney of Annihilation: Conquest fame. While gifted to users for free, potential collectors will have to sign up for a CoinZoom account and pay between a dollar to two dollars for the processing fee. Those who collect all five will be rewarded with a sixth secret digital Ashfall comic collectible.
"We are looking to collaborate, integrate, and elevate multimedia experiences with these superstars like Michael Le for the next generation," Mumbauer says to Dean Takahshi of VentureBeat. "The Liithos TikTok Creators series is the first of many experiences Liithos is looking to launch to create easily traversable pathways between medias and the evolving web space."
These accompanying collectibles will also give collector's a sneak preview of forthcoming strips from the Ashfall comic series, which is slated for debut in March. The story is devised entirely by Garvin in tandem with art created by Tony Harris, Paul Pelletier, and Brett Booth, all ex-Marvel and DC comic gurus.
Mumbauer adds, "So TikTok movies are the test to see if we can create a mainstream thing that people enjoy."
While Mumbauer remains impressively optimistic about the promotional effort, it will be interesting to see just how Liithos and its Ashfall multimedia experience fare in a current world that doesn't seem all too interested in Web3. Much of the gaming public has either moved on or disliked the idea since their intervention, as NFTs, Web3, and the like mirror a similarly long-fraught feature of microtransactions.
The series officially kicks off on Michael Le's TikTok page come Jan. 29.
