Foreword
This week in the wonderful world of TikTok, filters are continuing their takeover with influencing trends and creators continue to have fun positioning themselves in a self deprecating light. With TikTok’s release of their new creation platform for filters, users have started to see an abundance of filters appear on the platform in addition to the regular content. It seems as if it is taking some bandwidth away from the usual sound based trends we see every week and although neither are slowing down, it’s an interesting shift. Regardless, content on the platform continues to evolve and throw new variations at us on the daily. Join us as we explore through the trends and popular culture that surround the app every week, and how you can utilize it to best engage with your audience.
The Trends
#1 Rotoscope
216.2k videos on the filter
With the emergence of trends becoming more and more filter focused, this filter called rotoscope has taken over as one. The filter is exactly as it is named, a rotoscope, or digital simplified outline of users. This one is made even more fun by the faces and sunglasses as options. Users have paired it with this audio, which is a popular EDM remix. In Gen Z terms, the track is very vibey and makes you want get loose, maybe even show off a few cool dance moves. As such users have added the two together and created a new format where they present a situation or time during their lives when they feel on top of the world, or just generally very vibey. An absurd amount of TikTokers are jumping on this trend and it’s one we don’t see slowing down anytime soon.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands can use this to represent feelings of euphoria related to or caused from brand experiences, or to simply represent the actual brand experience.
#2 Wavy arms
120.2k videos on the filter
Rotoscope was obviously huge this week, but another filter came onto the scene to compete, and we gotta say, it’s a close battle. This filter incorporates a users face, tracked to one of those massive inflatable tube men which is dancing side to side while mariachi music plays in the background. The effect creates a sense of hilarity and insincerity in a good way. Users have taken this and created a format where they pose a boring, monotonous situation without the filter, with it changing to the filter and the converse of the situation on the beat. Essentially the tube man signifies a level of careless fun or general stupidity in comparison to the originally posed situation.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands can utilize this trend by positioning their own funny carelessness. For example one could pose the CEO working hard and filling out paperwork in contrast with themselves (a brand manager) simply watching and making TikToks all day.
#3 Not the same as it was
730.8k videos on the sound
Harry Styles is back to prominent virality on TikTok and with his new song, users have a pulled a clip where he sings “I know things aren’t the same as it was”. With this sound, users are reflecting on their past times and are treating the trend a little bit like a time capsule. Creators will start with images of themselves in 2022, and slowly count down the years showing a new photo for each year back that they go. For the most part this is a very wholesome look into the past for many users and as such, many are jumping on the trend to show off their own glowups.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to replicate the trend but with the brand over the past few years. If significant change hasn’t been made recently, we’d suggest going in stints greater than a year.
#4 The studs go here
50.2k videos on the sound
This trend is very simple but very funny with it’s application. At the start of the video users are positioning the statement, “The two studs go here” while they point their camera at a wall, and then when the beat drops, it cuts to the user and often a friend standing right in front of the wall. This obviously asserts that the users in front of the wall are in fact, “studs” and while the format is very simple, it’s generated some very funny videos to watch.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to simply have brand reps replicate the same format.
#5 It ain’t too late for them
58.1k videos on the sound
If you have ever decided to go to bed to avoid doing work, but just ended up on your phone or even going out, well this trend is for you. Essentially here users dichotomize two situations that are very similar in essence, yet one they would actually do, and one they wouldn’t. In step with the audio, the decisions they would not make correlates to the line “It’s to late for them” and the decision they would make aligns with “It ain’t too late for them”. This one is also pretty simple but very funny so check out examples below if you want a good laugh.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to similarly identify situations which are similar in essence, but result in wildly different decisions.
#6 Don’t mind me in the back
32.9k videos on the sound
If you are familiar with what a “sh*t post” is, this trend should be pretty understandable, but if you are unfamiliar let me run you through it. Effectively posts like this are meant to be incredibly stupid and that is what makes it funny. With this trend, users have taken a viral audio of a guy screaming bloody murder when his friends hits a shot. The audio is just objectively hilarious and users are applying it to a multitude of athletic shots and/or other physical accomplishments. Check out examples below for these applications.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to apply this audio to them accomplishing simple tasks in the workplace to buy into the sarcasm. For example in an office setting one could put this audio behind someone turning in some papers to their boss.
Trends from last week that keep climbing
#7 Don’t let ‘em know your next move
133.2k videos on the sound
The world is a dangerous place, so why would TikTok users let others know where they are going next? This is the question that has driven users to contemplate how they can throw others off the scent of what they are trying to accomplish. From this they are creating videos with a series of actions and each action is always misleading to the next. Check out examples below for the clarification about what exactly creators are doing, but users on the platform are finding a lot of joy within the joke of acting like they are going to one thing, and then completely shifting directions to another.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to replicate the trend but with brand jobs and responsibilities, so effectively doing this trend in a brands workspace is perfect.
#8 Calculation
290.1k videos on the sound
This trend replicates some popular comical sounds stemming from of cartoons of the past. The audio depicts a bunch of buttons on a calculator being pressed, thus signifying that the user is trying to solve a problem. Within the format users will put on screen funny dilemmas or confusing scenarios. These are often sarcastic or self deprecating to an extent, as the joke lies in how trivial the confusion is. Check out examples below
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will have to get creative with different facets of their business that are confusing or inherently menial to deal with.
Bonus
This week’s bonus is a little bit of a different look into some humor that resonates with the Gen Z audience, and those on TikTok. This video is the case study we’ll be looking at today and as you can likely tell if you were proactive and decided to click on the link *ahem*, the video has almost a million likes and crazy engagement. There are many nuances to why this content works and we’re gonna take a look at them. To start off, TikTok is almost entirely centered around relatability and this video harps upon the relatable experience of plugging in the USB the wrong way due to its poor design. This is then amplified by the fact that the user is able to avoid this common frustration and replicate it multiple times. Many joke that they never get the USB in the right direction the first time let alone five times in a row. These things are then added to the foretold impossible task of breaking apart two small single height lego bricks, making this video, at least sarcastically, an anomaly and success story beyond what even Elon could imagine.