Foreword
As summer continues on, interactive trends persist to be strong contenders for top trends of the week, and drive users to interact with their peers to create videos for their pages. In addition to that, this week users are utilizing chicken wings as microphones, washing themselves at the carwash, and @KanyeWestLover91 has accumulated over 300k followers just from commenting. As a brand these ongoings may seem odd, if not sometimes completely non understandable, so join us as we explore how brands can integrate, and gain a grasp about the culture, content, and trends going on in the world of TikTok this week!
Audio Based Trends
Most trends are based around sounds. What we mean specifically by audio based trends are trends that pertain to specific lyrics or wording within sound. This is when the action or meaning behind the trend is correlated with the lines spoken. These are usually the most prolific of trends on TikTok so let’s dive in.
When it becomes illegal to
17.9k videos on the sound
The audio for this trend reads, “get down, get on your knees!” depicting a time when someone is being arrested. Many users believe that they would be in trouble if something were to become illegal, and especially in the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned, TikTok users have taken action. That action is of course making fun of the situation. Thus, people on the platform have applied this audio to other potential situations where if something they simply liked to do became illegal. Most renditions are extremely sarcastic as this trend started before the ruling; regardless, users have found the way to smile through some of the pain they may be facing with being self deprecating in these videos.
Brand application: Brands will want to steer clear of this trend for right now due to the current political implications involved.
Examples:
Caught yo homie lacking
55.6k videos on the sound
It seems that TikTok is all about the drama, and many formats have appeared on the platform in recent weeks that expose others for some real tea. This sound states, “caught your homie lacking”, which refers to someone finding another’s friend to have lied to them. Often under this format, the user will set up the text stating, “my ex: ‘my friends will never mess around with you after we break up’”. From this setup, they will then proceed to lip sync “caught your homie lacking”, alluding to the fact that they may have had an intimate relationship with their ex’s friend. The drama is definitely boiling on TikTok and users are becoming much more comfortable talking about their personal lives to stir the pot on the platform.
Brand application: Brands will want to use this under a specific use case for when a person criticized their company, and this person’s friend/peer still buys the products/services.
Examples:
Interactive Trends
This should be somewhat self explanatory but interactive trends are trends that involve users interacting with others to create videos. Often the hilarity or interest generated by working with loved ones or peers creates incredible laughs or simply fun times. Most importantly though, authenticity shows through with interactive trends as most often they are truly authentic.
I take the top off
97.3k videos on the sound
When Gunna recorded his song “Top Off” he probably never realized that the clip of him recording the song with all his buddies around him never would have surfaced. But it did. And from that users have replicated the initial video with their friends acting like they too are in the studio singing “Top Off.” Users are taking the most random objects possible to use as their microphone, and structuring each parody of the video to be more absurd than the last. It’s another interactive trend that can lead to a great time with friends and is thus why it continues to take off. I would like to also note, that I found this trend at 4 thousand videos around a week and a half ago (something I wouldn’t define as a trend), and I wrote it down noting that it wasn’t there yet, but that this with be huge. I was right, so yeah, take that algorithm.
Brand application: Brands will want to have employees or staff do this in a work environment. This absurd trend placement aligns well with the most random places users are replicating the trend such as McDonalds and random bathrooms.
Examples:
Carwash
117.3k videos on the sound
Summer interactive videos are continuing strong this week as the carwash trend has users parodying 2000’s commercials and internet clips of girls seductively washing cars. In these sarcastic remedies, guys and girls alike are doing a comedically bad job of being seductive while washing their car at the local wash. The videos draw hilarity from the general absurdity of recreating something like this in public which is then compounded by the bad acting. Users are having a great time with friends making these videos at their hometown carwash and we just hope they were actually able to clean the car at some point.
Brand application: Most brands likely won’t find application for this, however if you are a car brand or carwash, simply recreating it with staff in the absurd manners portrayed should suffice nicely.
Examples:
Movement Trends
TikTok virality was founded upon the back of Musically, a platform entirely centered around dance trends. Dance trends have been an essential and prominent part of content on the platform ever since its inception. These trends are very simple as they just involve a common audio with a replicable dance or movement applied to it. Brands can utilize these through simple replication form where brand representatives and mascots will do the dance. They are the most fun but also the most simple!
Hit
138.6k videos on the sound
Domestic violence is never something one should joke about, unless of course it’s faked and on TikTok. With this trend creators are making use of an audio depicting two people hitting each other. One can think of it in a comedic, three stooges, type of conflict. Users start the videos dancing normally to the background music but when the hit noises sound off, they choreograph moves that look like jabs and hits at their partner. It’s a funny visually stimulating dance where users are getting to interact with their friends so this one is taking off.
Brand application: Brands will simply want to replicate the dance with two team members. This can be taken to the next level if two competing brands collaborate with each other.
Examples:
Simple Format Trends
This section is a little bit of a catch all for trends that are somewhat nonspecific. They happen on a weekly basis, but with these one generally finds that the trend has a simple audio behind it and creators will utilize a text format on screen to showcase a message. Often these trends tend to be based upon a relatability factor where users will talk about an experience from their own life with extremely relatable undertones that other users can get a good self deprecating laugh at.
Having normal interests as a child
82.3k videos on the sound
The format here is a classic example of a before and after trend where the start of the video is a normal ongoing, and the cut in the video leads to a stark change or contrast. With this trend, users will setup the video with the text: “having normal interests as a child” and when the beat changes it cuts to them looking up close to the camera, with an odd or extreme interest they had as a child depicted in text. One might joke about liking legos at first but then having an extremely deep interest in something absurd like Russian law.
Brand application: Brands will want to joke about their extreme interest in whatever product service they provide. This will demonstrate a genuine interest and understanding in what they provide customers, in addition to the hilarity from a subject so random and specific.
Examples:
This son, this daughter
10.2k videos on the sound
Every week I explain complicated undertones and understandings of Gen Z culture, portrayed through trends formatted on TikTok. I joke about this difficulty often, yet never have I encountered a trend as difficult to describe as this. Genuinely, I have no idea where to start. It’s a “simple” format trend, right? This means it involves only having text in the foreground of the video as the premise. That is where this becomes complicated. In the trend, users are portraying cringey stereotypes of males and females within the format of “cringey son” or “cringey daughter.” The idea is that they are comparing which option would be better. That may seem simple, but I know if you aren’t Gen Z, most of this terminology and cringey stereotypes aren’t going to make sense to you. I hope that the explainer of the format makes sense but I unfortunately will not be able to define every single cringey stereotypes and their meaning in this section.
Brand application: Brands here can align the cringy nature to a competitor, allowing users to infer that the competitor is lesser or not cool.
Examples:
Case Study
TikTok is an incredibly powerful platform in the sense that it has democratized virality, and it allows users to grow from absolutely nothing, to something of standing. That has never been more true than the case with new user Kanye West lover 91. You may notice that Kanye West lover 91 only has one video on his page, in combination with a very short but sweet bio. What may stick out with these two attributes, however, is that that he has over 330k followers. Now how does someone with only 250k views on his one video gain that many followers, especially as a spam fan account. The key is simple. Kanye West lover 91 has been commenting his username, and literally only his username, on a ridiculous number of viral posts since the inception of the account. It’s unclear how long exactly it’s been, but within the month he has gained incredible traction by this hilarious strategy. Many users have even reported on his traction. Admittedly, it helps that his username is something as attractive to many users as Kanye West lover 91. The point still remains that the growth and prominence we have seen simply from commenting the account username on other viral posts has been absurd. Maybe it’s a new legitimate strategy, or maybe it’s a one off viral approach, but regardless Kanye West lover 91 has truly tested the simple nature of virality on the platform with consistency, and seems to have worked.
Time Capsule - Prior Week Trends Still Growing
Who’s the picture going to?
15.9k videos on the sound
In the era of Snapchat, when people are hanging out with their friends they will often send pictures with their friends to the receiver. What coincides with this experience is the common question of a friend asking, “who is this picture going to,” to make sure they look good if the person receiving the photo is important to them. In this trend users replicate that type of scenario and when the sender tells the friend who it’s going to, it cuts back to the friend attempting to look much more attractive.
Brand application: Brands will want to apply the same format to important people within their company. If the photo is being sent to the CEO, or a popular employee, the “friend” should try to look similarly more attractive.
Examples:
Horace filter
32.9k videos on the sound
Spatially aware augmented reality filters are starting to become more and more popular on TikTok, but right now Horace is the one in vogue. Horace is a little dancing alien-like being that users have been grooving with and learning his moves. He does what looks like the Cha Cha slide combined with a box step, but all we can say is that it is definitely jiggy. Unfortunately, Horace is not the most attractive being and thus users have been joking about situations where they are dancing or hanging with someone who isn’t the most alluring. Regardless, users are having a great time dancing with Horace and the simple visual comedy drawn from the filter means it will likely continue to get bigger over the next two weeks.
Brand application: Brands will want to dance with Horace! This one is simple so just have a fun time following the dance and stay clear of commentary on Horace’s looks.
Examples:
Didn’t know he was chill like that
4k videos on the main sound, however trend is spread over multiple audios
This one is definitely on the smaller side but is by far my favorite trend of the week. I didn’t know he was chill like that stems from one viral skit of a guy being frustrated a Tesla parked in his spot, and when he goes up to the person in the Tesla, the driver gives him a quick hang loose hand gesture to which the guy replies “I didn’t know you were chill like that.” The interaction is so pointlessly funny and tons of users have taken the audio to recreate the video with more absurd scenarios. This is content that Gen Z would define as “sh*t posting” which means it’s comedic in it’s stupidity and we love it.
Brand application: If a brand recreated this I think it would break the internet. All a company needs to do is generally replicate the format, throw in an absurd outfit, and call it a day.
Examples: