Foreword
This week in the world of TikTok, horses are getting in elevators, Instagram Reels users are just finding out about news from years past, and users have found a new way to make a twerking videos sneakily. As a brand these ongoings may seem odd, if not completely incomprehensible, 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.
The horse used the elevator
17.5k videos on the sound
John Mulaney is still one of the prominent comedians of this generation and over the years we’ve seen a few audio clips of his make their way into sounds on the platform. This week a segment from a skit where he says, “The horse used the elevator… I didn’t know he could do that” has become a trend. The undertone of the line is that one would not expect a horse to use an elevator, and as such users are applying scenarios when people in their own life do things that are unexpected. Usually they are sarcastic in nature, for example, a wife might say her husband cooked dinner without her asking… well she didn’t know he could do that.
Brand application: Brands will want to apply this to random products or services that they sell that fly under the radar. Essentially secret menu stuff. Additionally they could make fun of competitors for having basic competencies that they didn’t think they had.
Examples:
I’m your biggest fan
52.4k videos on the sound
Lady Gaga has a famous line that goes, “I’m your biggest fan I’ll follow you until you love me”, and this has become a trend in the last week. Creators are using the text feature to describe people they look up to or adore in some sort of way. Whether it be the guy that keeps the hot dog prices at Costco the same, or even just the person at Chipotle giving them an extra scoop. Regardless these kind gestures, characteristics, or beliefs are making users their biggest fans, so we suggest they keep it up.
Brand application: Brands will want to joke about workplace ongoings and interactions between coworkers that they appreciate, making one another their biggest fans.
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!
Oh no! I fell!
162.2k videos on the sound
If we really break down the concept of content on TikTok, every week it truly is just creators trying to find new and innovative ways to show off their butts on the platform. In this week’s escapades, users are creating videos where they are acting as if they are falling over, but when the beat changes they just end up twerking on the ground. It’s a very simple concept but if you don’t know where the video is going, it can definitely catch you off guard.
Brand application: Brands will want to have mascots or brand representatives recreate the move.
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.
What is going on in the House of Commons
16.9k videos on the sound
Every so often I’ll give my pick for the top trend of the week, and this week it definitely has to go to this one. A clip from the Australian news of a newscaster bombastically saying, “What is going on the house of commons” has gone viral for having an undertone of being shocked and confused. Users have taken this feeling and utilized it to make fun of Instagram Reels users. For some context, trends that happen on TikTok tend to appear on Instagram Reels for the first time about a month or two after they have completely died on TikTok. As such, users are relating that users on instagram are late to the party. A user might put in text, “Instagram Reels users when they find out that planes flew into the twin towers” with the shocking aforementioned audio underneath. Basically it’s a hilarious exaggeration of how out of touch Instagram Reels users are with current trends.
Brand application: Brands will want to relate their own brand news from well in the past to this trend.
Examples:
Perspective
21.2k videos on the sound
It became a small trend last week for users to post a quote of someone complaining about issues in their life, and then zoom out on a map leading deep into the solar system. Basically it was meant to represent that you need some perspective on how small of an issue that is, and how you can improve your mindset. Yet in true TikTok fashion, nobody on this platform takes anything seriously and so parodies of the smaller trend, have become an even larger trend. Effectively users are presenting atrocious scenarios, and implying via the perspective zoom that it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. The catch is, it is indeed a big deal.
Brand application: Brands here will want to utilize the original trend in a sarcastic manner, where they joke about issues happening in the workplace that can disrupt work, but in the grand scheme probably don’t matter.
Examples:
Case Study
Most paid ads on TikTok are pretty terrible. Companies generally speaking try too hard to lean into old platform styles with call to actions and direct ad-like videos tend to have conversions. What they don’t realize is that this is not what TikTok users like. Lenovo, however has been running a series of ads that are extremely humorous and lean perfectly into the attitudes on the platform. This Ad for example, depicts a user finishing up an extreme meme drawing of a minion, then getting tired and falling over to the meme windows shut down sound. The level of meme integration and way the video is filmed is extremely funny. I even had to do a double take to realize it was an ad because it genuinely seemed like a shit post. Nonetheless, it included the user drawing on the Lenovo laptop, a relatability layer of being over exhausted after a lot of work, and the hilarity of a buff minion and literally crashing to the windows shutdown noise. If you’re an advertiser, take notes because this is the type of entertainment and cultural alignment that makes people want to buy your product.
Time Capsule - Prior Week Trends Still Growing
I pledge allegiance
X videos on the sound
This one is pretty simple from the title, users are pledging allegiance to people who they find unbelievably attractive on TikTok. The idea here is comedy through being sarcastically (but not really that sarcastically) thirsty. Users will display a photo or series of photos of a celebrity or TikToker that they really like or think looks attractive, with the pledge allegiance sound playing in the background.
Brand application: Brands will want to pledge allegiance to recognizable figures in their community in addition to popular TikTok figures.
Examples:
Intro/outro music
Not trackable
In UFC fights and even sometimes in baseball games, athletes have a walk up song to hype up their intro to an event, at bat, or more. Basically the idea is to bring some energy to the moment of their arrival, and TikTok users have hijacked the practice for their own sarcastic uses. Many users are pulling up to hanging out with friends and playing a hype intro track, or even turning a song on the leave perfectly on beat when the group is heading their separate ways. Regardless, the interactions are hilarious and the extremely unnecessary music for boring scenarios makes the dichotomy very funny.
Brand application: Brands will want to have employees recreate the trend having intro music for them walking into work, or even just meetings.
Examples: