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Anyone who has spent time on TikTok will know that much of the content on the platform revolves around trends. Whether they’re based on pieces of audio, like the viral song “It’s Corn,” or oriented around a specific video format, new fads seem to pop up on TikTok every day. For brand social media teams looking to go viral on the platform, keeping on top of these trends is essential.
Here are five current trends that brands can incorporate into their TikTok content.
Thousands of TikTok users have recently been playing with the platform’s photo slideshow feature and using a series of memes and reaction images to recount a typical day in their life, set to the song “The Promise” by When In Rome. These videos typically walk viewers through fairly mundane activities, such as grabbing a cup of coffee before work or going to bed early, using meme images of everything from SpongeBob SquarePants to Kermit the Frog to represent each act.
Some brands have been getting in on the trend, too, with Scrub Daddy recreating the trend using the brand’s sponge mascot. This trend is fairly simple to recreate, and brands can try it themselves by having each photo in the slideshow relate to a product or revolve around the activities of a brand mascot.
Read more: TikTok as the new testing ground for audio branding
Set to the instrumental opening of Snoop Dogg’s song “Sensual Seduction,” this trend involves two people having a conversation through on-screen text, often with one person trying to convince the other to do something. The conversation flips back and forth between the duo in time to the underlying music. For example, in user @maddbrown’s take on the trend, one person persuades the other to shop at the luxury perfume and clothing brand Paco Rabanne. Brands could put their own spin on the trending audio by doing something similar to @maddbrown and having one person urge the other to buy a product or order food from a restaurant.
With more than 2 million followers and 53 million likes across his videos, TikTok user @RodgerCleye is well-known on the platform for his charming song covers. Over the past few weeks, TikTok users have begun cropping Cleye’s face out of these videos and photoshopping them into various situations to capture their mood. Many of the 124 million videos in the #rodgercleyeedit tag already revolve around shopping or brand products, from one video including a phone scrolling through Sephora’s best-selling products to another that features a Starbucks drink as part of a rainy-day mood. With millions of users already putting brands at the center of these videos, brands themselves can jump onto this trend using their favorite Rodger Cleye cover.
Another piece of trending audio on the platform features a male voice stating, “Wow. Well, this is going to be my personality for the rest of my life.” Thousands of people on TikTok have used this audio to emphasize their obsession with a specific item or location, among other things. User @tednivision, the original poster of the audio clip, utilized the audio to convey his love for the Rainforest Cafe restaurant chain as a child. In the same vein as @tednivision, brands can use this sound to create a video showing a person entering the brand’s store before mouthing along to the audio. Or, following user @willitwalfflemini’s example, the audio could underscore a person’s passion for a specific brand product.
Read more: The NyQuil chicken TikTok challenge and P&G
This trend, centered around a portion of the song “Run Boy Run” by Woodkid, provides many possibilities for brands. TikTok users originally took this audio to show what their friends or partners answered when asked to describe them as a color, flower, season or other things. In these videos, like this TikTok from user @andreaandlewis, the answer to each item is teased by a rapid series of images that end in the answer revealed via text, all timed to the beat of the underlying song.
Many people are still using the song for its original trend, but the utility of the audio has also extended beyond its original purpose. Some users have put their own spin on the audio, such as @thegoodsniffs, who took the video format to recommend various perfume products based on how an individual wants to smell. Hundreds of travel-oriented creators used the format to rank aspects of the different places they’ve visited.
As long as they nail the format (and don’t worry, there are tutorials for how to copy it) brands can create their own play on this trend—from recommending different products to describing the vibe of the brand through a color and time of day.
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