The Ultimate TikTok Trends & Viral Marketing Guide for Brands
Transforming your brand into one of the next biggest TikTok trends is the purpose of the following article. The objective of this viral marketing guide is to inspire you, so we can add your company’s brand to this article one day. Our TikTok marketing agency, House of Marketers is dedicated to ensuring brands win with TikTok.
According to a press release by TikTok, over 1 billion people visit the bite-sized video sharing platform to view or part-take in TikTok trends, every month. And with users in over 140 countries, according to apptrace, it is a marketing and advertising goldmine. Companies now know how powerful TikTok is when it comes to viral marketing. Many class TikTok trends as an integral part of their viral marketing strategy, in general. It is important to assess the strategies that these brands have employed during various TikTok trends, which they’ve developed or taken advantage of themselves. Hopefully, it can give you a better idea of how to integrate TikTok into your future viral marketing strategy.
Over 27 Brand Examples across 9 Content Niches
We’ve split the following brand TikTok marketing examples into several niches, including entertainment, global news, sports, creativity, fashion, social movements, gaming, and more. The viral marketing guide demonstrates how 27 brands have scaled their brand awareness, engagement, and conversions, by associating their brand with various viral TikTok trends. Also, for each niche, our team provides a creative example, presenting how other brands could approach their TikTok viral marketing strategy with similar topics.
Popular Entertainment TikTok Trends
Trend 1) #SquidGame TikTok Trends (55+ billion views)
Despite it only being a little over a month since its release, Squid Game managed to take the world by storm. On TikTok alone, #Squidgame has been able to accumulate over 55 billion views, which lead to the show’s continued success. An Executive of Netflix Asia commented on the success of the show saying:
“The TikTok social media platform really helped us to increase excitement and drive users to watch Squid Game on Netflix. It became a viral sensation on TikTok and in the real-world through word of mouth”
Using TikTok trends, Netflix was able to create a cycle of marketing that very much fueled itself. The people would watch the show and then would move onto TikTok to watch extensive user-generated content about it.
Trend 2) #Marvel Viral Marketing Guide for TikTok (93+ Billion Views)
Marvel has an official account on TikTok, which they use to talk about all of their upcoming releases. Whether it is a comic book, movie, or tv show, they will always spread work about it using #Marvel as the hashtag. Simply using your brand name as a hashtag is a quick way to get people’s attention and the most natural way of getting more engagement on TikTok.
They are also able to drum up a lot of hype through a variety of TikTok trends that they started. The Avenger’s Assemble challenge garnered a total of 155 million views. Their #Avengers tag has also been able to generate over 35 billion views on its own.
Trend 3) #CharliesAngelsUnite TikTok Trends (5+ Billion Views)
During the marketing phase of the new Charlie’s Angels movie, the studio released their own TikTok trend. Dubbed #CharliesAngelsUnite, it became one of the biggest marketing campaigns Charlies Angels brand has ever produced, despite only 15 TikTok influencers kick-starting it. At its height, the challenge was able to accumulate over 5 Billion views.
The challenge followed influencers performing to the hit single Don’t Call Me Angel. Some of the influencers included Zoe Laverne, Rebecca Zamola, and Laurin Godwin. It is easy to say that this was possibly their best marketing campaign ever.
These viral marketing trends show how any company can take advantage of TikTok trends. For example, a company that specializes in Cosplay outfits could start a $30 dollar comic book cosplay challenge. The goal of this TikTok trend could be to make an outfit that represents a character’s outfit in a trending film or TV series like Squid Games for $30 or less. This challenge would go very well with the #cosplay hashtag, which has over 90 billion views. Winners of the challenge could then receive exclusive outfits from the apparel company.
Alternatively, any apparel company could showcase its Squid Game-inspired T-shirts or start a challenge for Squid game illustrations. Whoever has the best illustration could have their art on the company’s apparel and a set amount of merch.
Global news TikTok trends that gained mass views
Trend 4) The #QuitMyJob TikTok trend (141 Million)
As soon as the pandemic became more under control, people started going back to their old jobs. However, due to serious issues at the workplace or mistreatment, employees have started to walk out. More importantly, these employees have started walking out in greater numbers than ever before.
Through TikTok, people are sharing videos of them leaving their toxic jobs. This, as one of the most popular TikTok trends, has seen a total of 141 million views. Any company with great company culture could have capitalised on this trend, by making the hashtag, #LoveMyJob to help demonstrate their amazing company culture.
Trend 5) #Cryptocurrency trends on TikTok (456 Million)
Most people didn’t know that TikTok has been a premier place for the thriving cryptocurrency market. One of the best examples is that of the cryptocurrency coin and hot crypto brand ‘Dogecoin’ – a cryptocurrency and ‘meme coin’ which started as a joke. Young people promoted the coin on TikTok alongside Tesla founder, Elon Musk. Within two days, Dogecoin believers were able to send prices soaring above 40% according to MarketWatch. The Dogecoin trends on TikTok started gathering pace with content being created for #Dogecointothemoon which has accumulated over 98 million views.
Trend 6) #Covid19 trends on TikTok (3.5 Billion)
During the pandemic, many people relied on authentic information about the pandemic from TikTok. The Washington Post grew its following considerably by providing factual information about it in creative ways. From recent fatalities to worker conditions during the pandemic, everything was at the fingertips of their young customers. The #Covid19 TikTok trend has 3.5 billion views, allowing young people to see the most recent news in a way that resonates with them. Goodbye traditional newspapers, hello TikTok.
How publications, financial and travel brands could utilise global news on TikTok
Publications can creatively use small videos on TikTok to quickly communicate information and increase consumer engagement. As for financial companies, they can use TikTok creators to creatively demonstrate their market insights and offer their expert market predictions. Additionally, travel companies could have utilised the latest news with regards to the pandemic, to create comedic content that would’ve gauged interest in their latest offers upon the end of lockdown.
Exciting Sports TikTok trends
Trend 7) #Gymshark66 TikTok challenge by GymShark (242+ Million)
Very few companies are able to consistently make exercising look fun on social media, but GymShark is able to do it with their TikTok content. One of their ongoing, and most popular TikTok trends, happens to be the gymshark66 challenge. The 66 Days: Change Your Life Challenge was a promotional effort that would make participants shows their transformation over 9 weeks.
During the start of the program, the winner would be able to win a year’s worth of Gymshark gear. But even though the challenge has ended, people have still been participating. Right now, the #Gymshark66 has 242+ million views, with more people joining.
Trend 8) #RedBullDanceYourStyle TikTok trend (10.1 Billion Views)
People usually do daring stunts when tagging #Redbull TikTok hashtag, which now has over 9 billion views. Redbull also took its annual dance competition to TikTok as part of their unique viral marketing strategy. People are able to participate in a regular dance-off against others on the app. It became one of their most successful TikTok trends, with the #RedBullDanceYourStyle was trending with over 10.1 billion views (more than their #redbull hashtag).
Trend 9) #NBA (50+ Billion)
The NBA has always had a very vibrant personality on the TikTok app. While there are still plenty of highlights channels, the NBA also shows off a lighter side on its official page. They have player testimonials along with before-match interviews of various team members and coaches.
One of their most recent TikTok Trends was ‘the starting five challenge’, where people would have to select four people to play with. The challenge was fairly popular, with it generating over 30 million views. The challenge was leading up to the new NBA 75th anniversary season, which will bring in even more views.
Example: How sports brands could trend on TikTok
Sports brands can make unique TikTok trends to advertise their brand in very visually engaging ways. For example, they could take advantage of the tic-tac-toe trend on TikTok, which has over 1 billion views on the app, by using sports equipment, players, and creators. Recently, players put nine balloons in a grid on a wall and used basketballs to pop the balloons, in order to play tic-tac-toe.
Companies surrounding competitive e-sports can even make a challenge within a game. For example, Envy and Predator joined up for an Aimlab giveaway. TikTok Creators, Envy, and Predator challenged their TikTok audiences to get the highest score on the game. Their audiences were given the chance to win almost $2,000 worth of hardware. People were urged to submit their scores to #aimlab TikTok trends with 70 million views. They got several other creators to also set it off by submitting their own in-game scores using the hashtag #aimlab.
Fun and Creative TikTok Trends for B2C Brands
Trend 10) The #ThousandDollarCrocs Hashtag TikTok Trend (3.0 Billion)
Despite being one of the most controversial shoe brands in the world, Crocs does keep up with the best marketing strategies. Recently they collaborated with famous singer Post Malone and TikTok creators on a challenge called the #ThousandDollarCrocs. The challenge asked participants what their thousand-dollar crocs would look like, and their customers came in their drone with answers.
The challenge garnered almost 3 billion views turning into an instant success. And when the shoes actually launched, they sold out almost immediately. It was a very effective plan that combined the success of Post Malone and TikTok creators with an incredibly powerful TikTok challenge.
Trend 11) The #RyanAir travel company TikTok trend (263.2 million views)
This European airline solidified its presence on TikTok by communicating its friendly and humorous brand voice. Thanks to its consistently funny videos and humorous presence, people who wouldn’t even have anything to do with the brand were engaging with it. With over 1 million followers on the app, they are able to reach a massive untapped audience.
Furthermore, a lot of the people that would see their content would mention them with the hashtag, #Ryanair. This hashtag quickly accumulated over 260 million views, and it is still rapidly growing. They also make a variety of skits featuring their airplanes, which contributed a lot to their success.
Trend 12) DealDropDance Walmart TikTok trends (4.1 billion views)
Walmart was one of the first retail chains in the world to jump on the TikTok Advertising bandwagon. Their #DealDropDance challenge was a sensational hit, bringing over 4.1 billion views in the process. And even though some people were dancing in their homes, most were doing the dance in Walmart.
Given the incredible success of their previous challenge, they even released a new one. The WalmratDate challenge sees people go on a date with only things that they buy from Walmart. Participants had to pick out their favorite drinks, snacks, and meals only from the superstore. The challenge was not as successful, with it only accumulating 4.4 million views at the time.
How restaurants or shopping stores could drive TikTok engagement
If a restaurant or shopping store is looking to make a presence on the app, they can try their version of #WalmartDate. It can be simple to set up and can significantly raise the sales of the shop.
Dances are also one of the most fun ways to market a brand. Even Charli D’Amilio has made her entire career around doing these dances. A gas station company, for example, could make their own “pump it up” dance, which could emulate the joy of having a full tank. While slightly absurd, if the dance is good, it will become popular and people might even come to the gas station.
Fashion and Beauty company TikTok Trend Examples
Trend 13) The NYX #ButterGlossPop hashtag trends on TikTok (11.2 Billion Views)
NYX was one of the first beauty brands to discover how effective TikTok trends were for their product. Soon after joining the platform, they ran one of the largest TikTok trends, which would go on to be the #ButterGlossPop challenge. At its height, the challenge was able to generate 11.2 billion views before closing down the campaign.
TikTok influencers that they worked with included Brent Rivera, Avani, and Louie Castro. The inclusion of star-studded influencers was able to generate even more hype.
Trend 14) #Levis (169 million)
Levi’s has created a unique social media presence with its “Buy better, Wear longer” campaign. The main goal of this campaign was to encourage more sustainable habits among its audience. The short and snappy content keeps their close to 400,000 followers entertained with similar TikTok trends.
Other than the brand itself making this content, it has also spawned a community of people using #Levis. The Hashtag has been able to generate over 169 million views, with various influencers sharing their hacks. It proved to be a very profitable campaign, especially among people that were part of the sustainability movement.
Trend 15) #TFBornThisWayFoundation (540 million)
Oddly enough, TooFaced was one of the first companies to start marketing through TikTok trends. Six years after the release of their lip gloss, the lip gloss community with over 1.1 billion views, were trying its effects. The before-and-after effects of their beauty products created a spike in their sales, which lead to them finally making an official page.
They would later make another campaign called the #TFBornThisWayFoundation challenge. Their marketing efforts panned out this time, as the campaign was able to generate over 540 million views. Early on, it became one of the most popular TikTok trends on the platform. In the challenge, creators would use augmented reality to see which foundation would fit them best. It helped people choose their desired product while celebrating the diverse complexions of their users.
Example: How Beauty brands could make noise on TikTok
Beauty brands can very easily make themselves noticeable by taking advantage of TikTok trends. Most people like being empowered by advertising, and rarely want to deal with the somewhat discriminative ideas that most beauty brands have perpetuated and put in our heads over the past several decades. The #crushingbeautystandards challenge challenged the historic lack of representation in beauty advertisements, by getting women to show off their natural complexion and natural beauty.
Furthermore, a lot of the major influencers in the TikTok beauty space are members of the LGBTQ+ community, therefore, leaning into it with the #notyouraveragegirl challenge was a massive success. TikTok influencers were asked to show off their makeup and fight stereotypes about makeup being predominantly for women. Brands can put their feet down for social movements, whilst promoting their brand and products in a positive light.
Social movement popular on TikTok
Trend 16) #LGBTQ (85+ billion views)
Support for the LGBTQ+ community has grown extensively over the past few years. Brands like boohoo even released a new range of clothes to celebrate the community. The #LGBTQ+ quickly gathered over 2.5 billion views and blew up almost instantly and talked about the unique designs and collection. Now it has over 85 billion views.
Also, Calvin Klein released their range of pride clothing, which celebrated the many members of the LGBTQ+ community. The TikTok hashtags started to blow up almost instantly, and many even bought the collection. Calvin Klein also made use of their TikTok presence to promote their new line of clothing, which fueled most of the hype.
Trend 17) #feminism trends on TikTok (1 billion views)
Companies like Pantene have made their stance and support for feminism very clear. Pantene’s message about the labels against women was a viral hit, and feminists have even used TikTok to express their support.
The #Pantene on TikTok has over 100 million views, with the #feminism having a little over 1 Billion views. More and more companies are taking notice of how women are responding better to empowering ads. Even dove and Spotify made their own ad campaigns targeting feminism and female empowerment.
Trend 18) How Glossier supported the #BLM movement on TikTok (32+ billion views)
Glossier is a massive beauty and lifestyle brand that also has a very big following on TikTok. They have run numerous challenges and have quite a large TikTok presence. They were even able to accumulate over $100 million in funding, which can be attributed to the credibility and leadership of their incredible team.
However, a lot of companies run by women of color do not receive the funding that they need. Therefore, to help these businesses, Glossier started to offer black-owned businesses grants and necessary funding. Their campaign was also a major hit on TikTok, which allowed the #Glossier tag to almost reach 150 million views.
People will always buy from companies that align with their beliefs. So if a company is looking to show its support for the BLM, feminism, LGBTQ+, or any other movement, they can always start with testimonials from those who are oppressed by society. Short 15 second testimonials of experiences from your company’s employees could make for very powerful content.
In the case of feminism specifically, famous author Amy Kean shared her thoughts on how companies should advertise.
“Women don’t just spend all day crying into the mirror about their confidence. They care about things like the environment, and human rights… If you want to talk to women better, if you want to sell to them, don’t say you’re empowering, don’t overthink it. Look at what they love, not what you love to sell.”
Food and Drink company trends on TikTok
Trend 19) #Gushers on TikTok (159 million)
Gushers are one of the tastiest and most well-known candy brands on the internet, but they also happen to be very effective at making TikTok trends. Their first few videos were able to net them 12 million views organically in just four weeks. Furthermore, their emphasis on creating good content instead of marketing has helped their success along the way.
The Chili Gushers challenge was easily their biggest hit, which they didn’t even come up with. An influencer on TikTok came up with the recipe and it went viral from there. The campaign was so successful that they were running out of chili gushers for people to buy.
Trend 20) #Boortio (4.2 billion)
Chipotle is easily the GOAT of all food content online, with their incredible presence of over 1 million followers. They also have over 20 million likes on their page, which also makes them one of the biggest organically grown pages on the website.
Their Boorito campaign was easily their best campaign to date, with everyone who ordered food in a costume would receive a discount. And since the challenge takes place every year, the numbers on their socials just keep rising. Up till now, the campaign has been able to generate over 4 billion views.
Trend 21) #Wendy’s (568 Million views)
If Chipotle is the undisputed GOAT of TikTok advertising, then Wendy’s is the best at Twitter advertising. But apart from an incredible presence on Twitter, they are also looking to make the shift to TikTok. They have been able to start the Wendy’s 4-for-4 challenge, which pitted four people against each other to see who could eat a combo the fastest.
The campaign was able to generate 44.5 million views, but they have also been sponsoring skits from creators. Throughout their official page, there are various skits and videos by fans of Wendy’s. The #wendys also has 560 million views.
How food and drink brands can best integrate TikTok trends
Most restaurants will need an edge, and that can come in the form of a specific recipe. Such brands could always task their customers to make the most imaginative images using their food recipes. These types of challenges are especially useful in driving up sales.
For example, if your company is a Mexican restaurant, you could make a “Day of the Dead” challenge (the Day of the Dead is a holiday traditionally celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November by Mexicans). People with the best face paint could be given the chance to win a free meal.
Funny Comedy TikTok Trends
Trend 22) #SNL Viral Marketing Guide (3+ billion)
SNL needs no introduction, seeing how it is one of the biggest comedy skits shows on the planet. And with already such a funny presence, they have been able to easily migrate to the platform. Their page has small snippets of their weekly show and all of its sketches. And since they have such a massive catalog of previous shows, they upload snippets from those during the week.
With over 3 billion views on the #SNL hashtag, most of the ground was already laid for them before they even landed. They have also taken on the famous TikTok trio ‘Please Don’t Destroy’ as writers, and referenced the fake slapping teacher prank from TikTok, on the show.
Trend 23) #NetflixandChill TikTok Trend (1.3 billion views)
Netflix is no stranger to having an incredible personality on the internet. Their social media accounts are full of light humor as they subtly promote their shows. They are also the pioneers of the famous phrase #NetflixandChill, which is the Brand’s signature catchphrase and has 1.3 billion views.
Even on TikTok, they have an incredible presence of over 21 million followers. Through their account, they promote various shows and even indulge in different challenges. The #ActingChallenge has over 900 million views and the #whoworeitbetter challenge also has 30 million views.
Trend 24) #Nandos (330+ million)
Nando’s uses TikTok to communicate with its clients and better work with them to promote their food. During the pandemic when employees still had to come in for work, they were passing the time by challenging each other. The Nando’s restaurant based in Wrexham, United Kingdom, challenged the branch based in Broughton Park on the app. In videos, the staff icompete in backflips, cartwheels, and even playing pseudo basketball.
On their TikTok page, they have even pinned various videos of their staff reacting to hacks and other viral moments. The #nandos has over 330 million views.
An Example of How You Can Use These TikTok Trends
Comedy has always been an incredibly effective way to communicate with an audience. Generation Z and millennials are no different. You can make a comedic sketch that shows off your internal company’s sense of humor. The sketch can either be about your customers, or it can show the daily life of your employees.
Comedic content can also include reactions to various viral videos. It could also be a defining part of every viral marketing campaign you intend to launch.
Popular Gaming TikTok Trends
Trend 25) #GTA5 Gaming TikTok Trends (2.3 billion views)
GTA 5 was easily one of the biggest games of its time, with its initial release back in 2013. And throughout the years, both GTA 5 and previous installments have started plenty of TikTok trends. One of the more popular ones is the GTA walk, where people pretend to walk like characters from the games. This trend has a little over 30 million views
Rockstar Games has been able to take incredible advantage of #GTA5 on TikTok, which is where people upload clips of their gameplay. It is also where people show off their custom mods or tracks that they made, to over 2.3 billion views.
Trend 26) Fortnite’s #emoteroyalecontest TikTok Trends (275 million views)
Thanks to its free-to-play nature, Fortnite was able to become an instant hit on the internet. And through TikTok, Epic Games has been able to drum up incredible hype through various challenges. The biggest one was the #EmoteRoyaleContest, where people would share their best moves on TikTok for a chance to be featured in the game.
The contest saw 275 million views at its peak, and a lucky winner even had their dance added to the game.
Other than this massive contest, the #Fortniteclips tag has people performing all sorts of incredible tricks. It has over 1.5 billion views.
Trend 27) #Fifa EA Games TikTok trend (1.3 billion views)
EA Games struck gold with their newest installments of Fifa, especially when marketing them. The #Fifa tag on TikTok has 1.3 billion views and continues to grow with each installment. And while they do not often make use of challenges, they do have a very vibrant community.
The community usually uploads videos of the aforementioned tag, and EA is able to gauge how they are responding to it. They even use their community to help them make better decisions for the game, by seeing the things that they would like.
How you can apply similar TikTok trends to your gaming communities
TikTok can be a good place for video game companies to engage with their communities. Replicate in-game actions in real life using TikTok creators. Highlight common and relatable experiences in the game, on TikTok.
TikTok can also be a very fun place to host challenges or share highlights from your games. With an incredible community, you can even promote your newest features and changes through TikTok in innovative ways. For example, why not get influencers to create engaging videos where they release news of the latest feature updates, exclusively on TikTok, before everywhere else.
Final Notes on the TikTok Trends Viral Marketing Guide
We hope this viral marketing guide helps you tremendously. Undoubtedly, TikTok trends have proven to be one of the best ways for companies to advertise in recent years. Companies like Redbull, Epic Games, boohoo, NYX and Netflix have especially taken charge of TikTok marketing. You and your brand can too, especially with the help of our creative TikTok agency experts at House of Marketers.
Despite what most people think, executing solid TikTok campaigns that convert is a lot more complicated. It requires careful planning, market research, clear risk assessments, meticulous time management, a strict creator vetting process, quality creative strategies, and almost perfect timing. Therefore, if you would like to work with a company that specialises in building brands on TikTok and driving TikTok trends, get in touch with our friendly new business team here, today.
We can help you develop your TikTok trending strategy from scratch, or build one in alignment with your current company campaigns. You can learn more about our TikTok influencer campaign services, here.
House of Marketers (HOM) is a leading TikTok Marketing Agency. Our global agency was built by early TikTok Employees & TikTok Partners, which gives us the insider knowledge to help leading brands, like Redbull, Playtika, Badoo, and HelloFresh win on TikTok. Want us to convert more of Gen Z and Millennials with TikTok? Get in touch with our friendly team, here.
