TRENDING: BURBERRY’S GLOW UP & SAYING SOMETHING STUPID
WHAT’S TRENDING
“SAYING SOMETHING STUPID”
A trending sound (of Jennifer Lawrence singing) that celebrities like Joe Jonas, Sabrina Carpenter, and James Charles have jumped on to show something embarrassing they did years ago that were once ‘viral moments’, alongside stupid things users have said in the past.
How can brands use this?
Depending on your social strategy and tone of voice, this could look like: showing an accident at work (with a visual example e.g an email or video) or in a team meeting when you called your boss “mum” (e.g this style of content).
HOW MANY MISTAKES?
This format was trending for a while but now we’re seeing it across more brands in a more light-hearted, authentic way. It helps to humanise staff without feeling too heavily branded and helps bring personality to your videos through funny editing.
How can brands use this?
The simpler the question with a “yes/no” or number response works best.
It could look like: “how many emails are you going to send today?” “How many coffees are you gonna make today?!” and the result being the complete opposite, or doing something unhinged.
INTERESTING FORMATS
MAYBE IT’S TIME TO ACT OUT COMMENTS
These creators began making fun of popular tweets in a satirical way, however (again depending on your tone of voice).
How can brands use this?
It could be used as a funny, clever dig at ridiculous comments you receive on certain videos, similarly to @tbhskincare who reacted to their mega-viral video (since deleted “Gen Z boss and a mini”) or people acting out Hinge prompts this could be a tongue-in-cheek way to speak to your audience and show that you’re aware of the conversation happening online.
“OUR SOCIAL PERSON IS SICK”
A format that has slowly taken over our feed of this idea that the social person is ‘sick’ as a way of not being creative but going straight in for the hard sell. It speaks to this ‘Gen Z intern’ Tone of voice as though Gen Z is the only one that really ‘understands’ social media. It’s a format that feels so obvious and simple but works.
COOL THINGS BRANDS ARE DOING
BURBERRY
About 6-12 months ago, Burberry’s TikTok account was strange and a bit lacklustre. It was high-production ‘original content’. From an outside perspective, the content didn’t really speak to the brand in a meaningful way, feeling out of reach to the average viewer, creating a purely aesthetic abstract. This content was also pushed as paid ads, and without any context on what you were watching, they felt out of place (only receiving a 5% engagement rate). Fast forward to October and Burberry has raised its TikTok game with a native, original content style that’s pushing the brand forward into the same tier as brands like Loewe and Marc Jacobs.
@burberry Tea with Olivia Colman #ItsAlwaysBurberryWeather ♬ original sound - Burberry
For example: last week, Burberry enlisted celebrities to wear Burberry and do something inherently British; make a cup of tea! This series is going gangbusters, one video alone receiving more than 318k likes!
So why does this work? This series does a few things:
1. It humanises the celebrity by doing something relatable to the end consumer but still positions itself as high-end as they’re wearing the product and looking effortlessly cool while doing it.
2. Brings the legacy of Burberry back to its British heritage: amplifying the brand’s core associations and codes in the minds of its consumers.
3. It stops the scroll through celebrity endorsement. Audiences are curious to know “well, how does Olivia Coleman make a cup of tea?” Maybe she does something weird like puts milk in first? It’s a way of visual storytelling, that builds curiosity and creates a subtle endorsement that feels authentic without a hard sell.
APPLETV’S ‘SEVERANCE’ HALLOWEEN COSTUME PROMOTION
A few brands have gone down the more humorous/meme-ified route to celebrate Halloween e.g Chipotle. What caught our eye was, Apple TV’s promo for sci-fi show Severance. Their encouragement for Halloween costume inspo is dressing to the corporate dress code, aligning with their main characters, which takes viewers from scrolling on social media to being apart of the world a show like Severance has created.
How can brands use this?
World building helps strengthen your fandom, and shows commitment to the bit. Particularly when it comes to popular shows or a brand with a strong identity, fans want to feel part of the world.
