TikTok What’s Next 2023 Trends Report

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The TikTok What’s Next Report 2023, is out today – the third annual trend forecast, designed to help marketeers understand how consumers’ wants and needs will change in the upcoming year and what that will mean for their strategies, both on and off of TikTok. 

From fun to functional, this new report focuses on unpacking long-term TikTok-first cultural forces, the underlying signals that show how each of these come to life, and the implications for brands to succeed on the platform.

At TikTok we talk about the power of community, and in 2022, people on TikTok shared authentic and personal stories that brought us together and helped the TikTok community discover new ways of thinking. Looking ahead to 2023, we are going to see even more of this as our communities grow in confidence and inspire positive change together.

Our ‘What’s Next’ report, which is based on research and behaviour we have seen on TikTok, and is giving brands a lot to be excited about when it comes to showing up on the platform. Looking ahead to next year, people will be using TikTok to discover new ways to make small changes, from content which inspires people to take action, to people tapping into wellbeing content to help elevate their day to day. Brands shouldn’t be afraid to help the TikTok community find space for joy and harness community-built ideals to drive engagement and action next year.

– Kris Boger, General Manager UK, Global Business Solutions, TikTok

TikTok What’s Next Report 2023

The TikTok What’s Next Report 2023 finings are consolidated into three forces – large-scale transformations that demonstrate how TikTok is shaping culture – and the relevant signals for each of these forces that show emerging behaviors and interests across vertical sectors. Based on research and behaviours seen on TikTok, we predict there will be three major trend forces underscoring this change:

1.     Actionable Entertainment:

People come to TikTok to uncover truths and debunk myths, which builds credibility and trust between Creators and their viewers. 6 in 10 (58%) TikTokers say they’re more likely to trust brands after learning about them from TikTok creators(1).

In Italy, Tampax Italia came to TikTok for an awareness campaign aimed at answering questions about the world of tampons. Partnering with popular Italian creator Silvia Buratto, Tampax Italia embarked on its ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ campaign, in which they broke down the most common fears and doubts about the use of tampons. Leveraging one of TikTok’s ad solutions, TopView, the brand broadcast its message to people as soon as they opened the app. This generated an impressive total impression count of more than 34.6 million and an  engagement rate of 17.75% showing a genuine interest from the Italian TikTok community.

For brands, the most effective messages on TikTok are uplifting, funny and personalized, or entertaining their audiences. Brands can build on this entertainment value by using editing techniques like syncing sounds to transitions or adding text overlays – which are effective at keeping viewers’ attention.

2.     Making Space for Joy:

There’s no shortage of self-care advice and initiatives out there, yet people are still burning out. So they’re seeking meaningful self-care amidst an endless cycle of public health issues, burnout at work and personal hardships.

Half (50%) of TikTok community members say TikTok boosts their mood and makes them feel happy and / or positive(2), with a further two in five (41%) believing ‘lifting their spirits’ is key in motivating them to make a purchase(3). In 2023, messaging on TikTok – and beyond – should speak to this desire for levity and encourage people to make more room for themselves.

In the UK, Burberry brought joy to audiences when it partnered with popular creator @Sylvaniandrama to make the Lola handbag the latest star of the show in the ongoing TikTok soap opera. The collaboration sees Sylvaniandrama apply its signature ‘whodunnit’ narrative to promote the new bag, making the sponsored content both engaging and funny.

Creating TikTok content that helps people carve out joy for themselves – or even provides joy through humor, relaxation and relatable points of view – could be the difference for brands in 2023.

3.     Community-Built Ideals:

TikTok communities are a cut above the rest because they’re specific – and that’s what helps them thrive at scale. Sharing hyper-niche interests helps people bond with each other. From there, they broaden each other’s horizons.

TikTok is not a town hall meeting. It’s a collection of tiny clubs where people can find new ideas on how to explore their passions and live their lives. In fact, TikTok is 1.8x more likely to introduce people to new topics they didn’t know they liked compared to traditional social platforms(2).

People use TikTok to start conversations in their community and find unique answers to satisfy their every curiosity. And it’s not just about learning and aspiration. It’s about individuals from around the world coming together to build a likeminded community built on shared ideals and interests, and the inspiration that comes from them.

Tapping into TikTok trends is a great way for brands to join in on cultural moments on the platform and drive important conversations with its customers. Channel 4’s award winning in-house agency, 4creative, did just that by jumping on the popular TikTok trend “tell me, without telling me”, and launching its branded #AlltogetherDifferent challenge, inviting the entire community to celebrate and showcase what makes them different. To spread the challenge far and wide, Channel 4 collaborated with creators to produce videos of them doing something standard in their everyday lives, and then revealing what makes them unique. The campaign created a huge amount of noise, which led to a whopping 5.1 billion video views, 8.7 million engagements and 827,000 video creations.

A note on What’s Next Methodology

TikTok For Business compiled comprehensive insights from a variety of sources to better understand  small, medium and large-scale TikTok trends and what they can tell us about culture and creativity on the platform. This included commissioned third party research as well as first-party data analysing platform performance on TikTok between October 2021 and October 2022.

Through the various categories included in the report they provide a retrospective view on what happened on TikTok in 2022 and a perspective on the growth opportunities for 2023.

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