Challenges and trends are evolving globally, not just in the United States, with many emerging on TikTok. The following challenges and trends are gaining popularity:
– Sustainable Living
– Short-form Educational Content
– Live Streaming Shopping
– Fitness Challenges
– Personal Growth Journeys
– Reflections on 2023
Additionally, challenges like the Face Wax Challenge, Cha Cha Slide, Plank Challenge, and Flip the Switch Challenge are trending. These challenges encourage social interaction and creativity, offering individuals and communities opportunities to connect in various ways.
This article will explore why TikTok challenges captivate people and the potential impact on society in the following order:
- The Origin and Meaning of Challenges
- Marketing Utilization
- Implications
We will delve into how TikTok challenges affect individuals and marketing.
1. The TikTok Origin and Causes of Challenges
The origin of TikTok challenges can be explained through diverse content and community participation. TikTok offers content across various categories like dance, lip-sync, comedy, food, and sports, providing customized content through its “For You” section.
The first globally spread challenge was ZICO’s ‘Any Song’ challenge, which achieved over 100 million views. Its success was driven by ease of participation, allowing individuals to express their uniqueness, leading to active engagement from celebrities and the public worldwide.
According to Big 3 Media, TikTok challenges are accessible, allow creative control, offer a semblance of fame, and enable participation in something new and cool. Many users engage in challenges to follow trends, add their own twist, seek social validation, unleash creativity, and experience positive emotions.
2. TikTok Marketing Utilization by Companies
Entertainment and K-pop celebrities often engage in challenges or incorporate their songs as background music for PR purposes. Fans mimic their favorite celebrities, gaining empathy.
According to Werner Geyser of Influencer MarketingHub, Idahoan Foods boosted brand awareness and introduced products creatively through influencers with the #mashoutchallenge, surpassing expected views by 700%, with influencer videos recording a high engagement rate of 20.13%. Vestiaire Collective, a luxury fashion marketplace, aimed for cost-effective app installs and raised awareness for its new ‘direct shipping’ feature through TikTok. The “Wrap Me in Plastic” music campaign created a genuine trend within the TikTok community, generating 822.8k original sound videos and 6.8 million remix versions.
Burger King utilized TikTok for the “Whopper Dance” challenge, promoting their signature Whopper in a successful campaign that offered Whopper discount coupons to participating users, enhancing brand visibility within the TikTok community.
Various companies continue to create new challenges on TikTok to engage customers uniquely, combining music and dance to approach consumers in a friendly manner, fostering brand familiarity and global reach.
3. Implications
The use of TikTok by companies will continue to grow. Although various social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Twitter exist, TikTok’s short videos have a powerful impact, making it an excellent platform for connecting with customers. It offers a relatively easy way to influence a wide audience and create trends.
