When people ask me my favourite TikTok accounts, Coco Mocoe is always up there on the list. She is a trend predictor who has made a career out of accurately predicting trends and influencer growth. I watch her videos at least once a day – they are always there when I open the app. 

Inspired by Mocoe, we wanted to do our research and provide you with the top three predicted strategies for TikTok as we enter the new year. 

Participatory Engagement Entertainment

Back in the day, TV and movie advertising would simply talk at people. As consumers, we now expect to be involved in the process and this involvement is only increasing. Participatory entertainment invites a back-and-forth conversation, where fans can actually participate in the marketing with you rather than it being one-sided.

For TikTok, this campaign format invites fans to become an active user, co-creating the entertaining content for the brand. If done right, all participants have a real sense of excitement–and if there’s a contest involved–winners get to become an ambassador, increase their social presence, and have a deeper connection with a brand they love.

One example of this is hiring through the platform as a way to not only find an employee but maximise engagement. Nerf took to the app to find a “trend-obsessed and highly creative Nerf fan” to become a Chief TikTok Officer. The winner, Sophie Jamison, beat out over 1,000 applicants for the position and got to become a face of the channel. The campaign was a hit, making the channel’s following skyrocket from 0 to 42,000 in just one week, and that was just the beginning.

Campaigns that centre around participatory entertainment can be very successful, especially due to the volume of content created by the community. They offer numerous opportunities for people to engage, whether as a viewer, an entrant, or a winner. By offering incentives through these campaigns, you can engage with and reward those who already support the brand and even invite a whole new audience to participate.

Reinvent Traditional Formats 

The best example I can give of this is the DIY native-TikTok movie trailer which saw Hollywood icon, Dwayne Johnson – who stars in the movie – partner up with a huge cinephile influencer to make a DIY synopsis of Netflix’s Red Notice. 

By remixing traditional formats, you can find new creative ways to better align with the platform’s ethos of authenticity, creativity, and individuality. 

It’s also so unique and exciting seeing a movie trailer that looks like it was made in someone’s bedroom for a school project starring the actual star of the movie. 

Campaigns Responding to Culture 

The TikTok app is home to some of the most culturally relevant conversations. If your brand sees something trending that relates to you or your product, create a campaign that reacts directly to that conversation.

When content creators go out of their way to speak about specific brands and products, that in and of itself is a win for the brand. And then, when a brand shows that they’re listening by amplifying a creator or participating in a trend or cultural conversation on their channel, brand love, new audiences, and press headlines follow. 

When brands listen to what their audiences are saying and create culture-fueled campaigns in response, the community will celebrate the brand for listening and engaging authentically.