đ, Iâm Kimberly. Iâve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, Iâm giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
Getting one hundred people to interact with your brand is hard.
Getting one hundred million people to interact with your brand (if youâre not a Kardashian) is almost impossible.
Yet, viral TikTok recipe videos regularly boast the kind of numbers that would make any brand salivate:
Lifestyle blogger Emily Mariko posted the how-to for her leftover salmon bowl on September 21âand it has already racked up 40 million views
At the height of baked feta pasta mania, many outlets reported a global feta shortage
#frozenhoney has over 1.6 billion views
Passionate reviews for the âso wrong, itâs rightâ Flaminâ Hot Cheeto Salad have flooded the platform
And no one could escape the ULTIMATE cure for quarantine boredom, the whipped coffee known as âTikTok coffeeâ that gave #whippedcoffee a whopping 2.3 billion views đ˛ đ˛ đ˛
But what exactly makes all of these viral TikTok recipes so insanely appealingâand how can you, as a brand founder or marketer, mimic this success for your brand?
1. They Start with Familiar Ingredients
Pasta. Coffee. Rice. The ingredients in the most viral TikTok recipes are simple to find in any grocery store.
And for many of the recipesâlike this three ingredient crème brĂťlĂŠe involving ice cream, sugar, and an eggâyou may just have the ingredients sitting in your fridge right now.
People feel comfortable with these known flavors (ahhh yes, tomato! I know what a tomato tastes like!).
And the likelihood that theyâve cooked with these ingredients before is almost 100%.
âď¸ Your Marketing Takeaway
Whenever people encounter something new, they view it first with their âlizard brains.â
The lizard brain is the most primitive part of your brain, where the instincts that warn you of danger reside. If something new is too radically different or sets off all of the alarm bells all at once, your lizard brain says, âNo! I will have none of that!â
So, if you want people to interact with your brand in an immediately positive way, it is smart to begin the conversation with something they know and relate toâsomething that wonât set off tons of immediate alarm bells⌠like tomatoes.
Because no one was ever scared of a tomato.
Unless you cut into one that looked like this.
2. The Process is Interesting
Whether itâs eating pancakes like cereal, whipping up the coffee, or adding an ice cube to your rice, something about the way the creators are making their viral TikTok recipes differently gives us pause.
There is something inherently off, entirely unique, or downright remarkable about how theyâre treating their ingredients that strikes peopleâand also makes the dish talk-worthy.
And not only is the process a little bit different. Because itâs on TikTok, itâs also visually appealing.
âď¸ Your Marketing Takeaway
People like small, strange, and weird details.
Ask yourself: What is small, strange, and potentially weird about how my brand makes our product or creates our service?
Zero in on these details, and use them to up your storytelling game.
And remember: Itâs best if you can both âshow and tellâ the process with your visuals. Seeing is believing⌠and intriguing.
3. The Instructions Are Easy
It doesnât get any easier than the recipe for TikTockâs Frozen Honey phenomena:
Step 1: Pour pure 100% honey into a water bottle
Step 2: Freeze it
And while not all of the recipes are this dead easyâthey are simple, and very simply laid out in the instructions.
Dummy, meet proof.
âď¸ Your Marketing Takeaway
When I started my career at an advertising agency fifteen years ago, the rule was that you should try to write your marketing copy at a sixth grade reading level.
That meansâŚ
Short words.
Simple sentences.
And this rule is still true today.
If you want people to interact with your brand, take down any and all barriers to entry that you can.
And one of those barriers can be complexity of explanations and language.
4. Thereâs an Unexpected Flavor
The feta in the pasta.
The cream of tartar in the cloud bread.
The Flamin' Hot Cheetos in the salad.
Thereâs a singularly strange ingredient in many of these viral TikTok recipes, even if you canât put your finger on it in the finished product (which can be part of the fun!).
âď¸ Your Marketing Takeaway
Adding an extra odd ingredient to the mix is another way to get people hyped up to test your product or service.
Think of it as the âThereâs no WAY that can taste good!â phenomena.
It gives the recipe something to proveâand people something clear to give their opinions on.
So, next time youâre creating a piece of content about your product or service, go deep and think hard about what might surprise people about it.
What âweird thingâ might get them weirdly excited to interact with your brand?
5. They Invite Experimentation
Mixing the honey with corn syrup, maple syrup, or even Kool-Aid.
Subbing broccoli for the tomatoes in the feta pasta.
Putting the weirdest thing possible into the air fryer (including Flaminâ Hot Cheetos).
The best of the TikTok viral recipes donât only invite follow up reaction videos.
They give people room to make the recipes their own.
âď¸ Your Marketing Takeaway
In todayâs social media driven world, the desire to be a creator is stronger than ever.
It is also easier than ever for people to feed this desire, given the technology advancements.
How can you encourage your customersâ creative instincts in ways that will benefit your brand?
Brands that donât encourage their customers to experiment with their products and servicesâthen share their own experiences, hacks, and storiesâare going to miss out.
Actively ask people to make your brand their own.
You may find that your customers are way more creative than you are.
If youâre finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends, or subscribing if you arenât already.
About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, theyâll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprintâa uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.
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