2021 was a year of Charli D’Amelio, Khabane Lame, educational hacks, political discourses, lockdown trends, and older generations flocking to TikTok from other social media channels. Since OOH advertising was rendered pointless by the pandemic, we saw a rise in the app’s unconventional and unexpected brands. TikTok’s success in 2022 was based on these factors, and we’ve been keeping an eye on the brands making waves at the beginning of the year.
Who is drawing our attention? See who the best TikTok-using brands are in 2022.
Ryanair: Taking fads and making them go viral
This one took us by surprise. Amid a pandemic, who would have thought an airline could make waves and get ready for takeoff on TikTok? Sorry for the pun. This proves that any brand can use TikTok to its full potential.
To date, 90.7 million people have seen the hashtag #ryanair. Their videos often feature footage from their planes and behind-the-scenes footage, and they focus on what’s hot at the time. In my opinion, they’re so well-liked because they’re quick to react to trends, applicable, and users are happily surprised at how they’ve successfully been capable of making something as mundane as an airline hilarious, cool, and very “Gen Z”-like. They’re also not too serious about themselves.
A simple video of one of their planes approaching a plane instructor is one of their most popular ones. With an overlay of Saucy Santana’s ‘Walk,’ they could completely draw in viewers with 4.3 million views and more than 1.1 million likes on TikTok at the time.
Another high-performing video of theirs employs a similar hack. With over 1 million views, this video is nothing more than a short clip of their plane in the sky accompanied by some popular sound and text memes. They were able to create a seemingly effortless viral video by paying attention to the most popular sounds and trends on the platform and implementing text memes, TikTok’s native language, two of the most powerful ingredients needed to deliver a high-caliber piece of content on TikTok.
There is a lot of interest in the comments about who is in charge of the account because of the popularity of these videos. Users show their approval and support for the page by leaving comments in the form of thumbs up or thumbs down. Ryanair’s TikTok employee has been referred to as “the only good person working for Ryanair” and “now here is a company that knows how to use TikTok.”
Yahoo: Bringing the latest in political news to the millennial generation
Until recently, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me Yahoo News would reach 1.1 million followers in 2021. But since then, TikTok has undergone a massive shift toward more serious, educational content (as evidenced by their #LearnOnTikTok initiative) woven into TikTok’s existing fun, quirky, and creative culture.
On March 4th, 2020, Yahoo launched their first TikTok video and has since amassed a whopping 52.9 million likes (at the time of writing). A large portion of their content is devoted to providing updates on US politics, clips from notable events like Biden’s inauguration, and opportunities for their followers to engage with the content through duets or stitches.
One person, in particular, a journalist by the name of @juliamunslow, dominates their account. She has become the face of Yahoo News on TikTok due to her frequent appearances on their page. Dave Jorgenson, known as the “Washington Post TikTok guy,” has done this before for @washingtonpost, where he posts hilarious, on-trend videos for the account. Due to their role as “brand mascots,” Dave and Julia’s content has successfully raised consumer awareness and fostered customer loyalty for the brands they represent.
With 5.4 million views and 1.2 million likes, this is one of their most popular videos (at writing). In their TikTok video, Julia breaks down what Vice President Joe Biden did on his second day as President of the United States. The comments show just how politically engaged, and interested TikTok users are.
Since 2020, a year marked by pandemic, political unrest, and protests, using TikTok to express one’s political identity has become extremely popular. We’ve seen users get into a political debate, show their allegiance to a particular political party, and stand up for what they believe in, among other things. As a result, Yahoo News is in a great position to tap into these groups.
Little Moons: TikTok’s most popular food brands
It is no longer the case that Little Moons are merely minor celestial bodies orbiting planets. Those who don’t know about Little Moons will tell you that it’s the latest craze on the app and a popular brand of mochi ice cream.
Even though TikTok users have known about Little Moons for some time, it appears that they have been compelled to run out of their homes, find the nearest store, and stock up on all of the flavors to see if they live up to all the internet hype that has been generated around them.
Like Ryanair, they are quick to jump on the latest trends and incorporate viral sounds into their videos, so I’d say their content is very up to date. On the other hand, their most popular videos seem to appeal to a niche segment of the TikTok audience who are looking for food videos that are “satisfying.”
With a combined 3.6 million views and 251.9k likes, these two videos are among their best-performing ones. It’s a common food trend on TikTok for users to smash or crush their food to create ASMR sounds, which is evident in these two videos where the squishing of the mochi is combined with viral sounds. Little Moons has done an excellent job of capitalizing on the enormous popularity among TikTok users.
More impressively, they have created two organic hashtags for themselves. These two hashtags have racked up 26.5 million views and 23.9 million views, respectively. Many TikTok users became so interested in the mochi balls that they had to go to the store and purchase them to post a review on the app. As a result, these hashtags are filled with videos that are primarily “review” and “testing.” Little Moon’s sales at Tesco have increased by 700% due to the mochi craze.
As a food brand on TikTok, this is exactly the response you want to see. Because of the quality of their content, they’ve gained millions of views without having to do anything, which I can only congratulate them for.
Conclusion
As TikTok’s popularity has risen, so has the number of brands using it, as we’ve shown in this list of the best TikTok-using brands in 2022.
