Social media network TikTok has launched its 2024 ‘What’s Next Trends Report’, designed to arm the vast array of businesses that use its platform with the key themes set to resonate with users over the next 12 months.
TikTok predicts that the brands most able to demonstrate ‘creative bravery’ next year will be those who enjoy the deepest and most enduring connections with users. This will be characterised by displays of imagination, vulnerability and courage.
In order to gauge the emerging key trends set to dominate its platform over the next year, TikTok has used what it calls ‘trends signals’ to discern new patterns and shifts in user behaviours and interests, enabling brands to shape their long-term content strategies accordingly.
“2023 has seen an audience of over 1 billion people regularly coming to TikTok to find community, surprise and delight. In an era where storytelling has become predictable, TikTok showcases creativity without a typical beginning, middle or end,” TikTok global head of business marketing, Sofia Hernandez said.
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“In 2024 we’re going to see the TikTok community build on this in ways we’ve never seen before. Fuelled by a blend of curiosity, imagination, vulnerability and courage – creative bravery will be infused into our daily lives.”
Three key trends have thus emerged, tipped to be at the forefront of social content: ‘Curiosity Peaked’, in which brands help users discover new things; ‘Storytelling Unhinged’, where content that flips traditional narratives around locks the viewer in; and ‘Bridging the Trust Gap’, a manifestation of a wider public desire for brands to display genuine values and morals – beyond a quick, one time sale.
TikTok global head of product strategy and operations, Ray Cao added: “Our mission as a product team is to help brands be easily discoverable, helping them to reach their audiences and encourage them to take action – that’s what it’s all about. Automation is key. We build a lot of innovative tools so advertisers can have a frictionless experience on the platform. For example, Script Generator has been used by many of our key advertisers to help fuel and scale their holiday campiagns.”
“Building a persona as a brand on TikTok looks different to other platforms, and should be different, because we’re engaging with a totally different kind of audience”
