Winning TikTok Ad Formats in 2024

Meredith Unger: Perfect. So, I am a creative strategist here at Tinuity and if I can figure out where the camera is, there we go. Um, and I have been working here about four and a half years and really love it. Done a ton of different roles. Been on the channel teams, so really worked directly in the social platforms. Used to be in the email marketing space and now I work as a creative strategist, which I really love. Love to see all the creative strategists in the chat today. So thanks for joining.

Meredith Unger: Um, but why are we all here? We really want to talk about the science behind some of the winning TikTok ad formats that I've not only tried, but I've seen tried and that I think are really effective and how you can leverage that for brands, not just in the D2C space, so not just your typical, you know, retail, beauty, fashion, but honestly even your home services, your uh insurance brands, things like that. So I think TikTok is a great platform. Anyone can leverage it. I know there's a lot going on in the news with TikTok right now and it's a little uncertain, but I do firmly feel that it has kind of changed the way that we view video ad creative from here on out. So we're going to chat about that today.

Meredith Unger: Um, and just a little bit about Tinuity. So we are a digital forward brand. Um, we are the largest independent full funnel performance marketing agency in the US and we do have patented tech called Bliss Point by Tinuity, which is a really cool way to measure, um, you know, all of the different brand, all of the different channels that your brand could be using. Um, but we have some really amazing clients. So we do work on brands like Away, Honest, AppFolio, Elf, Etsy, Poppi, which has been a big really fun one. Um, and a ton more. So super excited to jump in today and just chat about TikTok.

Meredith Unger: So to start us off, um, I kind of found this study. Um, definitely not like the most scientifically accurate, but, you know, for for purposes of of this, it works. Um, Business Insider actually did kind of a short experiment with two employees and a three-hour time frame, they measured how many ads or ad-related content they received. And in over a thousand videos, about 31% was some sort of advertisement. Um, so that being said, you can kind of assume within one hour of TikTok scrolling, someone could potentially be showed 378 ads on average. So with that, how are you going to stop the scroll? That's a lot of ads. Um, obviously you're going to have to cut through the clutter. So we're going to chat through how you can cut through the clutter today and how you can stop the scroll.

Meredith Unger: Um, one thing I love to do and I do this a lot actually for my clients is look at the history of the brand. So for the brand today, we're going to talk about advertising and targeted advertising and really how it's changed. Just to kind of give us all a little mini history lesson, take us to school today. Um, so in about 1922, we know radio was kind of the first targeted advertising. Um, and really back then they would just kind of talk about that unique selling proposition, which I'm sure we all learned in school. And then around 1940s, we got into TV and really it was just like a straight graphic with a little bit of music or some VO. And then we get into kind of the digital age where in the 1990s, we had our first online ad, which I just learned that it was this one. I think it's from AT&T. Um, really simple and I thought this was super fun. 44% of people clicked on this banner ad. They had a 44% click through rate. Compared to today where you get 0.02 or 2% on a good day, that's really incredible. So what I wanted to show this for is just to show we're up against a lot more nowadays. Your creative is way more important than it ever has been.

Meredith Unger: And as we got into kind of even more the social age of of digital advertising, you can see like we've come a long way. So with Facebook, we used to have these kind of like basic banner ad creatives. With Instagram, we moved into like a little bit more sophistication where we have like the sponsored posts, the video ads, and a little bit more complex targeting. And then for those of us, uh, Gen Z and millennials, we probably remember the influencer era of the 2010s, um, where we really kind of started to get into like influencer advertising, kind of those hauls, get ready with me, what's in my bag, all of that good stuff. Um, and this really ushered in the initial age of smartphone creation being more accessible to everyone. And then as we got into the era that I would say we're in now and quickly evolving into other many eras, um, it would be the TikTok era. So this is really where we've popularized brief, engaging video content. Um, and really people are having to adjust their their way of shooting to this vertical short form audio focused advertising.

Meredith Unger: So we're going to chat through how to win in the age of TikTok advertising today. And definitely pop your questions in the chat if you have them. There's a Q&A section as Travis mentioned. We'll be happy to answer them at the end.

Meredith Unger: So, some things that I thought would be kind of interesting to look at here. Um, just so everyone knows, half of Gen Z is using social media to discover new products to purchase. Um, so they are more than six times more likely to purchase on TikTok than Gen X and baby boomers. So if you are a brand who is either catering to Gen Z now, catering to millennials, or will need Gen Z as your customers in the future, which I would argue is all of us because they are going to be kind of the new homeowners and the new adults. Um, then TikTok is for you. It's not just for the young kids now. It's really for everyone. So definitely is important to learn.

Meredith Unger: Also, really important to know, um, when polled, half of Gen Z or most of Gen Z adults noted that the biggest factors of why they don't like an ad, um, really is all creative based. So when they're distracting, when they're not relevant, when they're unrelatable, those are big turnoffs for Gen Z. So, no surprise there, but definitely important to make sure your ads are entertaining and engaging.

Meredith Unger: And then I'm calling this Meta versus TikTok. WTF, watch the format. Um, so I think a lot of us probably have experienced video advertising on Meta, Instagram, and Facebook. Um, it's a very different platform than TikTok in my opinion. I do think with TikTok coming kind of into more mainstream, Meta video is actually changing alongside that. So, I think the way that we've always approached Meta or at least I've seen it approached is really designed for sound off. So we know most people for Meta do have their sound off while scrolling. The exception being Reels. Um, so really text overlays were kind of the norm. We would tell our story as much as we could with on-asset text. Um, you still need to plan for most to have sound off on Meta, but Reels placements are shifting this to be more evenly split. So it is increasingly more important to pay attention to the sounds that you choose and the VO for Meta while keeping those captions on. And then for TikTok, kind of how it should be and how you should think about it a little bit differently, TikTok is really led by the sound and the story. So, while I would say sound is an afterthought to a lot of people's meta strategies, sound is pivotal for TikTok. So, really what I always recommend is if you can, you want to think like a creator. So you want to find the sound you want to use first and then write a concept that fits for your product story. So instead of, you know, creating your video and then kind of putting in the sound at the last minute, for TikTok, I usually try to recommend that we pick our sounds first because that is how native users of the platform are going to use it and that's going to give you the most authentic feeling content. Um, and one thing to notice there, uh, I always say this to clients and to teams, you do want to be careful. I do see a lot of brands on TikTok illegally using sounds that are not commercially licensed. So just a note there, always go to the TikTok commercial music library or make sure you're purchasing the rights for those songs and sounds.

Meredith Unger: But yeah. And then looking at an overview, so this is what I'm kind of coining as the TikTok effect. So how has it really changed the way we approach video ads outside of what we just chatted about? Um, like I mentioned, audio-centric advertising, audio is more important than ever. Also authentic voices. We've kind of seen a shift since Instagram and YouTube to more authentic voices, but that's even more crucial with TikTok as people are kind of wanting to stop the BS. They want really, you know, authentic real people telling them about these products. And then experimentation, which really speaks to motion, which we use as well today. Um, but experimentation is a huge part of TikTok advertising. The algorithm will tell you very fast if it likes something or doesn't like something, including in your paid ads. Um, so don't be afraid to experiment. It's definitely key to finding out what, you know, area of the FYP you fit into. Also shorter content cycles. Um, I think, you know, standard, at least for us around here, we typically refresh meta ads like every month, three to four weeks. For TikTok, we try to refresh them more like every two to three weeks at a minimum just because those content cycles are so short. So you're wanting to refresh them as much as possible. And then we'll chat about this as well, but front-loaded storylines. So gone are the days of TV ads where you couldn't skip and you had to kind of watch the full 30 seconds. With the era of really scrolling and being able to skip advertising, you need to front load your storyline. So you have to have that really amazing hook that keeps them interested and keeps them wanting to watch the rest of the video.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the OG YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um, but again, if you have more, that's amazing too.

Meredith Unger: And then as I mentioned, the story arc of a TikTok. So how video ads used to work, we kind of would start and build to like a dramatic climax or a reveal. We would have these really emotional or engaging long form stories on unskippable channels like traditional TV. But how social video actually works nowadays, um, you know, you kind of have to start high and deliver hits throughout to keep them engaged. So, I think this has changed the way we think about video across the board, not just TikTok. Um, I work on streaming assets as well and traditional TV commercials and we really have to change the way we think about that now as well because even though in most cases for TV, you can't skip, for some placements like your YouTube or your OTT, you can skip. So you have to hook them in the beginning. Um, so this is really something we apply to almost all of our video creative now, which is really a different way of thinking about things, but you really just want to hit the most interesting part of the video at the beginning and then kind of deliver quick hits throughout.

Meredith Unger: And I just wanted to pull this because I thought this was a really cool feature that I do use in motion to kind of assess whether our hook is working. So if we want to do hook testing, for example, and we'll have a couple videos with different intros, I love to go into the video analysis and the creative insights and it'll actually show me at what point in the video the majority of our users are dropping off as well as at, you know, how long most of them stay, which I think is a really cool feature. So I use this a lot. I think it's really helpful. Um, this is one of our better videos for one of my clients. Um, and you can see it actually retained people quite a bit. I will say most people jump off after a second or two. That's pretty average. So this is um a really great result that we got.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then, now why we're all here, let's explore some of the longest lasting TikTok trends.

Meredith Unger: So to start off, a fan favorite in my opinion, get ready with me has been a staple probably since YouTube days. So it's definitely not new to TikTok. Um, but the reason I put it in here is because I think that shows it has lasting power. So while TikTok, I think has kind of repopularized or reinvigorated this get ready with me trend, um, really it's here to stay. So, and I like to tell people, you don't have to think about get ready with me as just a format for fashion, beauty, and skincare brands. Um, actually this video here on the right side is State Farm insurance. They did a get ready with me video ad. So 100%, you can do it no matter what kind of company or business you are. So don't think that you are not included and get ready with me because you definitely can. Um, the science behind why, you know, we really think this works. One, it's multitasking. So you can use it to kind of like tell a longer story with a creator, um, about their experience with your brand because you're engaging two parts of our brain simultaneously. So you're really keeping your mind engaged by watching this person go through their daily routine and putting, you know, their makeup on or putting their outfit on, um, while telling you a story. So you're not getting bored, you're kind of being engaged in two different ways. The second part, um, which was kind of interesting to me is it's really intimate. So if you think about it, you're watching someone in a really intimate part of their routines. So you kind of start to feel a natural closeness and trust. So the message that they're telling you is going to potentially be received a little more positively. So it's a great way to talk about things that maybe are uncomfortable or make some things seem a little less salesy to people as you're using the format. Also, you can definitely use this format to kind of hook you with a twist or take a more funny approach. Not every get ready with me has to be makeup or even for a product it's showing. This State Farm video was a great example. The guy kind of intros it and says, get ready with me to look like a State Farm agent. We all know the classic State Farm agent, you know, outfit from the commercials. So it was a really fun kind of spin on the trend. Um, and then again, it it gets you comfortable with what they're going to talk about. So everyone gets ready in some way or another. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time as they say. Um, so it's really something familiar. So you can kind of make them feel a little more comfortable when you talk about something that maybe isn't familiar to them.

Meredith Unger: And then the next format, also, I think kind of back to the YouTube days, this has evolved a little bit for TikTok. Um, but vlogs or, you know, a day in the life, shop with me, those kind of formats. These really do go back to the OG YouTube days. I was a huge vlog watcher back in the day. Absolutely love them. I think they're so interesting. I think it just taps into our nosy side. We want to know what other people's lives are like, live a day in their shoes. Um, but with these, I pulled two examples. So one here is Bose headphones. They did this really nice day in a life. It's this girl, she kind of talks about, you know, how the Bose headphones throughout her day in the city really help her tune out the noise and relax and get through her day in a really fun, um, engaging way. And then the one on the right here is Amika hair care. Um, this is a format specifically for beauty and skincare that I think is a really trendy format and probably is here to stay, which is really just kind of like bringing the in-store shopping experience online in your advertising. What it does is it kind of helps cut through the need for them to actually go into the store, gives them that trial experience and also is a great way to talk about the range of products you have. So just like real shopping, you see them add the stuff to their cart. It gives you this like nice dopamine hit, which is really great and engages our brains. And then the POV angle is really popular with these formats. It really feels like you're walking in someone's shoes, drawing you in as more than a passive viewership. Um, one thing I also wanted to call out here, so I do usually recommend platform native text. So you can follow along with the captions. So instead of maybe putting like your branded text on the asset, I do think it's best practice to just use the platform native text, the captions. Um, try to avoid additional text if you can. It's a very sound forward platform. Um, if you're going to do captions, just stick to platform native.

Meredith Unger: And the next one here is another personal favorite. So behind the scenes, um, how it's made, behind the brand, all of those good things. If you guys watched how it's made back in like the 90s and early 2000s, um, I think that's kind of like a good reason to talk about why this is such an engaging format. People are just super curious. We want to know like what went into a brand or what went into a product. So this is a really great scrappy way for almost anyone to kind of give that more personal view into what your brand is doing or what went into the product that you want to talk about. Um, rather than just kind of like sitting down and saying, here's what's in my skincare product or, you know, this is what it does for you or it's 70% more likely to X. If you kind of take the approach of going to the factory or going to kind of the test lab or something like that and really talking about through this visual and engaging way what is in your product, how it's used, why you guys, you know, put it in there and all of the work that went into creating it, you kind of build this trust and transparency with your audience. You make them feel more comfortable with the product because they know how it was made. Also, value props just come naturally in this format. They don't feel forced. Um, it's really kind of just a natural progression. And I also like to say no process is too small. This is like a binky brand and they did like a behind the scenes of their photo shoot, which was on a tiny piece of cardboard. Um, it just kind of is like a fun way to show like, okay, it doesn't have to be like a big production or a trip to the factory. You can literally make content out of absolutely any part of your day as marketers. Um, so definitely don't be afraid to pull out your iPhone and shoot the BTS. Um, also, again, it doesn't have to be glamorous. You know, people are nosy, they want to see what's what's behind the brand and and really what you guys are up to.

Meredith Unger: Awesome. And then like I mentioned, TikTok trend cycles do change really fast. So your creative needs to change fast too. Um, like I said, two to three weeks versus monthly is really ideal for TikTok. As much creative as you can feed the algorithm, the better. Usually we say five to six videos a minimum for a campaign is best. Um,