What's Next Report 2022: Insight Into Culture Drivers on TikTok
Over one billion people turn to TikTok to be entertained, to find and share joy, learn new things and to create and celebrate important moments and movements. We have learnt a lot about our community, culture and how brands can play a significant role in both. From incredible SMB founders taking us inside their community, workshop and daily lives, to automotive brands creating authentic, fun TikToks to launch new products.
The TikTok What's Next Report 2022 provides a deep dive into the areas we see driving real world success and impact for brands on TikTok in 2022. With 20 different iterations from around the world, the reports preview our top-performing categories, case studies to help identify ways of unlocking success on TikTok, and tips for brands looking for further inspiration. From the rise of community commerce and the importance of music, to authentic partnerships with creators and continued focus on brand safety, we look forward to seeing brands drive real value for their business through creative, authentic, and culturally relevant content in 2022.
Sofia Hernandez, Global Head of Business Marketing for TikTok, said: "Our 2022 What's Next reports provide a deep dive into the areas we see driving real world success and impact for brands on TikTok around the world. From the evolution of sound, the unstoppable power of #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt and partnerships with creators, there are so many ways for businesses of all sizes to creatively engage with our community and deliver results through creative, authentic, and culturally relevant content. It's set to be another exciting year on TikTok and we look forward to sharing it with you."
👉View the global and country What's Next reports
Community Commerce
The worlds of entertainment and commerce have become closely entwined. Community commerce has exploded and TikTok has became a launchpad for product discovery and brands.
Sparking new shopping trends and driving cultural conversations, for products both new and old. We're continuously learning about brand, creator and community engagement on our platform. 73% of people feel a deeper connection to brands they interact with on TikTok compared to others,1 with 67% saying that TikTok inspired them to shop even when they weren't looking to do so.²
2022 will be the first full year for TikTok Shopping, a suite of e-commerce tools that turn videos and LIVE into shoppable entertainment. These solutions will make it easier than ever for brands, merchants and creators to harness the power of community commerce, with tools helping them build native shopping experience, market their products, and run their e-commerce business directly on TikTok.
Community commerce will continue to evolve. LIVE experiences will embrace our appetite for entertainment and new ways to discover and shop. As long as brands bring joyful entertainment to the table, we'll continue providing solutions that help brands convert interest into real-life actions.
👉 Read more about 2022 trends in community commerce
Evolution of Sound
Sound is integral to the TikTok experience and is changing the way we tell stories. We've seen trending songs on TikTok come from a mix of established, emerging, and breakthrough artists, spanning a range of genres as diverse as our community itself.
TikTok music tends to transcend the platform, with 88% of people on TikTok reporting that the sound on the platform is central to the overall app experience.³ This has led people to research, stream, and buy songs they hear whilst they have been browsing the app. This not only opens up new possibilities for both artists and brands alike, but it creates a new paradigm for sharing, creating and finding music. If brands want to push the music culture forward in 2022, it's important to put the artists at the forefront of what they do and think (and act) artist-first.
As well as making content on TikTok more relatable, music also generates longer watch times on average and makes people less likely to skip content. It also impacts mood, making people feel more positive. Research show that instrumental music generates the strongest brand recall, while R&B, pop and rap are most related with brand likeability. Brand tailor-made music generates the most intrigue and track clicks.⁴ In 2022 the brands that lean into immersive audio, standing at the forefront of adopting sonic branding to create a distinctive sound will win the hearts of the TikTok community.
👉 Read more about 2022 trends in sound
The New Creative Dream Team
TikTok creators are the bold personalities, cultural experts, trend-setters, and pioneers at the heart of our platform. When it comes to connecting with our community, the stats speak for themselves: partnering with creators on TikTok boosts view-through rates for TikTok specific ads by 193%, and branded content coming from creator collabs shows a 27% higher ad recall.⁵ Even TikTok users themselves agree - 62% say that creators are the best way for brands to connect with consumers.⁶
The TikTok Creator Marketplace is the go-to destination for creator collaborations, and is a streamlined way to discover creators based on industry, budget, and business goals. Brands can also search for videos mentioning their brand in order to identify creators who already know and love their products, leading to brand integrations that feel native and authentic . On the Marketplace, brands can now connect with over 100K creators across 24 markets.
We're truly humbled and excited to see so many creators thrive on the platform and access new ways of working and earning their livelihood by collaborating with brands.
👉 Read more about partnering with creators in 2022
Building for Brand Safety
Of course, while we talk about all of the trends we can expect on TikTok in 2022, our top priority as a company is to protect our community. We believe that by prioritising the safety of our creators and community, we in turn create a positive environment for brands.
We continue to demonstrate commitment to safety by introducing an array of policies, products and initiatives that reflect our ongoing dedication to the safety of the TikTok community. We have listened to our brand partners and have expanded our offerings to advertisers that help ensure branded content shows up next to safe and suitable user videos. We have also deepened and expanded our partnerships, which help inform our own operations and ultimately to push the industry forward for the greater good of the digital ecosystem.
To keep our community informed about the steps we are taking to keep our community safe, we strive to be the most transparent and accountable company in the industry with deeper insights into our operations. Looking ahead to 2022 we will continue to prioritize safety, solutions for brands, transparency, and partnerships to build an even safer platform for creative expression.
👉 Read more about our brand safety milestones and priorities in 2022
2022 promises to be a year like no other for brands on TikTok. From the rise of community commerce, to the proliferation of TikTok creators helping brands tell their stories in authentic ways, there has never been a better time to be a business on TikTok.
A note on What's Next Methodology
TikTok For Business compiled comprehensive insights based on platform performance on TikTok, from October 2020 to October 2021. We analyzed quantitative first-party data. Our analysis revealed the categories that saw significant growth, the ones that remained amongst the most popular, and the ones which we felt deserved a special spotlight. We looked into hashtags as a reliable indicator of performance. We assigned hashtags that had a strong correlation with each category accordingly and we ranked them by volume. From this data, we took our analysis a step further by diving deeper into hashtag activity based on volume and growth. The results were insightful findings that took over each category in the past year. Through the various categories included in the report we provide a retrospective on what happened on TikTok in 2021 and a perspective on the growth opportunities for 2022.
TikTok Marketing Science References
1. TikTok Marketing Science Global Community and Self-Expression Study 2021, conducted by Flamingo
2. TikTok Marketing Science US, Holiday Shopping Behavior Custom Research, conducted by Walnut Unlimited
3. TikTok Marketing Science Power of Sound conducted by Kantar
4. TikTokMarketing Science European Music in Ads Research conducted by Hotspex
5. TikTok Marketing Science European proprietary creative analysis 2021
6. TikTok Marketing Science Native vs Creative Advertiser Content Research conducted by Mindlab