This week on TikTok: CapCut editing trends are brand friendly for viral content
There are a few (sometimes bizarre looking) meme trends you may have seen on your For You Page recently—over, and over, and over. Whether it’s the spinning head of rock singer who’s “only human after all,” showing what’s playing inside Patrick Bateman’s headphones, the dancing Barbie dogs layered over an Ice Spice remix, or many, many, others, these viral videos are all coming from templates on CapCut, a video editing app owned by TikTok. The hashtag #CapCut, which is immediately applied to all videos posted from the editing app, has an impressive 2231.5B views, proving how it has become hugely intertwined with TikTok making.
Brands utilizing TikTok know that it can be hard to know which trend to jump on when, and sometimes it’s impossible due to the copywritten music that backs viral content. But the CapCut trends are often set to remixes made by meme creators, so if the template is used correctly, they can be entirely brand friendly. Brands like Scrub Daddy, Subway Surfers, and Duolingo (who all have a tendency to be on top of TikTok trends) can be seen using the most recent CapCut templates to humorously promote their brand—which YPulse data shows is a surefire way to connect with young consumers. Our Ad / Marketing Effectiveness report shows TikTok is the number one place Gen Z say they last saw an ad that made them want to purchase something, and 76% of young consumers overall agree “Brands should make ads that fit in with what’s in my feed / on the site already.”
#HopeCore is TikTok’s optimistic response to #CoreCore
Last month, YPulse told you how the #CoreCore trend on TikTok is rooted in themes of isolation, loneliness, and the awareness of the effects capitalism and big tech have on Gen Z. But as Dazed puts it, “for a generation that has never been more aware of their imminent extinction,” young people aren’t all pessimists, and now #HopeCore is trending in response to the dooming dread of #NicheTok and #CoreCore content. #HopeCore inspires just that—hope—and is meant to be uplifting and inspiring, restoring viewers’ faith in humanity and ultimately acting as a reassurance to the state of the world right now.
Currently at 99M views, #HopeCore features videos that highlight humanity’s wins, empowering speeches, and wholesome moments from films like Kung Fu Panda. Clips from movies, celebrity award acceptances, and athletes after winning a game are shown in each video to inspire a sense of confidence and show viewers that attaining moments of happiness (even if they’re fleeting) is what life is truly about. Quotes like “Whatever you do, do it 100%” (from Green Book) and “Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something” (from The Pursuit of Happiness) are being mashed together in the content’s audios, tying together inspirational advice from all types of media.
Commenters under #HopeCore videos are saying how the hopeful content is what’s “keeping [them] from plummeting”—one user even wrote, “it’s so depressing how much sadness is normalized on TikTok that people don’t even make an effort to get better. This is why i love hopecore.”
“Rat snacks” are for taste, not looks, and that’s what makes them perfect
YPulse data shows that Millennials are the originators of perfect-for-the-’gram foodie culture, but that doesn’t mean they only want aesthetically pleasing food. In fact, they have gone fully in the opposite direction with a recent #FoodTok trends, now manifesting as the chaotic, but delicious, “rat snacks.” The term refers to a mostly weird combo snack, usually made of a bunch of bite sized, or even leftover, ingredients that one might usually assume would not work together flavor wise, and most might even assume is gross—like a tiramisu cup alongside chips and salsa, or a veggie and pickle platter paired with sour candy.
The most popular example right now is a #PickleInABlanket (11.9M views): a pan-fried piece of cheese wrapped around a pickle, cooked sort of omelet style. The creator responsible for naming this snack told Bustle, “Weird little snacks go viral on TikTok because snacks tend to be quick, easy, and most people would already have the ingredients in their house.” And that really is the core of the trend: finding what satisfying snack can be made quickly with what’s already around, even if it’s just a compilation of bite-sized ingredients that don’t seem like they’d go together.
This is just another iteration of young peoples’ chaotic spirit (even though Gen Z are more notorious for this than Millennials), the one that drove “Goblin Mode” to be Oxford Dictionary’s 2022 word of the year, and that created “chaos cooking.” But some say the rat snack trend is actually quite healthy; one dietician that “encourages people to mindfully honor their cravings” sees the trend as rejecting hyper-stylized food while still making something satiating. And the cost-effective factor plays a role here, too, making rat snacks “a sign of the times.” Given that the tasty meals young consumers may be craving are likely more expensive than they want to spend right now, rat snacks give them the chance to eat something they enjoy at only the cost of scrounging through their pantry.
Links We’re Passing:
Beauty: TikTok is romanticizing the “everything shower”
Celebs: Selena Gomez is now the most followed person on Instagram
Movies: Ant Man: Quantumania is pulling in the worst reviews for any MCU movie ever—highlighting what fans are seeing as a downward trend since Avengers: Endgame
Fashion: The H&M x Mugler collab has people ready to give up their anti-fast fashion values
