Dissecting viral posts

Newsletters in this ‘Content Series’ are meant to provide inspiration whilst bringing to life some of our Tone of Voice Principles and building block do’s and don’ts (sounds, effects, edits, duration, protagonists, locations, storytelling components).

As a reminder, the top 10% of purely organic owned TikToks capture ~75% of owned engagement, while owned content quality is now the top driver of community growth on both Instagram and TikTok.

Posts below each cumulated more engagement than most brands get in a month, reminding us why getting content right is today’s top priority on social, far ahead of frequency. (All creatives are clickable, most liked comments tell you what engaged viewers most)

(1) The Teaser: often simpler is better

Multiple principles brought to life in this simple TikTok (13M organic views, all organic):

• Emotions: excitement, surprise, adoration (reminder: full emotion map here)

• Principles:

  • Talking about the product without taking about it (Soft Sell)

  • Mastery of subtext (let viewers fill in the gap, e.g. her smile at the end)

  • Implicitly invites viewers to participate, comment: “What if…”

  • Talking about novelty - often good idea, especially if it is not (fully) shown

• Content Building Blocks done right: short duration, a celeb who can actually act, good use of sticker as a hook

(2) News of our death are greatly exaggerated

This Dr. Pepper post is humorous, but especially plays on fear. The brand community is one of the most enthusiastic in all of food and bev, so the content team must have suspected this type of hook would generate strong “phew!” reactions, and a need to share that in comments.

(3) REBEL: Make-up for London Fashion

Strong “Rebel” vibes straight out of a recent exhibit on London #RebelFashion in this Pat McGrath Reel. Emotions include entrancement, aesthetic appreciation, excitement.

Some of the Principles at play include building anticipation, Show don’t tell, mastery of subtext, editing, effects, leaving viewers with plenty of questions and impatience for the upcoming event.

(4) Ocean Spray Homage to the Stanley Homage

This Ocean Spray TikTok cleverly re-enacts a viral homage to a Stanley Cup to land an even more viral video. Giving your own take on a viral video is good practice for brands targeting the under 30s — it shows you are part of their universe, and not some faceless corporation that market tests and filters every bit of communication.

This is one of the rare cases where the homage did much better than the original. Still waiting for a post that imagines the prequel to a viral post… (Another more humorous take on Stanley Cups)

(5) It’s what’s inside that counts

Textbook approach to build and sustain anticipation, rewarding viewers with the reveal of a new upcoming product.

The low sound quality dials up the behind-the-scenes/unscripted vibe, and her own excitement appears real: first time she sees the bath bomb in action?

(6) This could be you!

One of the most common emotions on social (perhaps even more widespread than humour) is empathy. Most likes-on-comments express some form of peer-to-peer empathy (IYKYK (if you know you know) or “ikr” or I know right), and many viral videos benefit from viewers relating with one of the protagonists.

The caption “We feel you” is a masterstroke—and arguably the mantra most owned content teams should adopt in 2024—and triggers exactly the kinds of comments that helped the video go viral.

(7) Collab feature as antidote for (temporary) lack of creativity

Not so creative, this last post was included to re-affirm the importance of the Collab feature on Instagram. A reminder that even if creativity is lacking one day, teams can rely on their largest partners to “Collab” and fuel enthusiastic comments, which in turn grow virality and recruit new followers.

About the author: 20+ years experience in insights & marketing mix at P&G, marketing & media consultancy at McKinsey, head of Europe at L2, co-founder at eBench and Rethink x Social. Have worked with over 250 clients teams across 100+ companies in a dozen categories.

About Rethink x Social: we’re a boutique marketing consultancy, backed by our proprietary tool that tracks and analyses hundreds of thousands of accounts, surfacing insights on trends, best practices, category leaders, and content excellence. We help clients on everything from investment priorities, to social strategies. Our most recent R&D emphasis has been on video content codes, tackling tone of voice, storytelling/editing/pacing principles, the roles of subtext, sounds, protagonists, content big ideas.