The challenge

Ask any avid Tik Toker about what’s viral right now, and you’ll likely hear them throw out phrases filled with vocabulary that’s almost alien without the right context. While just knowing the trends is one thing, understanding them is a whole other (and drastically more difficult) game to play. 

It’s also a powerful one for users growing their own accounts, agencies scouring upcoming talent, and advertisers amplifying current trends. While they may have different approaches, each of these groups faces the problem of trying to assess exactly what the secret is behind a given trend that makes it so appealing to users; in the rapidly evolving world of short-form videos, it’s even harder to gather this information and put it to use in a timely manner. 

Luckily, Trendpop makes it easier to quickly unlock the secret of a given trend by providing the data-driven analytics you need to understand the ins and outs of today’s digital culture— no new dictionary necessary. By aggregating these insights in a user–friendly way, Trendpop eliminates the hours of in-app scrolling to research trends on the user’s behalf.

"What’s viral right now? What is the secret behind a given trend?"

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Background

When thinking about virality, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” is definitely a forerunner that comes to mind. Although it was produced in the 1980s, Bush’s song saw a resurgence in popularity on TikTok– with over 4.4 million videos created with this song and over 20 billion views across the most popular videos using the audio, Bush’s sound skyrocketed to fame with the involvement of creators all across the app 

While Trendpop’s tools can be applied to virtually any video, creator, or sound, “Running Up That Hill” is a great example of a sound that established its presence on the platform. Understanding how and why this song started trending on TikTok will allow users to reproduce its popularity and reach for their own purposes.

"Understanding how and why this song started trending on TikTok will allow users to reproduce its popularity and reach for their own purposes."

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Case Study

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Trendpop takes an unique approach to making content trends transparent through aggregating insight tools that answer virality questions in a clear, efficient manner.

In order to find out why a trend went viral, users might have questions about exactly how it was used. In the case of “Running Up That Hill”, areas of interest can involve the videos created with the sound as well as related content. Using TikTok alone can prove difficult, as users would have to scroll almost endlessly through the millions of videos available under the song to get some sense of its context. ‍

"Using the TikTok App to understand how and when it went viral proved difficult, as users would have to scroll almost endlessly through the millions of videos available under the song to get some sense of its context."  

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Knowing this, Trendpop saves users time by providing tools such as the Video Category Breakdown, which reveals what genres videos may fall under– reducing hours of scrolling to a quick dashboard glance. 

Additionally, Trendpop’s related content filter reveals hashtags associated with the sound such as #strangerthings and #netflix, allowing users to understand the sound in context of larger trends that may not be immediately obvious from the audio itself. In Bush’s case, there is a broader popular culture connection that has significantly contributed to the trend.

For a more creator-focused approach, users may also want to know who a sound is being used by. Instead of trying to guess the types of creators who might be involved in a trend, users can use Trendpop’s Creator Demographics tab for detailed insights on gender, age, language, and more for users actively using a given sound. 

These analytics are particularly interesting for “Running Up That Hill” as even though the song is older, the majority of creators are Gen-Z ( < 24 years of age). This discrepancy can be taken as an indicator that things are going viral for new reasons, as popularity shifts from one target audience to another.
   

More specifically, users may be interested in the particular creators involved in a given trend. Trendpop not only provides a dashboard to visualize these top creators, but also data on how often and how effectively they are participating in the trend. In the event that Trendpop users might want to find a specific creator to work with, it’s easy to find fans of the sound who align with their goals who have also already have made successful videos with it. Each creator may use the sound in their own style– some of the top fans of Bush’s have generated videos in entertainment, comedy, beauty, and more; thus, there’s plenty of opportunity to use the traction of a trend to create/promote content well suited for your target audience.

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Finally, it’s important to consider timing to stay on top of viral trends as they appear. Knowing the general timeline of when a trend starts blowing up as well as peaks and valleys of popularity can help users decide if it aligns with their individual goals. TikTok doesn’t provide a way to filter videos in the app by timeline, so finding such information can be tricky and tedious in-app. In order to increase convenience and help users stay current, Trendpop displays trend information as it persists over time, even allowing different filters on metrics a user might be interested in.   

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This data is also available for hashtags, user accounts, and more on Trendpop’s platform, allowing users to further understand the ecosystem a trend is facilitated by. Most notably, we can see how trends coincide with one another to build traction– Bush’s sound saw significant video growth at the same time (May 2022) as the #strangerrthings hashtag. Thus, awareness of multiple trends and their attachments to one another can be significant in viral success.  As previously mentioned, “Running Up That Hill” was created far before it became popular on TikTok– making a comeback that isn’t all too uncommon as trends tend to cycle. Trendpop makes it easy for users to predict and be prepared for these sorts of moments by continuously updating the historical data on record.

Conclusion

In order for a trend to successfully go viral, many important factors need to go right. When they do, the results can be remarkable– Bush’s sound is a prime example of viral success. Today, “Running Up That Hill” has reached over 30 million shares, engaging a significant portion of TikTok’s user base.

Trendpop takes the guesswork out of the process, using real-time data to help users understand and keep track of each of the components necessary for a trend’s success without having to spend hours combing through the TikTok platform.

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