Mastering TikTok for Your Food Business: Tapping into Viral Trends & Boosting Engagement
December 12, 2023
With a staggering 3.5 billion downloads worldwide, TikTok has emerged as a powerhouse in social media engagement. In fact, the TikTok community is more frequently and consistently engaging with content on the platform than they are on other social media platforms.1 Its short video format has captivated users, offering a quick and diverse content experience. From entertainment to education, TikTok draws in users seeking inspiration, celebs/influencers, and, notably, branded content. In addition, about one in five TikTokers visit the platform to follow brands/products, while the same amount uses it to keep up with news and trends.2 For food businesses, TikTok serves as a goldmine to connect with a massive audience. Let’s explore the world of viral food trends and how your brand could optimize its TikTok presence in the future.
The Rise of Viral Food Videos
TikTok’s dynamic platform has given rise to a culinary revolution, showcasing both amateur and seasoned chefs creating delectable dishes. As a food brand, you have the opportunity to seize the attention of passionate food enthusiasts. Here are some of the most-viewed viral food recipes of 2023 and ways your brand could leverage these types of trends moving forward:
Chopped Italian Sub Sandwiches:
Explore the ingenious combination of Italian sub-ingredients transformed into a flavorful salad inside a traditional hoagie. These videos are fun to watch, easy to duplicate and result in a tantalizing burst of flavor in every bite.
Brand Breakdown: Brands related to deli meats, condiments, kitchen cutlery, and cutting boards can collaborate with influencers or create their unique spin on this trend.
Fruit Roll-Up Ice Cream Hack:
Even restaurant operators get in on the action. This crunchy-fruity ice cream burrito recipe went viral – driving even further awareness for General Mills’ Fruit Roll-Ups™ brand. Furthermore, many TikTok creators who shared their versions of this recipe hack used homemade ice cream made with popular kitchen gadgets like the Ninja Creami, organically promoting products to a captivated audience.
Brand Breakdown: TikTok is an ideal channel for food and equipment manufacturers and operators to partner and create share-worthy content that embraces these trends, requiring little time or monetary investment.
Feta Fried Eggs:
This 5-minute recipe appealed to the FoodTok community due to its simplistic prep and flexibility to layer on flavors and textures with additional ingredients.
Brand Breakdown: Brands in the tortilla, canned tomato, feta, and pesto categories, to name a few, can capitalize on this growing viral recipe by creating signature versions of this breakfast favorite.
TikTok + Your Brand
Considering TikTok as a marketing tool can significantly boost brand awareness and product sales. With users spending an average of 89 minutes daily on the app3 and TikTok users being twice as likely as users of other channels to recommend something they found on the platform,4 TikTok’s influence is unparalleled.
Here are five compelling statistics to guide your TikTok strategy:
- Brands are remembered 40% more on TikTok than on other platforms5
- When users see brands’ organic TikTok content before their paid ads, there is a 27% increase in brand recall6
- Ads on TikTok viewed for less than six seconds still produce a stronger impact compared to ads viewed for 20 seconds or more7
- 2 out of 3 users are likely to buy something while on the platform and 55% of users use TikTok to research new brands or products8
- 71% of TikTok users who take action off the platform say that TikTok shows them exactly what they are looking for9
In summary, food brands and equipment manufacturers can harness the power of TikTok by aligning with viral food trends and collaborating with influencers and operators. By strategically promoting products on this platform, your brand can tap into TikTok’s immense popularity and engage with a growing audience.
Connect with us today to learn how to effectively implement TikTok and other social channels into your paid and organic marketing plan and create meaningful links between your site content and social accounts to drive site engagement.
Sources:
1, 5 https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tiktok-stats#userbase
2 https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-consumers-do-on-social-media
3 Music Business Worldwide
4, 7, 8 TikTok
6 Neurons, Inc.
9 Market Cast
