Ad Age expanded its “Creativity Top 5” series to include roundups of our favorite special-interest campaigns and ideas from brands. The latest installment looks at the best TikTok videos posted by brands over the past month.
In this month's lineup: Barbie dolls get in on the blockbuster “Barbie” movie, FIFA summarizes the Women’s World Cup with Gen Z slang and rapper Post Malone has a fast-food sleepover.
In the weeks leading up to the July 21 premiere of the highly anticipated “Barbie” movie, dozens of brands rushed to capitalize on the pop culture craze with hot pink product collaborations. But even more brands jumped on the “Barbie” movie buzz through social media posts—and, naturally, the TikTok account for the dolls at the center of the film had to get involved, too.
On the day before the film’s release, the Barbie TikTok account posted a scaled-down version of the “Barbie” movie’s premiere that featured several Barbie dolls themselves walking the pink carpet. The minute-long video includes clips of Ken being bombarded with photographers’ requests to change his expression and pose to match different emotions (“Give us seasick! Give us waiting in line at the DMV!”), one Barbie responding to bizarre “would you rather” questions from an off-screen pink carpet host and another Barbie excitedly pointing out guest appearances from several dolls from the animated series of “Barbie” movies. The two dancing dogs from the 2008 straight-to-DVD film “Barbie & the Diamond Castle,” who previously found themselves at the center of a TikTok trend, even made an appearance.
The TikTok has amassed over 5 million views and hundreds of comments from users celebrating the representation of dolls from the animated “Barbie” movies of their childhoods.
The “What are you listening to?” video format, in which one user asks another with headphones in their ears what song they’re currently rocking out to, is something of a timeless TikTok staple. Meow Mix leveraged the popular video style to promote its new campaign, which features a boy-band-inspired remix of its “Meow Meow Meow Meow” jingle and a guest appearance from JC Chasez of 1990s boy band NSYNC. To tie the overarching campaign to TikTok, the cat food brand had Chasez lower his headphones and tell someone off-screen that he was listening to Meow Mix’s new jingle, called “Wet Your Whiskers,” by the all-cat boy band Tabby 5. Chasez then turns away and dances along to the melodic meows of the feline heartthrobs.
That video alone has racked up 6.6 million views. But it’s just one piece of Meow Mix’s larger TikTok campaign, which invites users to duet a video from Chasez and sing along to “Wet Your Whiskers” for a chance to join the Tabby 5.
Since the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on July 20, the soccer tournament’s governing body has utilized TikTok to share game highlights, behind-the-scenes footage of the competing teams and post-game press conference clips. But the most popular video tied to the World Cup that FIFA has posted thus far is a compilation of thrilling goals scored by various teams over the first three weeks of the tournament. To fit the video’s TikTok environment, the voiceover describing the different goals uses copious amounts of Gen Z slang. For example, he refers to several of these scoring moments as “cold,” which is used among young sports fans in place of words like “awesome” or “cool.” FIFA’s Gen Z-oriented soccer recap has drawn nearly 13 million views in just six days.
Also read: 20 brands resonating with Gen Z
Following in the footsteps of brands such as Nerf and Jack in the Box hiring creators to run their social media channels, the card game Uno is seeking a “Chief Uno Player” to create and star in social media content. The Mattel-owned game announced the job opportunity in an Aug. 1 TikTok video and shared details about what the position will entail, including a payout of $4,444.44 per week over the course of four weeks in exchange for playing and making social content around a new version of the card game, Uno Quatro. The “Chief Uno Player” will also be required to set themselves up at New York’s Pier 17 and challenge passersby to a game of Uno Quatro.
Rather than submitting a resume, applicants are asked to stitch Uno’s video and reply to a series of questions about their experience playing Uno. The brand’s job search announcement has racked up over 16 million views thus far, and today is the final day for applicants to submit their videos.
Fast food restaurant Raising Cane’s and rapper Post Malone have collaborated extensively over the past several months. The partnership kicked off with a pink, Malone-inspired Raising Cane’s location in Utah and has continued with a series of limited-edition collectible cups inspired by Malone’s face and his tattoos. The chicken-oriented restaurant also teamed up with Malone to create a TikTok video promoting National Chicken Finger Day on July 27.
The humorous commercial revolves around a sleepover between Malone and Raising Cane’s founder and CEO Todd Graves at the restaurant’s Malone-ified Utah location. The two, who are friends in real life, lay in sleeping bags that resemble chicken fingers while wearing matching Raising Cane’s pajamas, as Malone laments to Graves that he can’t fall asleep because he’s “too excited for National Chicken Finger Day.” The comically endearing video has received more than 16 million views.
