To equip marketers with deep insights into TikTok’s community’s evolving wants and needs,the platform issued its annual trend forecast – What’s Next 2025 Trend Report. It shows that in 2025, the TikTok community will unite to create unique, transformative, and year-defining content, reshaping how the industry thinks about ‘marketing’ and the future of business growth—a movement called Brand Chem.
The old playbook of brands telling consumers what they need is over. This new era calls for brands to join forces with creators and communities, working hand-in-hand to build content that resonates, drives impact, and ultimately redefines cultural relevance.
“In 2024, we saw brands push creative limits, lean into trends, and connect with their communities in powerful ways, but 2025 is set to take it even further,” said Shadi Kandil, General Manager, Global Business Solutions, Middle East, Turkey, Africa, Central and South Asia – TikTok. “The creative storytelling opportunities on TikTok are endless, and this year brands and creators will come together to continue shaping culture, sparking fresh ideas, and accelerating business growth by tapping directly into what matters to the TikTok community.”
You can view the full ‘What’s Next’ report here.
This report focuses on the most impactful and sustainable trends, referred to as Trend Signals. The three key groups of Trend Signals:
- Brand Fusion
- Identity Osmosis
- Creative Catalysts
Brand Fusion
A dynamic state where a brand gains renewed vigor, becoming more responsive and ready to build lasting bonds.
TikTok has become a go-to platform for trusted insights. Brands are discovering the value of collaborating with diverse creators, from low-key reviewers to dynamic personalities. Instead of relying on a single creator, brands can now connect with their community at scale, reaching unique audiences and enabling authentic storytelling (1). In fact, 2 out of 3 TikTok users like when brands partner with a variety of creators. Adding custom codes and exclusive offers further amplifies this reach, allowing brands to create personalized connections while driving business results.
It’s not just about working with a variety of creators, but also ensuring brands allow those creators to show up authentically through their content. One of the examples of brands which have successfully leveraged creator collaborations is 7up. The brand introduced a new Strawberry Lemonade flavor on TikTok and aimed to increase awareness and engagement within their target audience. The company launched its first-ever Branded Effect creator-led campaign, infusing frames of ice cubes and zesty lemons, along with an infectious jingle. A mix of Branded Effect, creator engagement, and ads products like Spark Ads and TopView premium placement resulted in sip-taculor success on TikTok. The campaign garnered 12.5 Million Video Views on TikTok, with more than 7.6K videos published with the Berry is Back Branded Effect. 7up achieved a staggering 100% of their initial target within the first three months of the Strawberry Lemonade launch.
Going beyond authentic content to building genuine rapport, brands must meet their communities where they are and share varied and unfiltered content such as street interviews, behind-the-scenes moments, or thoughtful insights. By doing so, brands can foster trust and community while encouraging audience engagement (2). 40% of TikTok users find brands that showcase personality more relevant, while 45% of social and video platform users feel brand relevance comes from feeling understood — emphasizing the importance of consistent, supportive, and joyful content. Through TikTok’s Creative Exchange, brands can strategically partner with creative experts across specialized niches, making their connections with audiences even more meaningful.
Gourmet Foods, Pakistan’s food and beverage industry brand, for example, used TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX) to create visually compelling and culturally relevant content. This solution helped the brand to develop five engaging videos that seamlessly integrated with TikTok’s native features. The videos were designed to resonate with the platform’s young and dynamic audience and helped to maximize reach, drive awareness of the brand’s beverage range and solidify its position as a leading beverage brand in the Pakistani market.
Identity Osmosis
Brands are organically integrating evolving consumer values, allowing these shifting ideals to reshape their identity.
TikTok communities are redefining representation by embracing diverse, authentic perspectives and celebrating niche viewpoints. By adapting to new trends and leaning into authentic perspectives, brands can connect on a deeper level with their communities, expanding reach and value (3). 81% of users say TikTok has introduced them to new topics and trends they didn’t know they liked, building a globally connected, engaged community.
A good example of how to win the love of a community is Coke Studio, a franchise featuring local studio-recorded music performances that Pakistanis eagerly look forward to each year, launching its highly anticipated Season 15 on TikTok. The campaign kicked-off with TikTok’s premium advertising solutions, and all of Coke Studio’s Season 15 content, which featured vertical adaptations of the full songs with local artists, was uploaded to Coke Studio’s TikTok profile. This content was further amplified through Spark Ads, ensuring each song reached a broader audience while maintaining native engagement on the platform. The campaign delivered exceptional results, resonating powerfully with the community, reaching over 41 million users and achieving a CPM 9.3% below the industry benchmark. Engagement was equally impressive, with over 5.7 million likes, comments, and shares on Coke Studio’s videos. This goes to show how TikTok effectively promoted the season, driving massive awareness and interaction among music lovers across the platform.
TikTok is transforming conversations about life stages and identity. It’s changed the ideals around Girlhood from a once-narrow concept into a space of diverse narratives where women embrace TikTok’s femininomenon and listen to each other’s first-hand experiences. From affordable dupes to unboxing hauls, TikTok fosters a digital sisterhood in which 72% of women on TikTok feel it’s easy to connect and bond with new communities around shared life experiences on the platform. (5) This evolution is prompting brands to reconsider their messaging and enshrine female inclusivity, in part by leveraging amplifier communities like #WomeninSTEM, uniting women from tech sciences, on TikTok.
Other deeply personal topics that have been transformed by conversations on TikTok are personal finance and well-being. TikTok is redefining traditional milestones amid an era of economic change, spurring the community to be more interested in financial literacy. Conversations around student debt, mental health, and personal happiness reflect a shift toward valuing authentic, relatable experiences, with 50% of users on social/video platforms seeking content that mirrors their lives. (6) And brands can engage in those conversations, providing users with valuable advice.
Creative Catalysts
Untapped tools for marketers to ideate, build, learn, and take more exciting creative risks than ever before.
AI is becoming a source of excitement on TikTok, where users and brands explore its potential in everyday tasks like styling outfits, visualizing renovations, or writing scripts with Symphony Assistant. This playful, creative approach turns AI from a sci-fi concept into a practical, engaging tool for daily life, sparking curiosity and creativity. TikTok users are 1.4x more likely than users on other platforms to look forward to Generative AI in ads (7), highlighting this growing enthusiasm. With Symphony Assistant, brands can leverage real-time data on trending content and transform it into creative, ready-to-film concepts, making AI an integral part of TikTok’s vibrant, discovery-driven community.
As content demand rises, brands are shifting from short-lived marketing assets to multifaceted storytelling strategies. Formats such as Image Ads allow brands to quickly hop into trends and tell new stories by shaking up the format. This approach aligns with TikTok’s user base, where 76% of TikTok users enjoy seeing a mix of images and video (8), enabling brands to maintain relevance and continuously engage audiences. Real-time feedback in TikTok’s comment sections further enhances this strategy, allowing brands to innovate alongside consumers—with 68% of users saying brands should leverage comments to better understand their audience. (9)
