Commentary

Keeping Pace With The Culture: Trendpop And Viral Marketing

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Do you remember “Damn, Daniel”? Or the emotional “Leave Britney Alone!” outburst? How about the Ice Bucket Challenge, or the cast of annoyingly addictive songs like “Gangnam Style,” the “Harlem Shake,” and, of course, “What Does The Fox Say?”

I know I (unfortunately) do.

In the social media world, which has become synonymous with, well, the whole world, there’s nothing more important than moments like these, moments that went “viral.”

Even if you don’t set out to go viral, it’s likely that a part of your social-media-scrolling self craves it, or at least wouldn’t mind it if it suddenly happened (which is what most viral moments magically do). And if you’re a creator, or brand? Then there’s no doubt you want the world watching.

The pros of viral marketing are somewhat obvious: It can help a brand build awareness across a multitude of demographics, help cut costs, and lead to real-time growth difficult to replicate in any other way.

However, it’s hard to guarantee that a campaign will go viral, since so much of that process is left up to complicated algorithms and chance. Viral advertising may also spread in a negative way, as so much of its success depends on the public’s reactions.

In a rapidly changing social landscape, with the rise of TikTok and short-form video, along with the heightened speed at which trends come and go, it’s often difficult for marketers to identify current viral trends in time to build a campaign around them.

Which gets me to a data platform called Trendpop, which is offering a new subscription plan that brands, agencies, and record labels can use to identify creators and viral trends to reach new audiences via short-form social video.

To date, the platform has been available on a private, invite-only basis. Now, it’s opening up access to anyone attempting to track viral trends while reducing the manual workflow required to understand which videos, sounds, creators and hashtags are about to blow.

If they so choose, marketers can leverage the insights provided by Trendpop, which has a database of over 170 million creators, 90 million sounds, 40 million hashtags, and 2 billion videos, to run influencer marketing campaigns, or create new original content.

Though a database of old videos may not do as much for trends, the platform says it adds 3 to 4 million new vids to the platform daily and has an AI that helps identify both viral and up-and-coming trends on TikTok so marketers “can see the breakdown of a trend as it’s happening.”

Trendpop also says that while it’s focused on TikTok, it’s taking “a huge bet on short-form video in general” and envisions an “all-in-one platform” that allows digital marketers to monitor Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, two recent TikTok copycats.

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