Takeaways

Using Our Charts To Understand Where The Best Opportunities Are

• Bubble charts show the median number of views that videos of specific topics received over the previous 30 days on the X-axis, and the median engagement that those topics received over the previous 30 days on the Y-axis.
• The size of the circle indicates the number of videos created about that topic (the larger the circle, the more videos there were).
• The color of the circles shows the length of videos of that topic (the darker the circles, the longer the videos – see the legend at the left of the graph).
• Therefore, the optimal video opportunities are in the upper right quadrant (high views + high engagement) with a smaller circle, implying fewer, successful videos, so the category isn't oversaturated.

Takeaways

We used a state-of-the-art natural language understanding model to cluster videos into machine-identified topics:

• COVID-19 / Vaccine is still top-of-mind for TikTok users. Pandemic-related content is still one of the highest-performing but least-saturated topics for these top media brands.
• Posts from Funimation bring Anime to the fore, especially in terms of engagement. There’s room for competition here and a rabid fanbase ready to share and interact.
• Flipped the Switch: The today show, E News, Nikki Bella, and SNL partake in this Drake-fueled comedic meme, and yet it was not overdone. Viral dances will continue to reign supreme on TikTok.
• House of Highlights Bloopers are perfect for the medium, delivering laughs in seconds for a scroll-happy audience.
• The Bachelor Nation cluster inspires much discussion and captures some examples from Real Housewives, so it might be considered more broadly as “Reality TV”.

Takeaways

• Videos featuring a puppy outperform all other image-based aggregations hands-down, in both play counts and engagement.
• Doctors, their impersonators, and veterinarians are stars in this pandemic era. The victim of the viral gorilla glue hair incident happened to be captured in this bubble in her scrubs.
• When Athletes appear, they bring a balance of views and engagement—not just in highlight clips, but also while telling stories and goofing around.
• The data tells us that TikTokkers are craving Night Club vibes: Diplo performances, runway dance moves, and the like, which makes sense.
• The appearance of Bicycles was associated with particularly high engagement rates and strong play counts.

Takeaways

• Videos featuring a disgusted face ranked the highest on median views. Confusion was affiliated with the highest aggregate engagement scores, while happy and calm expressions tended to see lukewarm scores. The takeaway is that it's a good idea to avoid making milquetoast content.

Takeaways

• Nobody gets more views on aggregate in our TikTok dataset than SNL. Short skits further condensed, a star-studded cast, and timeliness make SNL ideal for TikTok.
• Comedy duo Rhett and Link came from humble YouTube beginnings, gathered 17M subscribers around Good Mythical Morning (#gmm in the hashtags section here), and have been swift and successful in porting their web fame to TikTok.
• Elite Daily has proven better than most at inspiring engagement with their prolific and relatable TikTok content aimed at young women.
• Retired pro wrestler Nikki Bella comes in at a close second in average view counts after SNL, remarkably. Bella shows off a great handle on the medium.
• The Daily Show and ESPN are top contenders in their cohort on TikTok, paving the way for more names in traditional broadcast media to land smoothly on the platform.

Takeaways

• Elite Daily’s top-performing videos averaged out around 12-15 seconds.
• The top-performing videos from E! News were the longest of all creators, coming in around 75 seconds on average.
• Most creators thrived in the 15-30 second range.

Takeaways

• Shaq made a huge splash on TikTok with stories about a Walmart shopping spree and getting “detained” in London. TikTokkers want more Shaq.
• Jordan Klepper’s recurring appearances on the Daily Show lampooned homophobia and Donald Trump’s fanbase, outperforming videos featuring Trevor Noah on aggregate.
• Various SNL Personalities have a monopoly on play counts, with viral clips fearing Pete Davidson, John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, and Kenan Thompson leading the pack.

Takeaways

Music is the glue that holds TikTok together. Here are some tracks affiliated with high play counts and engagement rates across creators:

• “Nonstop” by Drake — the “Flipped the Switch” song
• “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion
• “Surrender” by Natalie Taylor
• “Chanel” by Frank Ocean (Nick Leon Remix)
• “Home” by Edith Whiskers
• “Somebody that I used to know 80s” by ✨Emily✨

We disregarded tracks that appeared less than 3 times in our dataset. Here it’s worth mentioning producer Ricky Desktop, who discusses what makes a TikTok track great.

Takeaways

• TikTok, in its infancy, is already a political megaphone: Longer (> 30-second) videos that included the hashtags #biden, #election, or #trump were among the most engaged-with in this dataset.
• #2020 became nearly synonymous with “Murphy’s Law”—a shared commiseration, but with some bright spots.
• The #sports tag rakes in more views than most: This includes traditional sports highlights
  but also niche sports and trick shots.