Now, here you lot go again - you say, you want your liberty 🎶

Matt MacPherson

Matt MacPherson

Vice President, Digital

Published October 14, 2020

Okay deplorable to put that earworm back in your head, but I wanted to talk about the affect of this moment. Of class, by now you've seen the Dreams challenge sparked by Nathan Apodaca aka Doggface208 on TikTok. The practiced vibe nosotros all demand in 2020 come to life. It's an incredible instance of where we are in the social landscape and in my opinion, there are converging factors that made this viral moment possible.

  1. On a platform dominated by Gen Z, how did one of its most ubiquitous pieces of content come from a 37-year-sometime in Idaho? The respond isauthenticity. Doggface is who he is, and he knows it. He wasn't chasing a trend and every bit a consequence he ended up creating one.
  2. As we wake up each mean solar day and face the unrelenting news cycle, in that location is an overwhelmingappetite for happiness. Skateboarding to Dreams for 20 seconds filled the gap for a lot of people. I meana lot – the original TikTok has been viewed over 50 million times. And while challenges accept been a popular class of social communication since around 2014 when the Ice Saucepan Challenge to raise awareness for ALS hit your feed, by now, information technology's more mutual as a tactic for music artists to promote new songs. However, there's something to exist said for the power oforganic involvement. That's what took place here - people wanted to join in on the joy, which only made the moment bigger as copycat Dreams videos popped up across social channels. Co-ordinate to figures from TikTok, 134,000 tribute videos have been made, inspired by Doggface, totaling near a half-billion views. That doesn't even include Instagram.
  3. He used agroovy song. It's an obvious respond, simply Fleetwood Mac is a legacy band for a reason and Dreams is quite simply, a banger. This trend is also powered by the fact that every age demographic at least knows this song. They might not love it, but they've definitely heard it. That kind of retrieve makes it interesting, and more importantly, accessible for every age grouping.

A few terminal thoughts. Ocean Spray did a great job here. Kudos to whoever on their brand team had the willpower to let this moment happen for a few days before jumping in and inserting themselves. Who knows? Maybe it just took that long to get approvals, but I choose to believe in the ability of strategy! That allowed a very existent groundswell of momentum. And when the brand did spring in, it was the perfect touch. Solved an consequence for Doggface by gifting him a cranberry blood-red pickup (he was skateboarding because his truck broke downward) and hooked him up with a ton of complimentary production, all captured on video. As a result, he posted a thank you on TikTok that has racked up some other 23 million views.

TikTok just grew up. It's been on the path for a while now, but it needed a moment like this to get over the acme and it will be interesting to see where the company goes from here. It's already dominating music, as most of the acme 10 pop songs at any given time can be traced back to popularity on the app start.

Speaking of music, expect to hear a ton of legacy acts jump on TikTok at present. Bands like The Rolling Stones will run into there's a ripe new audience and money to exist made. Simply await at the interest in Fleetwood Mac over the past 5 years to the moment when this video took off. The touch on is there, and the labels will come up. Not a bad thing, they brand great music, just a fun little prediction.

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Finally, isn't it incredible to encounter how i piece of content can change a persons life forever? Through donations and merch sales from his newfound fame, Doggface won't accept to alive in an RV anymore. Astonishing.

Thank you for reading and looking forrard to your thoughts!