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Several of TikTok's biggest trends over the last few weeks have revolved around video templates from the video editing app CapCut. With the app, TikTok users can participate in viral trends on the platform simply by inserting photos or short video clips into pre-existing templates that include a green screen. The hashtag #CapCut has over 3 trillion views on TikTok, demonstrating its massive influence on setting platform trends and determining popular video formats. 

Here are the latest TikTok trends that brands can incorporate into their content on the platform.

Trend: ‘Proof that not everything can be an album cover’

In 2021, the “Album Cover Challenge” swept across TikTok, inviting users to plug their photos and videos into a template and test whether the imagery could potentially function as an album cover. And, over the past few days, this video format has experienced a resurgence—albeit with a new, slightly different CapCut template.

Ironically, the trend demonstrates that nearly any image can make for a suitable album cover, whether the user is featuring their most photogenic and aesthetically-pleasing videos or a skateboarding traffic cone. Thousands of viewers are trying out the challenge for themselves, with the hashtag #albumcover receiving nearly 55 million views and over 10,000 new videos within the last seven days, per TikTok data.

Trend: ‘One kiss is all it takes’

YouTuber IShowSpeed, who also simply goes by “Speed,” has over 15 million subscribers on the platform—but now, he’s going viral on TikTok.

With the CapCut template swapping the video’s backdrop for a green screen, TikTok users have used Speed’s moment of annoyance to add their own images behind the YouTuber and convey aggravating situations or upsetting ideas. 

This video format is essentially the opposite of the Finn Wolfhard snapping template, and brands can leverage it in a similar way—but to share annoying moments that TikTok users can relate to, rather than lighthearted or celebratory. For example, a makeup brand could plug a video clip of someone accidentally smudging an eye makeup look into the template; or, a coffee brand might use a video of someone spilling their morning drink.

Crypto companies that used to drop millions a month on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter are now spending next to nothing. In January, crypto brands spent about $520,000 total on social media, display ads and connected TV in the U.S., according to Pathmatics by Sensor Tower. In January 2022, crypto brands spent almost $14 million on those channels.

Last year’s Super Bowl marked the height of crypto-advertising exuberance, with Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro buying commercials. FTX also advertised in the game, with a star-studded spot—and then the crypto exchange collapsed by November. This year, crypto is out of the Super Bowl. But more than that, many crypto brands are barely spending at all.

FTX was a wake-up call for many crypto brands, as was the subsequent downturn in the price of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that propelled the industry for years.

For advertising, it’s been a reckoning, too, because affluent crypto brands could spend in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Ad agencies and digital ad platforms will miss that money.

Read more on AdAge

Several creators told Ad Age that the influx of opportunities from brands they have seen over the past two years has all but vanished. 

Freelance marketer and creator Jayde Powell has worked with brands such as Sunwink and L’Oréal’s on Black History Month campaigns and events spotlighting Black creators.

Powell shared a tweet remarking on the pattern she and other Black creators were encountering, hoping to bring visibility to the issue and gauge how widespread this absence of brand outreach was among other influencers. Within hours, it became clear that she and the handful of other creators she had initially broached the topic to weren’t the only Black creators who hadn’t been contacted about partnering with brands for Black History Month.

Dozens of creators quickly responded to Powell’s tweet, with raised-hand emojis and comments expressing their frustration in the lack of influencer campaign opportunities related to the annual observance.

Powell agreed that brands have made progress in incorporating Black creators into year-round influencer marketing pushes, and that including Black influencers in campaigns throughout the year—rather than confining them to Black History Month partnerships—is crucial for brands. But, she worries that the reduction in opportunities for Black creators this February may be part of a larger departure from brands’ 2020 promises to support Black creators and influencers.

• Google joins tech peers in touting AI as balm to advertising woes. (Marketing Dive)
• Instagram expands gifts for Reels Creators to all creators in the US. (SMT)
• Coty: Improving marketing ROI is a daily focus. (Marketing Week)
• Understanding TikTok's unique marketing opportunity for small businesses. (Inc.)