9 TikTok Marketing Examples That Generated Millions of Views
TikTok is a massive social tool. This platform has 1.58 billion users who spend 95 minutes per day on TikTok.
But the game has changed. Only the random dance challenges and influencer shoutouts won’t cut it anymore. Successful TikTok campaigns now require the right strategy combined with long-term brand building.
What separates successful TikTok marketing campaigns from those that fail? To understand the underlying psychology, we analyzed several successful TikTok marketing examples to gain valuable insights.
Let’s explore nine case studies that disclose exactly what worked for them and will work for other businesses like ours.
What Makes TikTok Marketing Successful in 2026?
The TikTok campaigns that dominate this year aren’t winning because of big budgets or celebrity endorsements. They’re winning because of five fundamental shifts in how the platform works.
1. Rewards Discovery Not Followers
Unlike most social platforms, TikTok’s algorithm is all about discovery rather than just rewarding accounts with huge followings. That means any brand, big or small, has a real shot at going viral overnight.
Your follower count takes a back seat. What really matters is whether your video grabs people’s attention in the first three seconds. I’ve seen it happen.
A brand with just 500 followers can absolutely crush it and outperform someone with half a million if their TikTok branded content examples are creative, engaging, and spot-on.
2. Authenticity Value Every Time
Fancy, super-polished corporate videos flop on TikTok. People there want real vibes 40% of users say they engage way more with brands that actually have personality. And 45% feel closer to brands that keep it authentic.
Are the brands absolutely killing it on TikTok in 2026? They’re the ones shooting quick videos on their phones, sharing real behind-the-scenes stuff, and just being human.
Give me messy office moments over perfectly scripted ads any day. Let the founder hop on camera and talk straight to you, not some slick agency production.
3. Community Collaboration
TikTok’s What’s Next 2025 report highlights a big shift called Brand Fusion. Instead of just pushing the best TikTok ad campaigns at people, brands are now building real, lasting connections with their communities.
The most successful brands on TikTok treat their audience like true partners. They let users shape the brand through remixes, creative takes, and active participation. This is turning fans into co-creators.
What works best? Brands that actually listen. They listen to their community, respond to feedback with fresh ideas, and collaborate rather than try to control the narrative.
4. Functions As a Search Engine
Gen Z searches TikTok before Google in some cases. This completely changes how creative strategy must work. Content needs to be discoverable, educational, and must be solution-focused.
Brands that treat TikTok like a search engine, optimizing for keywords in captions, hooks, and on-screen text. You will see better performance.
5. Entertainment Is Non-Negotiable
No matter how amazing your product is, if your content isn’t fun, people will just scroll right past it.TikTok users are burned out on boring content these days.
That’s why influencer marketing works so well there; it gets an average engagement rate of 15.8%, which is three times higher than on any other platform.
The campaigns that really crush it on TikTok? They’re the ones that feel like pure entertainment, full of personality, and still manage to sneak in real value without feeling like a hard sell.
9 Most Popular TikTok Marketing Examples
TikTok isn’t just for dance challenges anymore; it’s become a solid medium for brands that know how to speak the platform’s language.
Whether you’re a scrappy startup or a Fortune 500 company, TikTok offers a unique opportunity to connect with audiences in authentic, entertaining ways.
Ready to see what’s working? Here are 9 brands that nailed their TikTok strategy and what you can learn from them.
1. Ryanair – The Budget Airline Became a Meme Lord
Ryanair wasn’t supposed to win TikTok. Budget airlines with cramped seats and extra fees aren’t exactly loved by customers. But instead of hiding from criticism, Ryanair leaned into it, hard. They turned every complaint about their service into comedy gold.
The strategy was brilliantly simple use TikTok’s signature plane face filter (eyes and mouth imposed on an aircraft) and create self-deprecating, snarky content that mocked their own reputation.
Videos joked about charging people for breathing, windows with no views, and random seat allocations. They accept the chaos of being a low-cost carrier and turned it into entertainment.
Their social team clearly understood TikTok’s culture posts felt like they came from a Gen Z friend roasting their employer, not a corporate marketing department.
Results & Key Takeaways
Ryanair exploded to 2.7 million TikTok followers with 58.4 million likes. The #ryanair hashtag generated over 2.6 billion views. Most impressively, they achieved all this with minimal paid advertising.
What made this a TikTok success story
Ryanair proved that authenticity trumps perfection. By acknowledging their flaws and making them funny, they created a dom/sub relationship with customers, where people loved them for their brutal honesty. The brand’s humour-based strategy drove engagement without breaking the bank on expensive ad campaigns.
Key lesson
Don’t run from criticism; weaponize it. Self-deprecating humour builds trust faster than defensive PR statements. This is one of the best brands on TikTok because they understood that people don’t want ads; they want entertainment with personality.
2. The Washington Post – Making News Cool for Gen Z
In 2019, video producer Dave Jorgenson pitched The Washington Post on joining TikTok with a seven-page proposal. His vision use authenticity and humour to educate younger audiences without going too deep into hard news, think of it as a modern-day newspaper crossword or editorial cartoon.
Jorgenson’s TikTok strategy involved using authenticity and humour to educate, creating content that felt like a breath of fresh air compared to negativity on X (Twitter) and shaming on Instagram.
Instead of formal news broadcasts, the content felt casual, relatable, and occasionally absurd, yet always informative.
Results & Key Takeaways
The Washington Post grew to 1.9 million TikTok followers with 106.4 million likes. More importantly, they reached Gen Z audiences who had not previously engaged with traditional news. The account became so successful that other news organizations copied their approach, and YouTube Shorts became a secondary success channel.
What made this a TikTok success story
The Post proved legacy institutions can thrive on TikTok by meeting audiences where they are. Gen Z craves authenticity, and as digital natives, can quickly pick up when something isn’t genuine. The Post succeeded by being genuinely helpful and entertaining, not just informative.
Key lesson
You don’t need to abandon your brand values to succeed on TikTok. The Washington Post remained credible while combining with platform culture. This is how brands on TikTok can educate and entertain, proving that even boring industries can create compelling content.
3. GoPro – User-Generated Adventure Content
GoPro’s TikTok creative strategy revolves almost entirely around user-generated content (UGC), where the brand reposts thrilling, real-life adventure videos captured by everyday users with GoPro cameras.
Rather than producing polished ads, GoPro curates and amplifies authentic footage from extreme sports enthusiasts, travellers, wildlife adventurers, and casual creators.
This approach showcases the camera’s durability in harsh conditions like underwater dives, high-speed skiing, base jumping, or safari encounters while highlighting its ease of use and high-quality output.
Results & Key Takeaways
GoPro’s UGC-driven TikTok presence has built a highly engaged community, with individual reposted videos often garnering tens to hundreds of thousands of views and likes. Broader campaigns like the Million Dollar Challenge have generated 25,000-43,000 submissions, millions of organic views, and billions of hashtag impressions across platforms.
What Made This a TikTok Success Story
GoPro cameras are designed for short, dynamic, POV action clips ideal for TikTok’s vertical, fast-paced format.
Raw, unscripted adventures feel genuine and relatable, outperforming branded content in trust and virality (UGC often scores higher emotional impact).
Key Lessons
If your product enables creation (like a camera), make users the stars; it’s more credible than self-promotion. Offer rewards and features to encourage UGC, but let creativity flow freely for authenticity.
Select content that aligns with brand values to maintain consistency while amplifying diversity.
4. Duolingo – Mascot Marketing That Broke the Internet
Duolingo didn’t just join TikTok; they rewrote the entire playbook for brand personality. Starting in September 2021 with just 50,000 followers, Duolingo transformed its green-owl mascot, Duo, into one of the most recognizable and beloved characters on the internet.
Instead of promoting language learning, Duolingo created chaotic and absolutely hilarious content featuring different concepts.
They made entertainment their first priority over education. The brand jumped on every trending sound, participated in viral challenges, and responded to comments with the same energy.
Results & Key Takeaways
The numbers are staggering. Duolingo grew its TikTok followers from 50,000 to 17 Million+, with 473 Million total likes. Their most viral video has 28 million views, and they’ve posted 60+ videos that each crossed 1 million views.
What made this a TikTok success story
Duolingo achieved all of this with a $0 paid advertising budget. Their secret? They understood that on TikTok, entertainment beats selling every single time.
They made Duo feel like a real character users wanted to follow, not a corporate mascot. The brand actively engaged in comment sections, creating genuine connections that made users feel heard and valued.
Key lesson
Your brand doesn’t need to be professional on TikTok; it needs to be entertaining and authentic. The most successful TikTok marketing campaign example adopts personality over polish.
5. Oreo – #OreoTwist Challenge
#OreoTwist Challenge (launched in 2025 by Mondelez International) was a clever evolution of the brand’s iconic Twist, Lick, Dunk eating ritual, reimagined for TikTok’s short-form, creative video format.
The campaign encouraged users to put their own playful, unexpected twist on how they enjoyed Oreos.
Participants shared videos twisting Oreos in humorous, artistic, or exaggerated ways: incorporating them into recipes, creating Oreo art installations, pairing them with unusual dips, or adding comedic skits and effects.
The core call-to-action was to use the hashtag #OreoTwist and tag the brand, sparking widespread UGC. This interactive, fun-focused approachis perfectly aligned with TikTok’s emphasis on participation and creativity.
Results & Key Takeaways
Over 1 billion cumulative views on TikTok under the #OreoTwist hashtag, making it one of the platform’s top-performing branded challenges in 2025.
Thousands of videos from everyday users, influencers, and creators, amplifying reach through earned media.
What Made This a TikTok Success Story
Built on the timeless Twist, Lick, Dunk ritual but encouraged wild reinventions, making it feel familiar yet innovative.
Anyone with an Oreo pack could participate; no fancy production needed, encouraging authentic, relatable content over polished ads.
Key Lessons for Brands
Success comes from empowering users to own the narrative through UGC, rather than top-down advertising.
Reinventing a signature element (like Oreo’s twist) builds emotional ties while making it feel new and exciting.
6. Netflix – #WhatsYourPower Challenge
Launched in August 2020 to promote the Netflix original movie Project Power (Starring Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fishback), the #WhatsYourPower challenge tapped into the film’s core theme: a mysterious pill that grants users random superpowers for five minutes.
Netflix created a branded TikTok effect/filter that revealed a user’s superpower, encouraging participants to act it out in creative videos.
Users were prompted with questions like If you could have five superpowers, what would they be? paired with trending sounds. The campaign leveraged user-generated content, making it highly interactive and tied directly to the movie’s superhero narrative.
Results & Key Metrics
Over 112,000 users created videos using the branded filter, resulting in one of the largest volumes of UGC for a brand campaign on TikTok at the time.
Massive organic engagement through duets and shares, contributing to viral spread.
Helped solidify Netflix’s strong TikTok presence (second most-followed brand during that period).
What Made This a TikTok Success Story
The superpower filter mirrored the movie’s plot exactly, making participation feel like an extension of the film rather than a forced ad.
TikTok’s built-in effects made it easy and fun for anyone to join; no advanced editing skills needed.
Key Lessons for Brands
Branded effects/filters drive participation far more than traditional ads; make them fun, shareable, and tied to your product’s core idea.
Let users create the bulk of the campaign; it builds authenticity and scales reach exponentially.
7. Chipotle – Viral Hits Made the Number 1 Food Brand
Chipotle became the most-followed food brand on TikTok by running multiple innovative campaigns that felt authentic to the platform.
Their strategy avoided traditional branded content, opting instead for casual, down-to-earth videos featuring employee hacks, behind-the-scenes kitchen footage, and user-submitted recipes. Key campaigns included:
- #ChipotleLidFlip (Cinco de Mayo 2019): Partnered with David Dobrik to challenge users to flip burrito bowl lids. Generated 230 million views in the first month and drove record digital sales.
- #GuacDance (National Avocado Day): Used the viral “Guacamole Song” and generated 250,000 video submissions with 430 million views.
Chipotle treated TikTok as a two-way conversation, not a broadcast channel.
Results & Key Takeaways
Chipotle grew to 2.7 Million+ followers with 61.2 million+ likes. Their campaigns consistently generated hundreds of millions of views and drove record digital sales days. More importantly, they positioned Chipotle as a brand that listens to and collaborates with its community.
What made this a TikTok success story
Chipotle monitored trends, responded to hacks, and turned user creativity into official products. By featuring real employees and keeping production casual.
Key lesson
Social listening and responsiveness matter more than production budgets. The best brands on TikTok don’t just create content; they participate in the community and co-create with their audience. This exemplifies successful TikTok marketing campaigns in action.
8. Scrub Daddy – A Sponge With 4.5M Followers
Scrub Daddy, the smiling sponge from Shark Tank, became one of TikTok’s most unlikely success stories. Their strategy was self-aware content that embraced Gen Z’s unique humour while openly acknowledging that videos were promotional.
They employed a social media team that clearly uses TikTok and understands its nuances, producing absurd, niche, and sometimes bizarre content. Videos featured a giant walking Scrub Daddy mascot getting into ridiculous situations, CEO Aaron Krause demonstrating products while giving warehouse tours, and memes comparing their sponges to knockoffs.
The brand mastered trend-jacking by using green-screen overlays from TV shows and films, applying trending sounds to cleaning scenarios, and creating content that felt native to the CleanTok community.
Results & Key Takeaways
Scrub Daddy grew to 4.5 million followers with 102.7 million likes. The #scrubdaddy hashtag hit 3.3 billion views. One simple video comparing their sponge to a knockoff generated 14 million views, 2 million likes, and 13K comments. It indicates that straightforward product demos can go viral when executed with personality.
What made this a TikTok success story
Scrub Daddy prioritized speed and cultural relevance over perfect production quality, jumping on trends within days or hours rather than waiting for approvals. They understood that being part of the conversation now is more valuable than being perfect later.
Key lesson
Even the most mundane products can become TikTok sensations through consistent, culturally relevant content. This exemplifies TikTok-branded content that drives both engagement and retail sales.
9. Ocean Spray – Viral Moment Turned Into Marketing Gold
Ocean Spray didn’t create this campaign; the internet did. When Nathan Apodaca (aka @420doggface208) posted a 23-second video of himself skateboarding to work after his car broke down, drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry and vibing to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” he had no idea he’d change marketing forever.
The video was pure authenticity: a regular guy, no fancy production, just good vibes. It resonated because, during the pandemic, people craved simple joy. Within hours, it went viral. Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 song hit #1 on iTunes. Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks joined TikTok specifically to recreate it. Even Ocean Spray’s CEO hopped on a skateboard (with mixed results).
Ocean Spray’s genius was in their response strategy. They didn’t try to co-opt the moment or make it about them. They waited a week, monitored the organic growth, then showed up at Nathan’s door with a cranberry-red truck filled with juice. They let the moment belong to Nathan while associating their brand with authentic joy.
Results & Key Takeaways
The video generated 80+ million views and spawned thousands of recreations. Ocean Spray earned over 2 billion media impressions, 225+ million views across various posts, and stores sold out of Cran-Raspberry.
Dreams reached 8.47 million streams in one week, its highest ever. TikTok even partnered with Ocean Spray to create a TV ad featuring Nathan’s video that aired during the MLB playoffs and NBA finals, generating millions more impressions.
What made this a TikTok success story
Ocean Spray understood restraint. They resisted the urge to immediately commercialize the moment. By authentically supporting Nathan (who lived in an RV without running water), they showed genuine care rather than corporate opportunism. This transformed Ocean Spray’s image from “grandma’s juice” to a brand that younger audiences actively chose.
Key lesson
You can’t manufacture viral moments, but you can respond to them brilliantly. The best TikTok influencer marketing examples often come from everyday people, not paid celebrities.
How to Apply TikTok Success Stories to Your Brand
You’ve seen how Ryanair roasts itself to 2.7 million followers, how a cleaning sponge built a 4.5 million-person community, and how The Washington Post made news entertaining for Gen Z. Now comes the important question: which strategy is right for your brand?
The beauty of these TikTok success stories is that they prove there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Your strategy should match your resources, brand personality, and business goals.
Strategy 1: Organic Content Powerhouse
It’s best for small businesses, startups, personal brands, and companies with personality.
What you need:
- One dedicated team member who genuinely understands TikTok
- Permission to be authentic (even imperfect)
- Willingness to post consistently on TikTok profile (3-5x per week minimum)
- Quick turnaround on trends (hours, not weeks)
This works if: You have a unique brand voice, aren’t afraid to show personality, and can move fast. You don’t need expensive equipment, just creativity and cultural awareness.
Strategy 2: Hashtag Challenge Leader
This approach is best for brands wanting to build community and generate user content.
Examples from our list: Cosmetics, Gymshark, Chipotle
What you need:
- Budget for original audio/music (if applicable)
- Influencer partnerships to seed the challenge
- Simple, accessible challenge concept anyone can do
- Prize incentives or recognition for participants
This works if your product/service naturally inspires creativity and you want massive user-generated content that exponentially extends your reach.
Strategy 3: Influencer Partnership Approach
It’s best for brands entering TikTok, niche products, and luxury/premium brands.
Examples from our list: Porsche, Ocean Spray, e.l.f. Cosmetics
What you need:
- Budget for influencer partnerships (micro to macro)
- Clear brand guidelines that still allow creative freedom
- Authentic alignment between creators and your brand values
- Long-term relationship mindset (not one-off posts)
This works if: You’re building credibility on TikTok, need to reach specific demographics, or want to leverage existing creator audiences.
Remember: Micro-influencers (10K-100K followers) often deliver better ROI than mega-influencers.
Strategy 4: Hybrid Approach
It’s best for established brands ready to dominate TikTok.
What you need:
- Combination of organic content, paid ads, and influencer partnerships
- Dedicated social media team
- Budget for both content creation and promotion
- Data analysis capabilities to optimize performance
This works if: You have resources to test multiple approaches simultaneously and want to maximize reach through both organic and paid strategies.
Improve Your TikTok Success Beyond the Platform
Here’s the strategy that separates good TikTok marketing from great TikTok marketing: don’t let your viral TikTok content live only on TikTok.
Once you create TikTok success stories, whether it’s a viral video, a successful campaign, or a growing follower base, you need to share that success across your entire digital presence.
Your website is the perfect place to showcase your TikTok momentum and build credibility with visitors. But the question is, why should you display TikTok content on your website?
Social Proof That Actually Converts: When visitors see your active, engaged TikTok community directly on your website, it builds instant trust.
Seeing real people engaging with your brand is more powerful than any testimonial you could write.
Keep Visitors Engaged Longer: Embedding TikTok feeds keeps visitors on your website longer by providing fresh, entertaining content without them needing to leave. The longer they stay, the more likely they are to convert.
Showcase Brand Personality: Your TikTok content shows the authentic, entertaining side of your brand. Displaying these videos on your website helps visitors connect with your brand personality beyond static product pages.
Leverage Viral Moments: If you achieve Ocean Spray-level virality, displaying that content on your homepage captures that momentum and shows visitors they’re buying from a culturally relevant brand.
Fresh Content Without Extra Work: Your TikTok feed automatically updates with new content, meaning your website stays fresh without manual updates. It’s ongoing social proof that requires zero maintenance.
How to Display TikTok Videos on Your WordPress Website
If you’re running a WordPress website, displaying your TikTok content is super easy with the right tools.
WP Social Ninja is one of the most versatile solutions for embedding TikTok feeds directly on your WordPress site.
What makes WP Social Ninja stand out:
- A comprehensive TikTok feed tool that displays your content with great customization facilities.
- Support 29+ social platforms beyond TikTok, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X (Twitter), and more, so you can showcase your entire social presence from a single dashboard.
- Display business reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook, WooCommerce and other platforms to build trust alongside your social content.
- Connect chat widgets to enable direct communication with website visitors.
- No coding required with Responsive designs that look great on mobile, tablet, and desktop.
The brands winning on TikTok in 2026 understand that social media success shouldn’t stay siloed on social platforms.
Win your customers’ hearts with exceptional features
Discover how WP Social Ninja can assist you in designing outstanding customer experiences.
By integrating your TikTok content into your website experience, you create a cohesive brand presence that leverages your social success to drive website conversions.
Final Thoughts (The Brands That Win on TikTok)
After analyzing these nine TikTok success stories from budget airlines to language apps, one truth emerges: TikTok doesn’t care about your budget. It cares about your authenticity.
Ryanair spends virtually nothing but has 2.7 million followers because they’re genuinely funny. Duolingo’s massive success comes from a person in a mascot costume filming in their office.
You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need expensive equipment. You don’t need celebrity partnerships or massive budgets.
You need to be real. You need to be entertaining. You need to participate in the culture, not just advertise to it.
Start today, and once you build momentum, share that success across your entire digital presence. You can also embed your TikTok content on your website to turn social engagement into website conversions.
Partho Hore
Partho is a seasoned Product Marketing Lead at WP Social Ninja, specializing in Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy within the WordPress industry. With a Business degree and over 4 years of hands-on experience, Partho brings expertise in product positioning and driving growth for WordPress solutions. When he’s not strategizing marketing campaigns, you’ll find him exploring new travel destinations around the World or listening to Spotify…
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