Image credit: Channel 4.
When TikTok creator Romeo Bingham posted her “theme song idea” for Dr. Pepper, she didn’t expect that the brand would license the song for an NCAA football commercial.
Romeo simply sang “Dr. Pepper is good and nice. Do do do,” and one month after posting the video, it has over 110 million views, and she’s secured a partnership with the second-most-popular soda in America. Tagging the brand in her random, spur-of-the-moment content paid off.
Dr. Pepper commented on Romeo’s post, asking her to check her DMs, and one month later, the brand produced an NCAA football commercial with creative agency Deutsch, featuring Romeo's iconic vocals with added production.
This is the perfect example of anything can blow up on TikTok because of its interest-graph driven algorithm and consumers' willingness to embrace out-of-the-box humor. Dr. Pepper saw the positive engagement and used it to their advantage, creating an ad based on what their audience enjoys consuming organically.
Brand opportunity
The message brands can take from this story is that including influencers at the beginning of a product or campaign process is immensely beneficial. Dr. Pepper received positive feedback for developing this idea with Romeo and giving her full credit in the commercial. This is the brand’s sign to identify genuine lovers of the soda, especially those within niche communities, and work with them as creative directors. You can read more about the benefits of putting creators in the boardroom here.
Employee-generated social media content has been on the rise since Gen Z has started entering the corporate world. Business EGC performs particularly well when generational humor differences come into play.
The latest corporate EGC trend sees the office social media manager asking their colleagues which year they were born in. As soon as a colleague starts saying a year in the 1990s, it cuts to an image of them superimposed onto a historical Renaissance painting, a dinosaur, or something else that is considered ancient.
This trend is a great engagement generator as audiences born before and after the millennium debate whether they are “old” in the comment sections.
Brand opportunity
This trend would be most impactful for brands with multiple generations on the team. This is likely to be most common in legacy brands such as Unilever and PepsiCo that offer products tailored to different age groups, and have introduced more trend-driven consumers alongside the rise of social media and Influencer Marketing. This ECG can be filmed with teams in the office.
This year started with Alix Earle announcing her very own unscripted Netflix series after a successful run on Dancing with the Stars, and now we’re seeing more creators diversifying their careers outside of social media for longevity.
This week, Francis Bourgeois, also known as “the train guy”, announced to his social following of over five million that he has been training to become an astronaut. He posted a video a year ago asking his audience if a train enthusiast could become an astronaut. This caught the attention of aerospace engineers in the US, who invited Francis to the States to make his dream come true.
The entire process was documented by Channel 4 and started airing this week.
Francis’ announcement videos were full of people sharing their excitement about his new career venture, saying things like:
Mainstream media needs creators, not the other way around, as they bring ready-made, engaged, and established audiences to entertainment formats that are otherwise dipping in popularity.
Brand opportunity
Brands should seize the opportunity to partner with creators entering the TV space before the show goes live. For example, a brand could sponsor or support the creator’s participation with wardrobe/training gear – especially ahead of shows that are sports/endurance focused.
Additionally, immediately after a show ends (or when a contestant goes viral), brand awareness spikes naturally, and brands should ride that wave. Brands could co-produce a weekly series with the creator (e.g., “Love Island Looks of the Week” or “Bachelor Brunch Chats”) that transcends each year.
We cover more on the convergence of social and mainstream media in our 2026 trends report; gain more tips inside.
