A two-ingredient “cheesecake” recipe has taken TikTok by storm.
Creators are layering biscuits and yogurt, putting it in the fridge overnight, and calling it “the viral Japanese cheesecake”. The hashtag #japanesecheesecake now has over 21,000 videos.
The snack/dessert isn’t technically a cheesecake, but it’s a healthier alternative. It makes sense that a treat like this is gaining popularity in January when people are making more mindful food choices after an indulgent holiday period.
Pictured: Google search increase for “Japanese Cheesecake” over the past month.
The recipe is called a Japanese cheesecake because the trend originated on social media in Japan. People there were putting Japanese sable cookies in yogurt and leaving them overnight. Thanks to the global reach of social media, the trend is now a global phenomenon.
The wide adoption and virality of the Japanese cheesecake is akin to the feta pasta and dalgona coffee crazes during the pandemic. Audiences are connecting over a shared interest and embedding themselves in a community during a time when everyone could benefit from a mood boost. The cure to the January blues is the Japanese cheesecake craze!
Brand opportunity
Lotus Biscoff is hugely benefiting from this trend as their biscuits are the most popular choice for people’s cheesecake recipes. There is an immense amount of organic content at their disposal, and gaining paid usage rights from creators is a good way to ensure the content and brand name remain top of mind.
This is also a great trend for meal delivery service Hello Fresh to jump on. They could add the ingredients for the cheesecake to their recipe roster and work with creators to promote the new offering to their audience.
TikTok is full of creators doing impressions of owls. But they’re not just straight-up owl impressions based on the accents, personality traits, and quirks of other people. Think “this is my owl impression if the owl was Jennifer Coolidge.”
This trend is the antithesis of unexplainable TikTok humor that brings joy to millions of people every day.
The trend has developed from people making an owlish “hoooo” sound in different accents to putting their “owl” into very specific situations. This creator mastered his impression of an owl if it were on the Titanic:
Brand opportunity
There’s no better brand fit for this trend than Duolingo. The brand has over 20 million followers across its social media platforms, largely thanks to its unhinged mascot, Duo the Owl. Duolingo is a language learning app, so it could lean into the owl impressions in different accents/languages with Duo at the forefront.
The UK's public service broadcaster, the BBC, has announced a deal with YouTube, which will see the corporation produce tailor-made content for the platform.
The BBC has previously used YouTube as a promotion tool for its existing shows, but this move will see the BBC make content primarily aimed at YouTube's digital-native audience.
Content will include a mixture of entertainment, documentaries, children's shows, news, and sport – kicking off with the Winter Olympics in February. These programs will feature adverts when viewed from outside the UK in a move to generate extra funds for the BBC, which is currently funded through a TV licensing fee. The BBC has noticed a large decline in TV licence payments in line with the rise of digital streaming, so this move shows that the corporation is adapting to changing media consumption habits.
This move signals the BBC and YouTube’s support for the UK government's Creative Industries Sector Plan by investing in "the next generation of creators".
Brand opportunity
The BBC and YouTube have confirmed that viewers outside of the UK will see pre-roll and mid-roll ads when watching the tailor-made shows. This is a great opportunity for brands to invest in creator-paid ads on YouTube. Consumers are shunning traditional advertising that interrupts the content they’re choosing to consume, so using creator content in paid ad placements is a less disruptive way to ensure you’re still reaching your target audience.
Reach out to us at hello@digitalvoices.com to learn more about shaping a creator-paid ads strategy.
