How culture travels on TikTok: A marketers guide to riding the wave
What makes a trend take off in one country and catch fire in another? Why do some ideas persist, while others fade overnight? Launching yesterday, ‘Globalization of TikTok Trends: How Culture Travels, Transforms and Connects’ is a new study decoding how cultural moments emerge, spread, and evolve on TikTok across seven global markets: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
The report uses Publicis Groupe APAC’s proprietary cultural intelligence engine within the GrowthOS platform to reveal the real-time mechanics behind how culture moves – delivering actionable insights to help brands tap into cultural moments and build deeper relevance with communities.
Analyzing millions of data points spanning six months, the report uncovers why some trends persist, how they scale across markets, and what this means for marketers seeking to build brand relevance on platforms where culture takes shape.
Four key insights into how culture movesOn TikTok, the most powerful ideas don’t simply go viral and disappear – they travel across borders, adapt to local contexts, and grow through community participation. While nearly half of TikTok trends finish their journey within five days, the ones that truly matter are not the fastest or loudest, but those that persist. So why do a select few keep travelling – and compounding – across borders for weeks?
By mapping the relationship between the persistence of cultural trends, and their virality across three or more countries, the report provides a quantitative view of how culture really spreads on TikTok. Key findings include:
Enduring trends tap into shared human emotions and everyday behaviors: While TikTok’s trend cycle moves at incredible speed – and only a small fraction of trends sustain relevance beyond two weeks – the ones that spread widely and create real impact are those rooted in emotional resonance, community participation, or recurring cultural relevance. For brands, understanding what drives this persistence is key to engaging meaningfully in cultural moments that last.
Culture spreads through regional corridors, not uniformly: When exploring how trends are shared between countries, Southeast Asia shows strong interconnectedness – despite being one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. Western markets cluster tightly, including non-English speaking markets, whereas Japan is a self-contained ecosystem requiring bespoke localisation. Understanding how trends flow through regional corridors of culture – their virality – is critical for brands.
Formats travel better than messages: Trends built with strong visual formats, catchy sounds or transitions, and adaptable templates spread farther and sustain momentum, often outperforming message-heavy creative. For brands, this means making participation effortless: the easier it is to join a trend, the faster the movement grows.
Creators are the engine of longevity: Trends last when creators adopt, adapt and remix them. This means brands are more likely to succeed when they empower creators as co-authors and enable participation – rather than dictate it.
A brand playbook for marketersThe white paper includes a playbook for identifying persistent trends. Tips include:· Treat trend-sensing as a capability: Equip brand teams with live dashboards and make ‘culture check-ins’ part of weekly planning meetings to spot patterns before they peak.· Do geo-cluster planning: Build cluster-specific content tracks that leverage how trends flow through regional corridors of culture. Campaigns seeded in one Southeast Asian market have a 60-70% chance of finding traction in neighbouring countries within days; English-language creative assets can be shared across Western markets with minimal adaptation.· Establish brand-safe remix guidelines: Define what’s flexible (eg. sound, humour, creator voice) and what’s fixed (logo use, product claims, disclaimers). Refresh these guardrails monthly as trends evolve to avoid creator fatigue or off-brand executions.
Sapna Nemani, Chief Solutions Officer, Publicis Groupe Asia Pacific, says: “At Publicis, we see that culture on TikTok doesn’t spread by chance – it scales through participation. This white paper decodes why some ideas persist, and how participation turns cultural momentum into lasting brand impact.”
“On TikTok, creativity travels further and faster when powered by people,” adds Shant Oknayan, Vice President, Global Business Solutions, TikTok. “This white paper celebrates the unique alchemy between community creativity and cultural momentum, giving brands a blueprint to understand not just what trends spread, but why they resonate, empowering them to co-create with communities and convert cultural relevance into growth.”
Publicis Groupe APAC analyzed unique hashtags across 16 categories in Asia, the United States and Europe using GrowthOS – an AI-powered platform designed to predict, power and prove business growth outcomes.
