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Discover the trends shaping 2026.

2026 Theme

Irreplaceable Instinct

This year’s theme is Irreplaceable Instinct. It captures the changes we’re seeing in consumer behavior and reveals what brands need to do to keep up. Discover the three major trend signals we’re predicting in 2026 and train your Irreplaceable Instinct with us.

Reali-Tea
Reali-Tea

Reali-Tea

Reality
/riˈæl.ə.ti/That’s life.
Tea
/tiː/The latest lore, details or insider info.

Fantasy is fading. In 2026, audiences will realign through the chaos to forge new realities together.

After a year of delulu and quiet disengagement, people are craving grounding through honesty, community, and shared experience. In 2026, people will come to TikTok for unfiltered stories and BTS moments, with most resonant brands showing real process and people over curated perfection.

#delulu

As audiences shift from escapism to clarity, #delulu now feels less empowering and more avoidant, opening space for trends rooted in honesty and real emotional validation.

#romanticizing

People are craving realism over romanticism: what once felt artfully curated now comes off as overly polished.

#digitalescapism

Fantasy feeds are being replaced with more grounding, useful, and emotional content that helps them feel present, not distracted.

How Reali-Tea is coming to life...

Audience behaviors are growing in surprising directions. We used TikTok One Insights Spotlight and TikTok Market Scope to reveal how Reali-Tea is taking shape across content and community.

Forced to lock in

Audiences are feeling the pressure to ‘lock in’ and they’re turning to community for affirmation. From shared hacks to collective humor, people are naming and normalizing these feelings together.

Culture for me

Identity isn’t tied to traditional perceptions anymore. People express themselves through layered interests, niche communities and unique identities – curating a culture that feels built for them.

Second account found

Brands and creators are breaking free of their expected moulds and showing different sides of their personality.

Comment react stack

TikTok comment photo reacts are creating a new visual language. Audiences are stacking reactions, reviving memes, and making the comments a space of their own.

Cookie chaos and Reali-Tea

Oreoʼs TikTok playground

Oreo took its TikTok channel from a simple recipe hub to a playful clubhouse where fans jump on trends, riff on comment culture, and even speculate on cross-brand “romances.” The result? A space that feels fun, spontaneous, and fully in tune with the community.

Try it on TikTok

01

Build connection through shared experiences

Create campaigns that can flex to meet the cultural “tea.” Humor, humanity, and imperfection help audiences feel seen.

02

Show a different side

Experiment with tones, formats, and even alternate accounts to reveal different layers of your brand personality and deepen emotional connection.

03

Treat comments as a creative surface

Comments, reacts, memes, and community participation are part of the creative canvas. Design content that invites playful interaction and culture-making responses.

04

Stay tuned in to the conversation

Use tools like TikTok One Insights Spotlight and TikTok Market Scope to track sentiment, language, and trends in real time. Listen actively, then create with empathy, wit, and cultural fluency.

It’s your turn

Go where real conversations happen. Tools like TikTok One Insights Spotlight and TikTok Market Scope track audience sentiment in real time. Listen, then create content that reflects it with empathy and wit.

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Detours

Curiosity Detours

Detour
/Dēˌto͝or;/ What happens when we follow our curiosity.

In 2026, curiosity becomes the new currency as audiences dive deeper into new journeys of discovery.

Audiences arrive on TikTok with intention and leave with curiosity as search naturally leads them into new journeys. In 2026, these detours will deepen, creating unexpected entry points where brands that show up thoughtfully with relevance and delight will earn meaningful attention.

#autopilot

What once captured the collective feeling of going through the motions now feels dated as people push for more intention and presence.

#endlessscroll

Audiences are hopping out of their For You feeds to explore in the comments and search bar too.

#npcmode

Once a playful tag for feeling like a “non-player character” in your own life, just going through the motions without thought, it now feels tired as audiences reclaim their #maincharacterenergy.

Mapping the rabbit hole with TikTok Market Scope

On TikTok, the consumer journey is anything but linear. TikTok Market Scope reveals where curiosity actually flows, helping to pinpoint the unexpected moments where your brand can naturally show up and add value.

Step 1

Start with TikTok Market Scope

TikTok Market Scope enables users to analyze top searches in a selected vertical to understand what consumers are most curious about.

Step 2

Identify the leader

Find which topic is the clear frontrunner, signaling a strong and growing interest.

Step 3

Expand the lens

From there, examine related search terms to uncover the broader motivations and discovery journey behind the topic on TikTok.

From batteries to biases

Duracellʼs unexpected
K-Pop connection

Duracell didnʼt just find fans – it found stans. By tracing TikTok search journeys, the brand uncovered an unexpected connection with the K-pop community, who rely on Duracell to power their glowing light sticks at concerts. What started as a niche discovery has become a powerful new growth audience and a top priority for 2026.

Try it on TikTok

01

Find your adjacent spaces

The road to discovering your brand isn’t straight so identify adjacent spaces, niche communities, or cultural moments that naturally align with your brand identity and could bring new audiences in.

02

Leverage real brand fan content

Use TikTok One Content Suite to explore organic brand mentions and understand how people truly talk about your brand. Turn authentic posts into paid campaigns or use the insights to create content that resonates.

03

Bet big on small communities

Lean into tight-knit, interest-driven groups where passion runs high. These smaller communities punch above their weight in influence, making them powerful accelerators for awareness, affinity, and audience growth.

It’s your turn

Identify adjacent spaces, niche communities, or cultural moments that naturally align with your brand identity. Use TikTok One Content Suite to dig deeper into organic brand mentions and see how the community really talks about your brand.

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whytobuy

Emotional ROI

ROI
/ˌɑːr.oʊˈaɪ/Rewards beyond the purchase.

Impulse will lose to intention in 2026 as shoppers reward the brands that justify the "why to buy" first.

The “little treat” mindset is fading as consumers seek clearer justification for every purchase. In 2026, sharpening intentionality will have shoppers turning to trusted tastemakers and brands that clearly explain the “why to buy,” demonstrating value through payoff, relevance, and community connection.

#viralbuy

Viral fame isn’t enough to win carts now. Consumers are choosing substance over stunt products.

#influencers

As the gloss of influencer culture wears off, creators are stepping into the spotlight, valued for honesty, craft, and community over clout.

#justbecause

People aren’t buying “just because” anymore, every purchase has to earn its place, delivering value, meaning, or joy that justifies the spend.

The new why to buy

We’ve identified three key factors in shopping behaviors that show how people are recalculating their buying decisions – moving towards more intentional purchases that are backed up by honest reviews.

Expanding essentials

Consumers on TikTok are broadening their definition of “essential” purchases not by price, but by meaning and belonging.

Evidence economy

Audiences are using TikTok as a verification hub before they commit to purchasing – relying on the comment section for trusted community reviews.

Tastemakers

Audiences look to creators for genuine, candid guidance – and those who embrace honesty are gaining the most influence.

Five stars. No notes.

Audible’s Emotional ROI moment.

Audible cracked the Emotional ROI code by handing the mic to the TikTok community. What started as a simple post asking for five-star book recs turned into an explosion of engagement, as #BookTok flooded the comments with passionate picks. By letting listeners lead the conversation, Audible transformed from the authority on stories to a brand in the story.

Try it on TikTok

01

Become a new essential

Lean into the validation of purchase decisions and show how your products add meaning, not just aesthetic, to everyday life.

02

Fuel the evidence economy

Become a trusted guide. Create helpful content at scale, leverage Symphony Creative Studio to turn one asset into multiple formats like comparisons, demos, how-tos that remove guesswork and builds buyer confidence.

03

Trust in tastemakers

Partner with creators who prioritize honesty and transparency. Authentic, community-first reviews drive stronger influence than polished brand scripts.

It’s your turn

Show how your brand delivers real, everyday value – whether through cost-per-wear, emotional payoff, or community connection. With Symphony Creative Studio, you can easily adapt one idea across languages, formats, and styles – because in commerce, more content wins.

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