From trends to triumphs: The viral TikTok campaigns of 2024 you need to know about
TikTok is where creativity thrives – that's why the TikTok Ad Awards is celebrating the most impactful and creative campaigns on the platform. Following ceremonies in the UK, DACH, France, Italy, Spain, Central Europe, the Netherlands, Israel and the Nordics, top local winners gathered at a glittering venue in Lisbon to see who would be crowned the overall Greatest TikTok Europe. The prize? Ultimate bragging rights as the brand that truly gets TikTok.
Keep reading to see the brands that were in the running for the night's top prize – and find out who took it home. Together, these brands give a masterclass on what it takes to succeed on TikTok, showcasing campaign strategies and innovative ad solutions that drive remarkable results. Could your brand be next?
TikTok drives a high return on creativity, by helping brands connect with their audiences via entertaining and empathetic content - all underpinned by data and insights. TikTok users view, create, and react to content in a very unique way and, for brands, the way to break through is to show up more regularly and participate in conversations, creating more meaningful interactions. This year's Awards took this approach to a whole other level. We received entries from a diverse range of brands and agencies, with content that created connections, tapped into wider trends and truly brought brands to life, while driving major impact.
Greatest TikTok Netherlands
KPN | Dentsu Creative Amsterdam | A Bigger CircleK
Reaching a new generation with empowering and interactive content
Dutch telecom brand KPN developed the first live talk show hosted on TikTok to provide a safe space and encourage Gen Z to speak up about how the internet affects their wellbeing. During the talk show, the KPN team monitored comments in real time, enabling live interaction. Special after-show content also connected the audience to experts for tailored advice and resources, encouraging active viewer participation and building a strong community. With the added power of Spark Ads, the campaign achieved impressive results, proving that TikTok is not just a platform for entertainment but a dynamic tool for driving brand engagement and social impact.
Results
37.6M views
+3.4% increase in brand perception
+6.7% increase in brand association
Greatest TikTok Central Europe
Doritos | Leo Burnett | OMD Romania
Grabbing attention and growing brand love with a custom jingle
Tortilla chips brand Doritos had a problem: Gen Z loves salty snacks, but Doritos wasn't top of mind for them in this category. To combat this issue, Doritos launched #DoritosBoldSquad, tapping into what Gen Z longs for more than anything – a sense of belonging. The campaign aimed to find a new squad on TikTok that would break the mould, follow their passions, and live life unapologetically.
This campaign effectively harnessed TikTok's sound-on nature and ability to drive community interaction by pairing a catchy soundtrack with targeted advertising formats like Top View, Top Feed and In-Feed Ads. A collaboration with creators to produce authentic, native content further amplified the campaign’s reach and resonance. The campaign's success in boosting brand love and driving sales shows that TikTok is a powerful platform for brands seeking to capture attention and foster engagement among their audiences.
Results
+3.4% increase in brand perception
+7.8pp increase in market share growth within Tortilla Chips category
+9pp increase in consideration
Greatest TikTok UK
Booking.com | We Are Social Amsterdam
Standing out from the crowd by using authentic content and platform trends
With more people than ever turning to TikTok for travel inspiration, Booking.com wanted to harness this audience and differentiate itself from competitors. That's why the brand launched a campaign that was based on travel motivations, not travel destinations, speaking to multiple communities with different motivations. Booking.com's always-on, full-funnel approach was authentically TikTok, leveraging platform trends and features such as trending audio, creative templates, and text-to-speech. Strategic use of ad solutions like Spark Ads and In-Feed Ads amplified visibility, driving strong engagement. For brands willing to align with the platform’s dynamic culture, Booking.com's winning results highlight the powerful opportunity TikTok offers brands to stand out, inspire and win over audiences like never before.
Results
+695% increase in followers on TikTok
+428% increase in engagement year-on-year
40.6M impressions
Greatest TikTok Nordics
Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences | Bob the Robot / NoA | Toinen PHD
Transforming engagement into results
Haaga-Helia University transformed traditional education into a viral sensation by launching a TikTok University course that offered academic credits. The brand's campaign utilised TikTok’s native features, such as short video lectures, interactive formats, and double-speed options, to create engaging content that resonated with students.
By employing solutions like In-Feed Ads and Community Interaction, Haaga-Helia achieved incredible results and became number one in top-of-mind among universities in Finland – a major milestone in brand recall. Additionally, the campaign drove a record-breaking increase in university applications, solidifying the institution’s status as a leader in modern education. The success of this campaign underscores TikTok’s immense potential to not only engage audiences but also deliver transformative results for forward-thinking brands.
Results
310M reach
20% increase in university applications year-on-year
142.5x return on ad spend
Greatest TikTok France
NYX Professional Makeup | Buzzman | ZO
Using TikTok to win over Gen Z and drive record-breaking sales
With its performance stagnating in France, NYX launched a campaign to reignite growth and resonate with a new generation of consumers on TikTok. Its #TrueIDCard campaign sought to authentically represent its audience's identities, so the brand launched powerful and viral videos featuring creators like Bilal Hassani. In his video, Hassani removes his makeup to comply with ID card requirements, symbolising the erasure of identity.
Boosted as Spark Ads and Top View Ads, this relatable, creator-led content struck a chord, prompting over 20K people to request their own "True ID". The campaign also led to NYX achieving a 20% sales increase, marking its best sales month. By meeting audiences where they are and delivering authentic, engaging content, this campaign shows how brands can drive meaningful connections, foster loyalty and achieve extraordinary business results on TikTok.
Results
+11% increase in brand awareness
+28% increase in brand preference
+20% increase in sales
Greatest TikTok Italy
NOW | BCube | Wavemaker
Tapping into the platform to mine viral content and boost awareness
TikTok’s interactive and community-driven nature offers brands an opportunity to create meaningful connections and achieve exceptional results. NOW’s campaign, for the 17th edition of X Factor, perfectly illustrates this power by using user comments to create a bespoke indie track. Tapping into TikTok as a sound-on, music-centric platform, the campaign, boosted by ad solutions like Top View, Top Feed and In-Feed Ads, achieved remarkable success, not only amplifying brand awareness but also strengthening NOW's connection with its audience. NOW's successful campaign underscores how embracing the platform’s interactive culture and leveraging its creative tools can help brands truly elevate their campaigns.
Results
19M views
253K interactions
25K new followers
Greatest TikTok Spain
Jumpers | Fuego Camina Conmigo
Strengthening brand loyalty and recognition while keeping costs low
By embracing TikTok's dynamic entertainment culture and tapping into trending content, Jumpers effectively captured the attention of its core audience of 18-34-year-olds. Recognising that this demographic craves authentic stories over conventional advertising, Jumpers delivered exactly that: a campaign about creating a campaign with just €1. Featuring grotesque characters, unexpected twists and a clear mission – to promote the new Jumpers crisps – the campaign unfolded in real time, actively involving the audience in decision-making.
The strategic use of Spark Ads not only amplified reach – garnering over 23 million impressions and 7 million views – but also significantly boosted brand awareness and consideration. This campaign highlights TikTok's ability to foster deep engagement, build brand loyalty and deliver impressive results in a cost-efficient manner, underscoring its vital importance as an advertising channel for brands.
Results
23.3M impressions
+12pp increase in brand awareness
+6pp increase in consideration among 18-34-year-olds
Greatest TikTok Israel
KolMila1202 | teenk | Young Media
Sparking conversations and driving change
Aiming to raise awareness about sexual harassment and encourage young people to seek help through an anonymous assistance centre, this campaign used music and personal stories to build a supportive community that inspired real change. Leveraging TikTok's sound-on culture, the campaign featured a song with lyrics addressing sexual assault and invited users to share their stories.
Amplified as Spark Ads, the campaign sparked powerful engagement, generating over 1 million views and high levels of interaction and engagement. The result was not only increased awareness of sexual harassment, but also a tangible impact, with hundreds of inquiries to the hotline. The success of this campaign highlights TikTok's ability to inspire real-world action, even on a minimal budget, making it a valuable tool for brands and causes alike.
Results
1.3M views (+30% above campaign target)
+300% increase in website visits
25K interactions (+66% above campaign target)
Greatest TikTok Europe
B1 | Sony Music Deutschland
Harnessing TikTok's creative spirit to send streams skyrocketing
In the end, Sony Music Deutschland took home the coveted Greatest TikTok Europe prize for its incredible Pedro the Raccoon campaign. The campaign captured TikTok’s creative spirit and skyrocketed streams of the song 'Pedro' by Jaxomy & Agatino Romero by using the viral raccoon character "Pedro" to boost engagement. Collaborations with creators like Vici Clausen helped the song go viral, and a dedicated meme account drove mass reach, with one meme alone driving 50M views.
The song's original sound page became a hub for user-generated content, with 36 million users using the sound, and the song spreading far beyond Germany, leading to huge global impact across multiple markets. Spark Ads amplified the campaign’s visibility, contributing to over 161 million Spotify streams and the song hitting number one on the Spotify Global Top 50. This underscores how TikTok doesn’t just amplify content – it turns campaigns into cultural movements, delivering tangible and transformative results.(Good luck getting this song out of your head!)
Results
161M+ streams
#1 on Spotify Global Top 50
132K new followers
Sony Music Deutschland approached their campaign with reckless creativity that paid off. Using a native TikTok trend but exploding it with an absolute earworm of a track made it unmissable, fun and entertaining and really easy to engage with in multiple ways on the platform, meaning the organic reach they received turned the track into a viral hit.
Ultimately, the TikTok Ad Awards and the incredible selection of brands that were shortlisted show that the advertising industry is embracing everything that the TikTok platform embodies, leaning into entertainment, culture, creators and relatable creative to build campaigns that truly resonate with their audiences.
Could you be next? To help brands gather audience insights and get the most out of their creative, we've created a host of tools – such as Symphony and Smart+ – to make creating great campaigns and reaching the right audiences as easy as possible.