3 Reasons this Social Media Format is Genius

I just saw a TikTok and the genius of it hit me hard*. It’s a Target shopping run, told from different perspectives: two shoppers and one employee. It reminded me of this truth:

Combining three narratives into a single video is one of the best ways for deep social media engagement.

Let’s dig into why and look at two alternative examples of this social media platform format…

Dream Within A Dream

As one of the comments says, it’s 'a target run, inside a target run, inside a target run.’ The creator is using the techniques of one the world’s great filmmakers on the platform originally known for content with low production value.

Interestingly, this coincides with news of TikTok pushing longer-form content.

Three-Peat

The layered nature of the three narratives makes you want or even need to watch it again. In a world where capturing attention has never been more competitive (see TikTok’s auto-scroll announcement), finding ways for repeat views is even more important.

Sludge Sequel

This isn’t an isolated signal; it’s part of a bigger trend that has been happening for almost 12 months. It reminds of the sludge content trend from early to mid-2023, and it’s also similar to a short-form video format that has been popular at the start of this year on Instagram.

You could argue that it is indicative of the age of overstimulation that we are living in…

Why does this matter for marketers?

Most importantly, any brand using social should experiment immediately with a version of this three-in-one format if they want to gain an advantage on their competitors.

It also connects to a different big cultural trend of the last 12 months, as another comment on the original TikTok points out: main character energy.

*(thanks to Rob from https://salmontheory.email/)