From January’s “Sephora kids” phenomenon to the proliferation of “holding space” memes following a viral interview from the “Wicked” press tour last month, 2024 was packed with social media trends that shaped the pop culture zeitgeist.

Many of the year’s biggest trends influenced marketing campaigns both on social media and beyond, with the creators at the center of these trends—such as Jools Lebron, who started the “very demure” trend, or Charli XCX, whose album “Brat” spawned one of the biggest pop culture trends of the year in the form of “Brat Summer”—quickly becoming coveted brand partners.

Casey Lewis, author of the youth trends newsletter After School, joined Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast to reflect on several of the most viral moments of 2024 and how brands responded to them—to varying degrees of success. For instance, she compared Four Seasons’ prompt reaction to TikTok’s “fully-conscious baby” to SkinCeuticals’ delayed response to the “man in finance” trend, noting the latter would likely have “made a bigger splash” if it launched closer to the peak of the trend rather than several months later. 

“I couldn’t have guessed that [the ‘man in finance’ trend] would become as enormous as it was—like, DJs playing it at clubs,” she said. “That’s one of my favorite things about TikTok, is that you don’t know that it’s going to be something in the moment … But then you see it again or you hear it again and then you’re like, ‘Oh, wait, this is the beginning of something larger than just a one-off [video].”

Lewis also discussed the larger marketing implications of buzzy social media moments such as the viral 52-episode TikTok series “Who TF Did I Marry?” from creator Reesa Teesa (real name Tareasa Johnson), noting that the popularity of the social media series illustrates how younger consumers are increasingly choosing TikTok and other social platforms for entertainment over TV. 

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“I’m really, really interested to see what people are doing next year with these sort of series,” she said. “And not just creators, but also you know corporations are thinking about how they can engage with these formats, too.”

Indeed, Amazon Prime is currently sponsoring the second season of the social media series “Boy Room.”

Lewis also shared some of the social media marketing trends she anticipates will take off in 2025—namely, an uptick in livestream content among brands and creators and the continued growth of liveshopping streams. For example, during TikTok Shop’s Black Friday push, Stormi Steele, a creator and founder of Canvas Beauty, drove $1 million in sales during a single two-hour TikTok livestream, a TikTok representative told Ad Age. And McDonald’s collaborated with streamer Kai Cenat to announce the launch of its Chicken Big Mac and promote the limited-edition sandwich during his 30-day marathon stream.

“I think that we’re going to see more and more brands testing out those kinds of features because people like to experience something that feels … very in-the-moment and it’s not scripted, and it just feels like you’re experiencing something cool,” she said.