I Want to Ban This TikTok Format

Plus Glossier addresses Redditors, a quick way to ruin your Instagram engagement, and more.

Helloooooo!

Last week I wrote about TikTok showing old videos in their FYP. Turns out A LOT of people are having a similar experience.

I theorized that TikTok might have tweaked their algorithm to increase time spent ahead of a potential ban—essentially replaying the hits to keep people engaged and on the app longer.

But it might be having an unintended effect, with users actually finding it “very annoying” to see an old video that they have already liked or that no longer feels relevant.

Not only are users noticing this change, but so are brands and creators.

Bari Tippett, sweetgreen’s Head of Social, replied to my tweet with “Getting hella views on a sg TT from Feb 28 🤨”.

Meanwhile, after a few DMs back and forth, I found out that two out of five of

Carmen in the Garden

’s top trending posts right now are from 2023. In the last seven days alone, those two posts have received a total of 208K views.

Another creator, Cooking with Janica, is seeing posts from 2022 reach new viewers—five out of her top nine current trending posts are from over two years ago.

Anyone else have any other theories on why TikTok made this change?

Let’s get into today’s newsletter. Here’s what we will be covering:

• Should your brand do an Instagram grid takeover?

• My one tip for brands that are collaborating with a celebrity or creator

• The TikTok format I want to ban forever

• Brands are turning their footage into video games

• I like how Dunkin’ announced their promo for nurses

• Fashion brands are going 🚀 Studio Ghibli 🚀

• Glossier addresses Redditors

• Did you see the bean dip drawer?

• What brands can learn from Charli XCX’s latest music video (lol)

• A very good TikTok

• Design processes > mood boards

• Rare! People actually liked this brand’s apology post!

• The brand account

  Nolita Dirtbag
  has deemed “cooking”

• An update to our conversation about multiple brand collaboration posts…