The recipe for viral success
This weekend, I popped to Lidl just before opening time to find I was not alone. Dozens of people were huddled around waiting for the doors to open. When the shutters rose, I walked towards the milk section, and almost everyone else headed to the middle where I eventually found a nearly empty display of Lidl’s version of the viral Dubai chocolate.
Last year, the Sainsbury’s Fully Loaded Cookies (a dupe of Crumbl cookies) went viral on TikTok and were flying off the shelves. The cookies looked amazing, and with flavours like miso, white chocolate and caramel, they really met a need for affordable luxury. Over the past couple of weeks, Tesco’s has been going viral with their tear-and-share cinnamon buns and M&S has had TikTok success with their giant custard cream shaped Easter egg.
Whilst we typically think of TikTok food trends as centering around fancy bakeries and creating 2-hour queues, in the UK, the supermarkets seem to be having a lot of success in creating viral products. Whilst it is hard to totally predict what is going to go viral on social media, there are things we can learn from their recent successes:
"Dupes" and accessibility - In the past, if we were thinking about knock-off products, we would probably think about a brand like Aldi, Colin vs. Cuthbert, etc. But the new wave of food dupes are not just knock-offs; they are offering affordable, accessible luxury. The Sainsbury's cookies offered an accessible alternative to a premium product – both due to their price and in terms of geographical accessibility. You might have seen Crumbl cookies being talked about by everyone on TikTok, but the brand isn’t present in the UK. If you live in a major city, you might be able to find something similar, but Sainsbury's are making their dupe cookie available to customers nationwide.
Visual appeal matters more than ever - Tesco's Tear & Share Cinnamon Buns were really "camera-ready". The M&S giant custard cream egg plays with scale in a way that is visually really fun. The gooey icing and pull-apart texture creates a visually satisfying moment that's perfect for short-form video.
The discovery ‘treasure hunt - TikTok has transformed food discovery into a form of entertainment that bridges digital and physical worlds. When someone on TikTok encounters a product like Tesco’s cinnamon buns, they're not just viewing content; if they want it, they're joining a kind of collective treasure hunt! A product will only become viral if it feels like it is worth the effort and has an emotional pay-off as well as being delicious.
My experience in Lidl this weekend has got me thinking about how we can consider "TikTok-ability" alongside more traditional metrics when doing food and drink innovation / research – is what we are creating visual, is it selfie-worthy, is it accessible, does it offer an emotional pay-off, is it worth the hunt? I think this is something I will be thinking about when designing projects going forward.
