For Gen Z, it’s back to the '90s on TikTok.
The generation, which includes people born in the late '90s to early 2000s, has fun recreating the nostalgia of their childhood on TikTok — leaning into one of the hottest marketing trends in 2021.
Ad-supported streaming platform Tubi wanted to jump in. In June, Tubi, which is owned by Fox, launched the Super Nostalgia Reunion on TikTok, the first live, long-form reunion on TikTok featuring ‘90s actors, artists and influencers in the U.S.
Tubi hosted a trivia and challenge featuring appearances by stars from hit ‘90s shows on Fox: Dawson’s Creek, The Nanny, Friday Night Lights and Degrassi: The Next Generation. Guestsincluded Marlon Wayans, Paris Hilton, Fran Drescher, Joey Lawrence and Lacey Chabert.
Hosted by TikTok creator Brittany Broski, the stars were joined by other popular TikTokers including Suede Brooks, Zach Lugo, Chunkysdead, Tre Clements, Wisdom Kaye and Rodney Lee to connect younger audiences with Tubi’s offerings.
Tubi realized the potential for collaboration when it noticed that a lot of the same trends surfacing on TikTok were also showing up on its own platform, said Natalie Bastian, senior vice president of marketing at Tub.
“A key theme was nostalgia,” Bastian said. “People [were] discovering these shows for the first time or rewatching them with that comfort factor.”
To hype up the event, Tubi launched a series of nostalgic videos on TikTok featuring Wayans, Drescher, Hilton, Lawrence, and James Van Der Beek. Content featured videos of the TV celebrities reacting to their “favorite kisses” and “clapbacks” and recreating their iconic TV looks.
TikTok users also participated in two hashtag challenges, #AsSceneOnTubi and #TubiTaughtMe, which highlighted well-known lines from popular '90s shows and encouraged users to recreate nostalgic looks. A few of the user-generated videos from the challenges were featured in the live reunion special on TikTok.
The campaign drew in 13.7 billion views and more than 2.1 billion engagements. The nostalgic content reached more than 66 million unique users and over 840 thousand people participated in the hashtag challenges.
TikTok also over-indexed as the top platform for first hearing about Tubi relative to other platforms, and Tubi was the number-one brand mentioned by users during the time of the campaign, exceeding Kantar entertainment recall and awareness standards by four times.