NOW TRENDING: 10/10 HABITS & GOLD STAR BEHAVIOUR…
WHAT’S ON THE FEED THIS WEEK?
10/10 HABITS
TikTok's dominant format right now takes a rating gimmick and turns it into a content engine: creators open with "10/10 habits to…" and reel off routines they swear by, each rated a perfect score, from dressing like the millionaire version of yourself for a week to an hour of "deep work" a day or twenty minutes of silence to reset. It's landing hard because it fits September's "lock in" mood, when people shake off winter and settle back into routines, and the structure is dead simple, endlessly remixable and rewards specificity over polish.
Brand opportunities
Don't just parrot the hook, anchor it to a problem your audience actually has and let your product be one of the habits: a skincare brand runs "10/10 habits for skin that behaves by 9am", a finance app does "10/10 money habits I wish I started at 22", a café lands "10/10 habits of people who actually enjoy their mornings" on their coffee. The trick is that the habit has to be genuinely useful on its own, with the product sitting naturally inside it rather than bolted on the end.
GOLD STAR BEHAVIOUR
The breakout format of early September is disarmingly low-fi: a plain photo overlaid with "Gold Star Behaviour" and a few scattered stars, where creators list the small, unglamorous things they think quietly deserve credit, like replying to an email the same day or choosing the sensible option, sitting right next to the wider "Kinda Chic" mood of romanticising the un-fancy choice. It works because it's a relatable, self-aware humblebrag that costs nothing to make, with no trending audio to time and no editing, which is exactly why it's spreading so fast.
Brand opportunities
This is a gift for brand voice: turn your team's or product's small wins into gold-star flexes while keeping it cheeky rather than boastful, whether that's a software brand posting "Gold star behaviour: reading the release notes" or a grocery brand doing "Gold star behaviour: bringing your own bags AND remembering them". You can also flip it to your customers, awarding gold stars for the tiny loyal behaviours they already do, which reads like a wink rather than an ad.
MILLENNIAL OPTIMISM
The runaway nostalgia format has creators dusting off grainy early-2010s photos and reenactments, house-party pics, Photo Booth selfies, messy buns and gel-pen affirmations, set to The Middle East's 2009 track "Blood", to romanticise a moment when everything felt unfiltered, earnest and about to begin any second. It's tied to the wider "2026 is the new 2016" mood, and it's resonating because it's soft, hopeful and deeply relatable across both millennials feeling seen and Gen Z feeling nostalgic for a youth culture they just missed, which is a rare crossover that sends a clip to two audiences at once.
Brand opportunities
Lean into your own archive: dig out early photos of the team, the founder, the first shopfront or the clunky original product and cut them to the trend, turning your brand's scrappy beginnings into the same earnest "look how far we've come" story. Heritage brands can flex genuine nostalgia, while newer ones can borrow the aesthetic to romanticise the founding-days grind. Keep it unpolished and sincere rather than winking, because the whole appeal of this one is that it feels real, not ironic.
