Should brands build social content by copying proven trends and formats or by originating brand-specific content?

Zaria Parvez · Jan 19, 2024

The right way to start on TikTok is to 'steal like an artist' — copy existing trends with your own spin

Copying is the nature of the platform; that's how voice audios go viral, one person saying it in one scenario and someone else in another, and it's accepted as long as credit is given

Scope: as a starting strategy; credit should be given where due

8:58 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo

Cliff Weitzman · May 9, 2026

To escape a creative local maximum, study the 100 best-performing ads in history and rewrite each script for your own product

His self-shot apartment ads were stuck in a local maxima; adapting award-winning and Super Bowl ad scripts produced the breakout

23:11 20VC: What I Learned from 100 of the Best CEOs in the World | What I Learned from Staying with Mr Beast for 3 Weeks | How We Will Spend More on Tokens than Salaries with Cliff Weitzman, Speechify

Harry Stebbings · Jan 19, 2024

Knowing who your brand is matters more than chasing hits, because copying successful influencer formats is easy but produces content that isn't yours

Anyone can make hits like the well-known influencers, but that's not what Duolingo is about

41:58 Brand identity over copying hit formats

Cliff Weitzman · May 9, 2026

Formats, not one-off ideas, are what work in content — you keep the format and swap the variables

MrBeast reuses ladders ($1 to $1M hotel) and age-1-to-100 competitions, changing only the surface; the American-vs-French founder video can be re-run as French vs Ghanaian

26:06 Reusable formats with swapped variables