Scaling an emotional breakout moment into cross-platform momentum across TikTok & Instagram Reels 🚀
Views
UGC
Zebr Posts
Drive Safe was already building a strong emotional presence on TikTok, with early signals showing UGC growth, storytelling captions, and high engagement.
We rode the wave and built on the vulnerability in the lyrics that naturally led creators to share personal reflections, relationship moments, and nostalgic edits that felt genuine and relatable.
So rather than overcomplicating it, we leaned into what was already happening. Using our Challenge feature, we amplified the momentum in a way that kept everything feeling organic - scaling the trend while holding onto the intimacy that made the sound resonate!
On TikTok, our priority was to deepen and amplify the existing storytelling behaviour around the sound.
We activated a diverse mix of lifestyle, relationship, and POV-driven pillars - encouraging creators to interpret Drive Safe through “last drive” narratives, soft and hard-launch relationship edits, and the 2016 trend centred around moments that would make your younger self proud.
Rather than forcing trends, we leaned into authenticity and relatability - keeping the content intimate, emotionally honest, and true to each creator’s voice.
On Instagram Reels, we refined the creative to better align with platform behaviours - prioritising aesthetic edits, couple-focused content, travel-led golden-hour moments, and photo-dump storytelling.
Creators maintained the emotional feel of Drive Safe while elevating the visual polish and overall shareability. The content felt aspirational, yet still personal and authentic.
This shift allowed us to extend the trend beyond TikTok, increasing saves, shares, and overall song discovery - while reinforcing the track’s presence across a second major platform.
Viral
Trends
New Creations
In the end, it sparked a huge wave of emotional, relatable content that continued growing well beyond the initial surge. We reached 20M+ views, drove 258 Zebr posts, and generated 12K+ UGC creations - and as the trend gained traction, it naturally encouraged an even wider mix of creators to jump on board.
From couples and lifestyle creators to nostalgic editors, more and more creators made the trend their own - each adding a unique spin while keeping the emotional core intact.
What started as an organic breakout moment quickly evolved into something much bigger, without losing the feeling that made people connect to it in the first place 🫶
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