How Arby’s transformed one TikTok video into a viral triumph

Stephen Whiteside

Arby’s, the quick-service restaurant chain, scored a viral success on video-sharing app TikTok by seizing on an unusual marketing opportunity.

Arby’s, the restaurant chain, successfully turned a single TikTok video – involving the surprise appearance of its menu on a flatscreen TV purchased for $25 by an influencer – into a campaign that generated more than a billion impressions.

In October 2020, when John Casterline – a popular teenage TikTok user living in Naples, Florida, and boasting the TikTok username @h1t1 – uploaded a post revealing he had bought a flatscreen television from someone, got it home, hooked it up, and switched on the screen. The result? He was immediately presented with an Arby’s menu board.

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