Video sharing app TikTok registered the biggest boost in word of mouth exposure in Australia in October, according to YouGov BrandIndex.

TikTok registered the biggest boost in word of mouth (WOM) exposure in Australia in October of all the brands YouGov BrandIndex tracks in the market. The data tracks consumer perceptions toward brands on a daily basis worldwide and shows that the proportion of people who are talking about the short video-sharing platform saw an uplift of 5.6 percentage points during the four-week period.

The Bytedance-owned app recently launched TikTok Music in Australia, a social music streaming service that allows its premium subscribers to save, download and share tracks on the platform. TikTok also recently added a ChatGPT-powered music discovery personal assistant to its app, which it says will help users “search for an artist, track or playlist, ask about concerts and music news, learn about the stories behind the music”.


According to data from YouGov BrandIndex, TikTok’s WOM exposure score rose from 19.4 on Oct 2 to 25.0 by Oct 28. WOM exposure is a BrandIndex metric that measures the percentage of people who have spoken with their family or friends about a particular brand in the previous two weeks.

Additionally, supermarket and grocery chain Woolworths recorded a 5.5-point spike in WOM exposure from 34.2 on Oct 1 to 39.7 by Oct 31, as did Meta-owned social media platform Facebook which saw its WOM exposure climb from 31.3 on Oct 8 to 36.8 by Oct 28.

Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. A brand’s WOM exposure score is based on the question: “Which of the following brands have you talked about with friends and family in the past two weeks (whether in person, online, or through social media)?” (% Yes). Data from surveys of adults aged 18 years and above residing in Australia from Oct 1-31, 2023. WOM exposure scores are based on a four-week moving average, with the change in scores for each brand calculated by taking the difference between the highest and lowest scoring days within the period.