Apr 1, 2025
This weeks newsletter includes
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Cal AI’s TikTok strategy + Toolkit overview ✅
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Strategy overview 📚
Cal AI is a health and fitness app designed to simplify calorie and macronutrient tracking. Users begin by answering lifestyle questions to create a personalized plan.
The app’s standout feature allows users to snap a photo of their meal, after which it provides a nutritional breakdown, including calorie count and macronutrient composition. This approach aims to streamline dietary tracking, making it more accessible and less time-consuming.
Their have cracked a strong storytelling format which even works around language barriers and this has enabled them to gain 40M+ views and not a single viral tiktok is from their account.
Here are some of their most successful videos and how they did it 👇:
🎬 Bodybuilder vs Fat
11.3M+ Views, 350k+ Likes, 20K+ Saves
Hook: Bodybuilder vs Fat
Format: Text Overlay + Background video + Sound effects
Why this video worked:
The premise of the tiktok is instantly recognizable and relatable for gym bros and, people who care about their diets a lot.
The 19 second clip runs really fast with no cuts and slow story telling.
having no dialogues multiplies its reach potential as it transcends linguistic boundaries
The background sound effects really help with the retention.
🎬 Burrito <> Cal AI
6M+ Views, 170K+ Likes, 40K+ Saves
Hook: Latina Cooking video
Format: Cooking Recipe Video + Product demo + Music
Why this video worked:
Video loops in itself beautifully increasing its watch count
The product demo is shown in the beginning, which achieves 2 things, getting conversions for the brand and increasing curiosity so that people watch it through.
The aesthetic of the shots was maintained throughout with a touch of humor and novelty woven into each shot. Example, slam cutting the onion, removing the avocado pit, etc.
The background song worked perfectly to set the vibe of the video especially because it matched the ethnicity of the food being cooked.
🎬 Guess calories, Kiss challenge
5.6M+ Views, 500K+ Likes, 16K+ Saves
Hook: Kiss challenge
Format: Relationship based Challenge + Product Integration
Why this video worked:
This video was a risky bet but it paid off. Here’s why.
They identified a TG to hook into and saw them consuming a lot of relationship based content and so they took a dig at it. Learning being, go where the crowd is, if the crowd is into long from challenges, figure out a way to integrate the product in that form of content.
The Skit was written with precision and included some Drama, suspense, reveal and a heartbreak, all within a minute which led to high likes to view ratio.
The flow of the video is very natural, raw and light without very high production value.
Key Takeaways from this Content Strategy ⭐
Incite response from the crowd: In most of the tiktoks, the comment section can be seen heavily involved resonating a particular opinion, this is by careful design and not a co-incidence. More comments lead to higher reach and the tiktok algorithm throws the tiktok to more and more people.
Longer content: The idea that longer content doesn’t work is a common cliché. But when the content is consistently engaging and delivers a predictable rhythm of value or entertainment, viewers often stick around—much like they would binge-watch their favorite comedy series.
TG Hook Combo: They identify a Target group, see what that TG is consuming, take a jab at a upcoming creator in that space and integrate the product in their content, these partnerships are often bold.
Partner with varied creators: Cal AI has never been shy of partnering with creators of as varied backgrounds as possible, there is no single brand identity that they stick to or are identifiable by. This can go as broad and as deep as possible to catch different eyeballs, and this seems to have paid off well.
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