How The Kid LAROI went viral on TikTok (twice) [Case Study]

In this case study of viral success, Amber Horsburgh explores how 17-year-old Australian rapper, The Kid LAROI was able to achieve TikTok virality twice.

Guest post from Amber Horsburgh

Watch the full case study on how 17-year-old Australian rapper, The Kid LAROI went viral on TikTok twice.

The Kid LAROI has benefited from TikTok virality and many artists want to replicate his success.

Does that mean opening a TikTok account and posting? Probably not.

As a new artist, is there a way to purposefully orchestrate vitality?

Australian-born, 17-year-old The Kid LAROI is one of the fastest-rising music stars in the world right now.

In the past four months alone, he has:

• Released collaborations with Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.
• Hit the top 10 in charts in more than a dozen countries.
• Signed an enormous worldwide deal with Sony Publishing.
• And performed on Saturday Night Live.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how The Kid LAROI set himself up for internet virality twice using TikTok to grow his audience. And what emerging artists can apply to speed up their own growth.

Virality comes from doing the work. It can never be a priority.

Virality can’t be your goal. You just need to do the work and with luck and timing, you might strike it lucky.

The Kid LAROI got on TikTok after being urged by friends and blew up when he posted a verse from an unreleased song name-checking TikTok’s second most followed creator, Addison Rae. She posted herself and her mother reacting to the video, which racked up 10 million views, which encouraged user-generated content of the song. As a result, the original video hit 14 million views.

Whether or not he thought he was being strategic, LAROI still looked up Addison Rae, found her, made the verse, and planted the seed with her. Did he make it a priority to go viral when he wrote the song? I doubt it. But, he was still strategic to put the song in places it could reach a much bigger audience by leveraging the influencer.

2. Success on any platform means speaking the language of the platform.

LAROI’s TikTok success wouldn’t have come without knowing the language of the platform.

Social platforms are closed ecosystems where most of the action is contained within the platform. So, your ability to make a ton of noise happens when you can identify sparks, jump on trends and make your content blow up. In order to do this, you need to be tapped into the language of the platform.

He joins fans in creating meme content for his songs. Fueling the fire of engagement and racking up millions of views. Since releasing “Addison Rae” she has been featured on his page twice.

3. Focus on the bigger picture.

Virality for The Kid LAROI came from tapping into internet culture, making music, and luck. He’s spent the last couple of months creating and collaborating with Marshmello, MGK, Bieber, and more. Striking gold a second time when Miley Cyrus hopped on the remix to “Without You”. Also active on TikTok she created her own meme to tease the release of the remix.

Stack your deck to increase your chances.

If you’re an artist who is wanting to replicate this success it is very important to know and understand that:

• Virality is an outcome, but it should not be a plan and never a goal.
• Be native the platform. Use what makes sense for you and pour gas when you see a spark.
• Viral content is a small part of a marketing plan, but you should have a larger career goal. For LAROI, it was creating albums and collaborating with other musicians.

And while traces of a content plan are not visible from the audience’s perspective no doubt there is one in play here, and it is vital you have one too.

If you want to go deeper, watch the full video on how The Kid LAROI went viral twice on TikTok.

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