What’s In The Rug? - Katy Santry
Screenshots from Kate Santry's TikTok page
This past weekend, TikTok feeds turned into a real-life episode of True Detective, with over 100 million views across the globe dedicated to unravelling a mystery involving… a buried rug.
The mystery began when Katie Santry, a relatively unknown TikToker in the US, unearthed a rolled-up rug while digging in her back garden. The internet’s imagination ran wild, with many speculating about a potential dead body.
The plot thickened when Katie found her laptop smashed and belongings mysteriously rearranged, suggesting to her rapidly growing audience that her house might be haunted by whatever—or whoever—was inside the rug. As Katie documented her experience via the 29-part What’s In The Rug series, her TikTok following exploded from 6,000 to nearly 2 million. People were hooked.
Internet sleuths went into overdrive, linking the discovery to local cold cases and flooding her with requests to investigate further and contact the police. This call-and-response dynamic made the situation more compelling for people, offering a serotonin rush as they saw their suggestions being acted upon. The heightened interest ultimately resulted in a homicide team and cadaver dogs investigating the scene.
While the police confirmed this weekend that there was, in fact, no dead body in the rug, the last week has provided a fascinating insight into how real-time content can be key in stories breaking through.
Katie’s constant stream of updates meant there was always something else to talk about, and her going live on the app at key moments (like the police arriving or the cadaver dogs sitting on the rug’s location) made an audience of strangers from across the world feel like they were part of something in real-time. People tuned in for each live session, with other users posting extensive videos on their thoughts regarding the most recent updates. It felt like classic Appointment Television through our little phone screens.
The result? Within a week of the first video going live, Katie’s following has gone from 6,000 to nearly 2 million people. She now has her own merch line, the story has been covered by massive outlets including Forbes, Wired and People, and she’s used money from her viral moment to pay for a family holiday to Disney World.
While it's uncertain if Katie can sustain this momentum, one thing is clear: real-time, spontaneous content can resonate, especially when it taps into collective intrigue. This continues the trend seen earlier this year with Reesa Teesa, a TikToker whose hours-long series Who TF Did I Marry? resulted in millions of views and a TV adaptation deal.
Brand Takeout: The lesson here is to never underestimate the power of good storytelling. Brands should embrace the unexpected, encourage community interaction, and recognise that sometimes the best content is simply a story well told. You don't need a blockbuster budget or a celebrity name to captivate an audience—sometimes, all it takes is a simple rug.
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