Last Updated on July 6, 2026
2.7M+ followers
58M+ account likes
#ryanair: 2.6bn+ views
Near-zero media spend
The move
In May 2020, with its fleet grounded by the pandemic and nothing to sell, Ryanair started posting on TikTok. Not polished travel content. Jokes. Specifically, jokes about Ryanair: the fees, the no-recline seats, the random seat allocation, the £1 flights to airports 60 miles from the city they are named after.
The signature format was gloriously cheap: a face filter slapped on the nose of a Boeing 737, giving the plane eyes and a mouth so it could deliver the snark directly. When passengers complained in the comments, the plane answered back in the same voice. The account was run by a tiny in-house team; Michael O’Leary later described the strategy as ‘we hired a group of kids under the age of 25’ and let them post what they wanted.
It became the most-followed airline account on TikTok: over 2.7 million followers, more than 58 million likes, and over 2.6 billion views on the #ryanair hashtag, achieved with minimal paid support. When the head of social who built the voice left in 2023, the tone carried on without missing a beat, proof it had become a system rather than one person’s talent.
Why it worked
Every brand has a joke the public tells about it. Most brands spend money trying to make the joke go away. Ryanair worked out that owning the insult removes its power: if the brand laughs loudest at its own reputation for squeezing pennies, the criticism has nowhere left to land. It also radiates a strange honesty. A company that jokes about its own fees is a company you can trust to be exactly what it says: cheap flights, nothing else.
The approach was also native to the platform in a way most brand content never is. The team used TikTok’s own filters, sounds and meme formats within days of them trending, rather than adapting television scripts. Speed mattered more than polish; a topical joke posted today beats a produced video posted next month.
One boundary kept it safe: the snark targets Ryanair’s own reputation and playful gripes, not passengers with genuine grievances. The plane mocks people who expected luxury for £14.99. It does not mock people whose flight was cancelled.
The principle
The joke your customers already make about you is a marketing asset waiting to be claimed. Tell it first, tell it better, and repeat it in a recognisable format. Self-deprecation is only dangerous when it reveals something customers did not know; when they already know, it is disarming.
Steal this
This costs nothing but nerve, which is why so few businesses do it.
Write down the joke people already make about your business. The slow kitchen, the grumpy owner, the van that is never on time, the shop you can barely turn around in. That joke is your material.
Make it yourself, repeatedly, in your own voice. Once you tell the joke, it stops being a criticism and becomes a catchphrase. Customers switch from laughing at you to laughing with you, and the honesty builds trust in everything else you say.
Pick one repeatable format and stick to it. Ryanair has a talking plane. You might have a talking van, a deadpan caption style, or a weekly ‘things customers actually said’. Recognition in half a second is the goal.
Give the account to someone who lives on the platform and let them post without a committee. Speed is the whole game. If a joke needs three approvals, the moment it was for has already passed. Set the boundaries once: never mock a genuine grievance, then trust them.
Sources & further reading
- Michael O’Leary on Ryanair’s social strategy · Skift
- Ryanair’s TikTok strategy, broken down · Soar With Us
- Why airlines are flocking to TikTok · City AM
The Whito verdict
Ryanair built the biggest airline audience on TikTok with a face filter, a handful of staff under 25, and the nerve to say about itself what everyone was already saying behind its back. The media spend was close to zero. The strategic asset was permission: a voice settled enough, and a boss relaxed enough, to let the jokes fly without sign-off.
Most small businesses are one honest laugh at themselves away from being the most likeable account in their town. The material is already written. Your customers wrote it.
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Frequently asked questions
How did Ryanair get so big on TikTok?
Starting in May 2020, a small in-house team posted self-deprecating jokes about Ryanair’s own reputation, fees, no-frills seats, distant airports, often delivered through a face filter on a plane. The account grew past 2.7 million followers and 58 million likes with minimal paid spend.
Why does self-deprecating marketing work for Ryanair?
Because the public already made the jokes. By telling them first, Ryanair removed the sting, signalled honesty about what it sells, and turned its biggest reputational liability into a recognisable content engine. The snark never targets passengers with genuine grievances.
How can a small business use the Ryanair approach?
Identify the joke customers already make about you, make it yourself in a repeatable format, and give one platform-native person the account with clear boundaries and no sign-off committee. It costs nothing except the nerve to laugh at yourself.
