Beauty products, in fact, play a starring role in the trend. Makeup tutorials have long been popular on YouTube, but after viewers realized how relaxing they were, many tutorials now double as ASMR videos. Some creators take the role-play approach, simulating the feeling of being in a makeup artist's chair, while others use makeup brushes to create soothing noises. Search for "ASMR nails," and you'll see many creators showing off their manicures as they make tapping and scratching sounds. Even Michelle Phan—the queen of beauty herself, with 8.6 million subscribers and counting—has created an ASMR video.

Perhaps less obvious, a large majority of the ASMR audience also skews technophile and gamer. People interested in ASMR across the web are more than twice as likely to be in the market for consumer tech products like laptops, mobile phones, and game consoles.8 There's even an ASMR gamer YouTube channel. ASMR may be an antidote to fast-paced video games; research has shown that your brain on video games can heighten your senses.

Regardless of how ASMR works, there is clearly a huge, engaged, and growing audience that responds to it. And as a brand, you don't have to "get it" to benefit from it. You just have to engage this unique and largely untapped community in any number of creative ways. Now how does that sound?