Jun 11
10
Snack Brands on Facebook: The Big 20 Pt. 3
This post originally appears on the Stuzo Insights blog.
There are some massive brand presences on Facebook, especially in the CPG snack category. People love connecting with their favorite brands on Facebook, and snack foods can be some of the nearest and dearest to our hearts. Therefore, we need to make sure that our fans love interacting with our Page as much as they love unwrapping a pack of M&Ms. This week, we’re looking at the second half of our list taking a look at the insights we can draw. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 also!
Without further adieu, here are the top 20 snack brands on Facebook, based on community size (data collected on 4/4/11):
- Oreo – 18.9 million
- Skittles – 16.3
- Pringles – 12.6
- Nutella – 9.6
- Starburst – 8.4
- Reese’s – 6.9
- 5 Gum – 4.6
- Kit Kat – 3.5
- Lay’s – 2.5
- M&M’s – 2.1
- Hershey’s – 2.0
- Life Savers Gummies – 1.8
- Snickers – 1.8
- Trident Chewing Gum – 1.8
- Cadbury Creme Egg – 1.7
- Sour Patch Kids – 1.7
- Twix – 1.6
- Doritos – 1.6
- Cheez-It – 1.6
- Tic Tac – 1.6
Let’s take a look at how some of the next group of brands, numbers 11-15, are creatively utilizing some of the default tabs and functionality, and how they could improve. Hershey’s has made a clear effort to modify the picture rail to drive users to their social good campaign, Together Counts. This is an easy, low friction method of creating some additional creative space within your owned media to drive users through your action funnel. Experiment with tying the photo rail to various campaigns, both on the wall and within custom experiences.
In January, Snickers executed a campaign that leveraged the stock Ustream application, and featured former NFL safety, Rodney Harrison. Snickers definitely gets points for incorporating new media channels, like Ustream, however the campaign has been dormant for about three months – too long to keep an application live that is so closely tied to calendar events, like the Super Bowl.
Life Savers Gummies recently experimented with Facebook’s new Questions feature for crowdsourcing – they wanted to know their fans favorite flavor of gummy. With nearly 6,000 answers – 0.3% of their fan-base – the test should be viewed as a success because of the low-cost use of native Facebook functionality to engage users in a new way. Brands that aren’t using Questions to converse with their fans are missing out on some very valuable user data.
On the Trident page, they are consistently using Events for their sampling tours; another creative use of native functionality to engage, entertain, and inform users. Whenever a brand can tie the online experience to the real world, it’s a huge win. The more frequently and more diverse the interactions, the tighter the bond between the consumer and the brand; therefore, Events should be in any brand’s Facebook tactical toolkit, when relevant to the product.
Cadbury uses Videos to show off creative spots for the Cadbury Creme Egg. Some of the videos were TV commercials, others are exclusive to the Facebook fan-base. If you can expose your consumers to rich, and exclusive video content, you absolutely should. A monitoring strategy must also be in place when including lots of rich media, because lots of comments may follow, and you’ll need to engage in conversation after you’ve offered up that juicy piece of content.
Take Aways: Experiment with native Facebook functionality, and get creative in the ways that you engage your users. It’s not enough to do wall posts when you air a new TV spot or launch a new product or deal; you need to vary the engagement to keep things fresh and fun. Users are listening; are you engaging?
A hallmark of a great brand is consistency – in look, feel, messaging, voice, etc. – and we can see that the final five pages are great examples of that. Working our way up from #20, Tic Tac lands us on a whimsical city in the clouds that invites us to a world of “playful freshness” which feel very naturally tied to their other marketing efforts, which all have that playful vibe, especially their TV spots.
On Cheez-It’s page, we land on a custom tab announcing that Facebook fans have chosen the next flavor, Colby, much like we saw on Life Savers Gummies’ page. If we click through the application, we can see the multi-layer experience features games, a cheese flavor leaderboard, and the scientist from the TV commercials – great execution of cross-channel social and brand continuity.
Doritos has a nice tie in with the new Green Lantern movie on its Facebook Page – a custom profile image, custom tab experience, and wall photo rail – and is a very cross-channel partnership, as the movie is also being promoted across other Frito Lay snacks, like Cheetos, Ruffles, and Brisk, and at point of purchase in various retail spots.
Twix, too, has a custom landing tab with a new product launch, which is also cross channel with other digital marketing efforts, and obviously in-store promotional materials. The page features two time-waster games that are meant to give fans a branded experience when they “need a moment?” and want to briefly step away from what they were doing.
Lastly, Sour Patch Kids has a snarky – and sour – brand voice that resonates well with its fan-base, both on Facebook and off. With status updates like “I can read music, but I can’t hear books” and “You guys should have a ‘Sour then Sweet 15,’ I’ll DJ” one wonders if they could be doing more to boost engagement and post-value, as we saw Nutella doing in Part 1.
Final Take Aways:
- Capture your visitor right away. This can be accomplished either by having them land on a custom tab with stimulating creative or by making the Wall a destination for immediate engagement.
- Ensure that your custom experiences are clearly defined and tie directly back to a business objective in social (i.e. acquisition, engagement, awareness, etc.). Also, set the tone for your Page, and create a set of guidelines for users to follow – then remove content that isn’t up to your brand’s standards.
- Experiment with native Facebook functionality, and get creative in the ways that you engage your users. It’s not enough to do wall posts when you air a new TV spot or launch a new product or deal; you need to vary the engagement to keep things fresh and fun. Users are listening; are you engaging?
- Your brand is your most important asset – be sure to make one message and one voice sing across all of your marketing and advertising channels. Your fans are the same, be your message in-store, billboard, email, or on Facebook. Consistency is king here.
Did we miss one of your top 20 snack brands? Let us know in the comments!
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