Cannes: India, Brazil home to most social-media promoters

The study shared exclusively with Campaign Asia-Pacific differentiates “sharers” and “followers” from active promoters. The majority of users in the 11 markets surveyed said they “liked” or followed a brand, product or service, but only 19 per cent of the sample fit the profile of authentic brand promoters.

The online study surveyed over 5,600 people in 11 markets in May.

According to Thomas Crampton, global managing director of Social@Ogilvy, promoters tend to be more active, associative and powerful. They tend to follow brands on a regular basis and in order to interact with them. The demographic is skewed in favour of women between the ages of 30 and 44.

In emerging markets, these promoters tend to trust online recommendations more than their counterparts in mature markets. Promoters in Indonesia, China, India, and Brazil say that brand recommendations from friends on social media are “most trustworthy”, while those in Australia, the US and the UK rely on in-person recommendations.

“Social media addicts may look like your most engaged consumers, but marketers need to stop looking at their data in silos to find their true advocates,” said Bennett Porter, SurveyMonkey’s vice president of marketing communications. “To appeal to promoters, brands need to not only focus on quality but also reputation among friends or colleagues and that sense of worth that comes from being associated with a brand.”

Ultimately, brands need to build relevance and trust through content and connections if they wish to use social media to transform their business and reputation, Crampton added.  

What brands are they recommending?

Not surprisingly, across all markets, technology companies and in particular Samsung and Apple fared the best with mature markets favouring Apple and emerging markets championing the more affordable Samsung brand.

Sportswear brands like Nike and Adidas also battled for favour among all countries. And although Nike outperformed Adidas, it was also more likely to appear on the not recommended lists. Beauty brands like Chanel, L’Oreal, Nivea, and Dove were most likely to be recommended.

The study also showed that people tended to be harder on their own countries’ brands, with far more local companies appearing on the “not recommended” lists. This is particularly true in Asia: Kakaku and Uniqlo were not rated well in Japan; ZTE and Xiaomi got the same treatment in China; and reliance, Lava, Karbon and Micromax faced the heat in India.

“Brands need to think a lot about precision,” said Crampton. “They also need to find ways to inspire true promoters and you need to do that at the right moments of truth. Finally you need to bond with them in a way that’s not community engagement but more customer service.”