Krispy Kreme top youth food brand on social media
Pepsi Max, Warburtons, McCain, and Walkers made up the top five brands for youth engagement on social media, according to the report by social brand agency Headstream.
The research compared young people’s engagement on Twitter, Facebook and Google + and cross referenced it with what they claimed to like.
In total, 25 food and drink brands made the list of top 100 youth ranking for social brands.
A spokesman for Headstream told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the brands were successful on social media because they were engaging in real-time conversation and banter with people online, promoting daily offers and providing a source of entertainment.
Constantly relevant
“Food and drink brands are proving popular because they are part of daily consumption,” he added. “They are constantly relevant with youth life and constantly on shelves and in cupboards making them easy to reach out to. If brands make their products easy to reach out to online then that joins it all together.”
Although giving away food coupons online would boost a firm’s profile, Headstream said it wasn’t the only thing that attracted young people to a brand’s social media profile.
“It is value [that drives social media success], value for content in many different ways. This could be a monetary gain through coupons and offers, entertainment – offering a video or photo that people want to share – or information around health and diet.”
Although online deals would encourage young people to like a brand’s social media profile, Headstream said the best way to engage young people online was to share entertaining content.
The list was compiled by surveying 2,569 18-24-year-olds in the UK. Respondents were invited to rate how they felt towards a shortlist of over 250 brands that had been identified as relevant to the everyday lives of young people.
Loved, liked, disliked, hated
Respondents were asked whether they loved, liked, disliked, hated or had no feeling towards the brand.
The brands were then given to Social Bakers, the data partner for the report, to cross-reference data with its social media statistics.
Finally the Facebook pages and Twitter and Google+ accounts of the brands were analysed during a four-week period from February to March 2014.
Also included in the top 100 were 12 food and drink outlets, the top five were Pizza Hut, Greggs, Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Pizza Express.
Steve Sponder, md of Headstream, said: “What this youth audience want is to engage with content that’s honest, relevant and true to the brand. Young people have invested a lot of themselves in these platforms – their photos, status updates, videos; they are emotionally and personally involved.”
He added that young people would only commit to a brand if they believed it conformed to these values.
“They might be quick to ‘like’ a brand but will be quick to ‘unlike’ too if they feel the value isn’t there,” said Sponder.
Top food and drink brands among young people
Krispy Kreme, Pepsi Max, Warburtons, McCain, Walkers
Kettle Chips, Doritos, Ben & Jerry’s, Millie’s Cookies, Cadbury
Hovis, Smirnoff, Innocent, Kopparberg, Mc Coy’s
Pringles, Red Bull, Haribo, Lucozade, Special K, Coca-Cola
Heinz, Cathedral City, Kingsmill, Coco Pops, Uncle Ben’s
Top food and drink outlets among young people
Pizza Hut, Greggs, Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Pizza Express
Waitrose, Morrisons, KFC, Domino’s Pizza, Subway,
Nando’s, McDonald’s
