Instagram is the biggest single source for conversations around luxury brands, and for some over half of the conversation around their brand is on the platform, according to the 2018 Luxury Brands Report released by NetBase, a leader in social media analytics. Instagram dominance was especially prevalent in the beauty, fashion, and high-end retail space, where it is the go-to social media platform for users to show off their purchases with the popular hashtag #OOTD (Outfit of the Day).
NetBase’s 2018 Luxury Brands Report identified that the top ten luxury brands on social media were Land Rover, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Mercedes-Benz, Christian Louboutin, BMW, Yves Saint Laurent, Audi, and Four Seasons.
aston martin vantage. image: astonmartin.com/vantage
NetBase’s rankings are based on an aggregation of the sentiment, passion, and volume around the conversation of the brands. The analysis of brands covered more than 227 million posts across categories including automobile, hotels, beauty, fashion, jewelry, and fashion among others.
“Luxury brands have a specific target customer who is incredibly particular about what they shop for. Emotion and reputation are huge sales drivers for brands in this space,” said Paige Leidig, chief marketing officer at NetBase. “Many luxury brands have high sentiment on social media, it is vital for CMOs and brand managers to understand how they can differentiate and drive positive consumer passion.”
Indexing and social ranking is an average measure of actual position for each metric, with the largest, most positive, or most passionate brands ranking first. NetBase’s analysis of brand performance (January 1, 2017 to January 1, 2018) looked at volume of conversation, reach, net sentiment, and brand passion as measured and analyzed through the NetBase platform.
Saint Laurent ad campaign. image: facebook.com/ysl/
Here are 2018 Luxury Brands Report‘s Category Findings:
Automobile: Despite having only two percent share of voice in the Automobile category, NetBase found Land Rover took the overall top spot. Conversation stemming from international driving experiences, and a 90 percent positive sentiment score with a top passion rank, brought it to number one.
Other notable rankings include Mercedes (#5), BMW (#7), Audi (#9), Cadillac (#15), Porsche (#16), Aston Martin (#17), Jaguar (#18), and Tesla (#19) in the top 20. The study found consumers love to talk about their cars with luxury automobile brands accounting for 45 percent of the share of voice.
Beauty: While it may not be the most discussed category, beauty brands such as L’Oréal (#20), Dior (#25), and Estée Lauder (#28) were the most loved – with the highest net sentiment score, says netbase.
Fashion: Alexander McQueen (#12) dominated the fashion category this year with almost a third of the category’s conversation volume and a perfect passion score.
High-End: High-end brands took five of the top 10 spots – Louis Vuitton (#2), Burberry (#3), Dolce & Gabbana (#4), Christian Louboutin (#6), and Yves Saint Laurent (#8). Exclusivity of these products often garnered attention online and some brands found a “less is more” approach effective.
Luxury E-Commerce and Retail: In the luxury category brick and mortar is far from dead. The brick and mortar brands generally outperformed their e-commerce counterparts with Selfridges (#30), Harrods (#41), and Neiman Marcus (#46) accounting for over 50 percent of the conversation volume within the category.
Hotels: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts (#10) took the top spot. But, hotel brands had a lower conversation volume compared to other categories, which means that any trending conversation can have a big impact on a brand’s perception on social media. For example, NetBase found Fairmont (#92) comparing equally with the competition on luxury, check-in and points conversations, but falls short at booking, with one viral conversation driving most of the negativity.
Jewelry: Top jewelry brands Cartier (#27), Chopard (#50), and Harry Winston (#69) saw 30 to 40 percent of total mentions of their brand appear on Instagram, and the jewelry category had the highest passion score overall. If a jewelry brand needs to determine social media investments this year, it should be on Instagram.
image: facebook.com/EsteeLauder/
