Winning on social media is not a one-step process. It requires meticulous attention to audience needs to cement lasting loyalty, which some brands do exceedingly well to remain top of mind.
The race for customer growth becomes increasingly vital as brands continue to drive their efforts in winning the social media space. The brands at the forefront of consumer minds are the ones that hone in on expanding their business strategy onto social channels, integrate mixed-media formats, and most importantly, understand the trends in flux to influence highly personalized brand and purchasing experiences.
Dedicated social teams are essential to laying the foundations of a successful brand strategy, especially in this modern age. Staying active on social means that brands can reflect a more human component in their identity—a quality that denotes how well-connected brands communicate with their followers on social— which complements the prospect of community building.
While it may sound platitudinous among marketers, social media is not entirely about selling your products. Still, it is a fantastic tool for showcasing your brand values, striking emotional resonance with your followers, and thereby creating an indirect but more trusted route in their consideration stage.
We consolidated APAC’s top 50 most-discussed consumer brands during the third quarter (Q3) of 2021. In addition to the rankings, we highlighted interesting social strategies of brands and industries that have come out on top.
There were some notable changes in the third quarter of 2021. McDonald’s dropped 35 places back down to the 43rd ranking, unable to sustain consumer hype around a successful, albeit short-lived BTS-themed meal campaign in the second quarter. On the other hand, a very welcomed addition among the top 10 brands sees the LVMH group joining the fray for the first time this year as it moved up nine places. Continuing to build consumer traction online with their BTS collaboration, the pop group recently accompanied South Korean President Moon Jae-in to New York as a special presidential envoy, all while decked out in Louis Vuitton pieces.
Find out more about the rankings in the previous quarters of 2021:
Time of the Mobile Phone Giants 📱
Every year, seemingly around the end of summer, there comes a time when two of the biggest, undisputed smartphone brands, Apple and Samsung, begin turning heads on the onset of their latest flagship range, the iPhone and Galaxy series, respectively.
This year appears to be no different, with Samsung launching its newest Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G models in August, ahead of the latest iPhone 13 release, which was expected to be announced in September.
Evolution of online mentions for Apple and Samsung between 1 Jul 2021 to 30 Sep 2021.
Brand mentions for both Apple and Samsung peaked particularly in the week of their respective phone launches, but the following buzz did not last particularly long in the weeks to come. However, having been in the public eye weeks earlier, Samsung managed to ride a good proportion of the Apple wave with a resurgence of mentions when their competitors debuted their new phones.
Consumers online were often found on social posting their opinions in comparative fashion, providing recommendations on the pros and cons of either brand. While Samsung has a case to win over Apple regarding its smartphone functionality, consumers appear to be on the fence on their product strategy. Apple still has a distinct edge when it comes to aligning its products to its branding style.
Aside from Apple and Samsung, Huawei rose by 17 places to sit on the 31st spot this quarter. While online conversations around Apple and Samsung may be primarily based on their products, Huawei’s ascension in this quarter’s rankings could be one of an entirely different course due to the company’s political nature. News around the extradition of its Chief Financial Officer culminated with a lot of intrigue among internauts.
With other mobile phone manufacturers needing to play second fiddle to both Apple and Samsung when vying for market share, the competition between the top mobile phone brands appears to be two-fold for now. Having an eye on online conversations in the industry allows you to stay in touch with your customers while providing first-hand data in the areas for improvement, be it in product development, customer service, or marketing strategy.
BONUS: Download our latest telco report in the Singapore market, where we analyzed consumer sentiment around service providers and the industry’s future.
Automotives Ramping Up Social Talk 🚗
In the past quarter, brands from the automotive industry seem to be encouraging more conversations online. Brands like Toyota and Mercedes-Benz jumped 11 and 14 rankings, putting them on the 15th and 29th rankings, respectively. Other automotive brands that also made their way up the ladder were Honda, Audi, and BMW.
Key concepts that consumers are talking about online when discussing the top 3 discussed automotive brands - Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Toyota.
Some of the key topics that consumers are associating these brands with are electric vehicles, Formula One (F1), the Aragon Motorcycle Grand Prix, as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As these are large-scale events that typically gain a lot of attraction, it is no surprise that these brands managed to gain even more attention during this period as drivers known in F1 notably become the face of the brand.
Events, as we know, are a quick and easy way to put your brand name out there and get people talking and speculating. Besides building brand awareness from riding these trends, brands that are featured also gain substantial coverage online.
Being a part of such prestigious events that their consumers care about helps deepen the relationship with them, viewing the brand as reliable and, to a certain extent, sentimental to their eyes.
With the help of social listening, brands can leverage artificial intelligence to aggregate data monitoring on specific keywords, spokespersons, and brand mentions. Filtering actionable and valuable data to your team can inform your marketing and social teams to help steer their marketing strategies with impactful messaging and content.
A Familiar Name Banks on a New Face ✨
When Covid-19 is escalating the level of uncertainty across businesses of all scales, sometimes it’s better to look inwards to bridge gaps and define a new way of meeting expectations.
With Visa, they chose to rebrand their identity after seven years. They found it pivotal for consumers to see their brand beyond a credit-card label but a technology payments firm that connects multiple touchpoints, from people to businesses.
Visa’s subtle but very ubiquitous exposure throughout this quarter has skyrocketed its brand mentions, leap shooting 13 places to enter the top 50 rankings. While it may be a finance-related company, it is no less critical as a consumer-oriented brand considering the many payment solutions available today.
Evolution of online mentions around “Visa” between 1 Jul 2021 to 30 Sep 2021.
Being an official worldwide sponsor of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics—between 21 July to 5 September—has also enabled the brand to drive consumer engagement centered around Visa.
They were known particularly for ‘The Visa Award,’ where participating contenders are athletes who had exemplified values of “perseverance, inclusion and friendship” in defining moments.
While the situation surrounding Covid-19 may look despondent, brands like Visa took it upon themselves to reinvent their identity and innovate to cement their foothold for a future reality. Rather than rescind, the new normal should be a time when brands and businesses can leverage the use of data-centric tools to spot underlying opportunities and key trends, update old offerings, and inspire industry-leading changes.
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Share of Voice across key industries under the top 20 consumer brands between 1 Jul 2021 to 30 Sep 2021.
As we reel in towards the end of 2021, we continue to see significant consumer conversations around the eCommerce industry in APAC, with top brands, namely Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and Tokopedia, continuing to dominate the social media landscape with a combined 34.9% share of voice.
For an overview of the industries, here is where they stand:
📦 eCommerce: Shopee (#1), Tokopedia (#7), Lazada (#9), Amazon (#16)
📼 Entertainment: Spotify (#3), Netflix (#4), Nintendo (#11), Playstation (#17), Disney (#18)
🌐 Technology: Google (#2), Zoom (#5), Discord (#13)
👩💻 Consumer Goods: Apple (#6), Samsung (#8)
🚖 Transportation: Grab (#12), Gojek (#19)
🥡 F&B: Foodpanda (#14), Starbucks (#20)
👠 Luxury: LVMH (#10)
🚗 Automotive: Honda (#15)
Finding Insights to Renew Strategy via Social Listening 💎
Most of your customers may already be on social network sites, providing your marketing and market research teams with highly relevant, actionable data to inform internal stakeholders on business-building initiatives. The question is how you could gain that data more efficiently.
Operationalize how you collect and aggregate data surrounding your brand while keeping a top view of industry players and trends with a social intelligence stack. Whether your business objective is to survey your brand health, inform stakeholders on customer feedback, or mitigate potential crises from escalating, social listening can quickly provide insights in real time by automatically monitoring hotspots and trending topics.
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