Singapore – Interactions made by Singaporean public agencies and government bodies were much more evident on the social media platform Instagram than any other platforms, with a 12.7% increase from 2020 and a total of 1.69m interactions, according to the latest data from unified customer experience platform Emplifi.
According to the data, there is a 1.2% increase in content produced by these entities, from 5,409 in 2020 to 6,219 in 2021. In comparison, Twitter accounted for the largest proportion of published content at 53.01% or 30,671 tweets. However, interactions were 2.16%, or 158,737 interactions. Facebook, which made up over 30% of content across platforms, received the largest share of interactions at 72.9%, or 5.37m interactions.
While Traditionally ministries and statutory boards have leaned towards Facebook and Twitter, social media platform Instagram emerged as the platform with the highest engagement rate (1.18%) and share-of-voice (70.7%). Conversely, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter saw declines in their share-of-voice.
Some of the campaigns that showed higher engagement include the National Parks Board (NPB) #CityInNatureSG, Gov.sg #IGotMyShot, MOH Covid-19 Vaccination, Gov.sg TestTraceVaccinate and MOE #OurSchoolStories campaigns.
Varun Sharma, vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Emplifi, said, “Social media emerged as a crucial platform to keep people informed and aware during the pandemic. Now, as the world gradually eases restrictions, social channels continue to prove their effectiveness to initiate two-way dialogues.”
In addition, public sector agencies also used short-form videos, which were the best performing content pieces. For instance, Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) YouTube content skyrocketed in 2021, with a total of 32,683,601 views for the year, having released 157 videos.
Lastly, the data highlighted the rising popularity of user-generated content (UGCs) in driving audience engagement. In comparison to 2020, the audience was 8.9% more engaged with government profiles, with almost half (48.2%) of user-generated content published in 2021. Overall, UGCs from government profiles grew 1.4 times, from 37,621 content pieces in 2020 to 54,525 content pieces in 2021. The share of interactions on UGC also saw an uplift of 1.22% to 2.38% in 2021.
“There has never been a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to creating content for social media. This has led government bodies to innovate their social media strategies to ensure they are reaching the right segment of the audience, with the right message at the right time. We are now starting to see many public sector bodies moving onto TikTok, including STB, National Parks and NEA. We expect TikTok to become more widely used in 2022 as organisations become more comfortable with the format. The mix of social channels to drive public action and engagement is good to see and sets a great case study for marketers,” Sharma concluded.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – ASEAN fintech company BigPay, which is under AirAsia, has appointed Lion & Lion as its digital and social media marketing partner for its Malaysia and Singapore markets. The agency said that the new partnership strengthens its portfolio in the financial services industry and highlights its strong growth in the region.
Lion & Lion has developed an integrated creative solution that utilises social media in “bold new ways” to grow BigPay’s digital presence and increase the brand’s share of voice among millennials in the space of financial technology. Building on the theme of BigPay giving users better control of their finances, the campaign will utilise a combination of interactive content developed specifically for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as partnerships with influencers and creators.
Lion & Lion said the overall goal is to educate millennials on financial literacy, while also positioning the BigPay brand as a trusted partner that understands the lifestyle needs and financial habits of their target audience.
Ham Maghazeh, director of social media at Lion & Lion, shared that their insights have shown that millennials and Generation Z find financial topics boring or difficult to understand, which brings the agency to craft an approach that uses fun and relatable online pop culture references such as memes, entertainment and music in order to resonate with the said target audience.
“Essentially we are turning fintech into ‘funtech’ in order to bridge the gap between millennials and financial literacy. We then tie this back to BigPay, which as a financial platform, allows users the power to control their spending wisely,” says Maghazeh.
Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer of Lion and Lion, added “We are excited to enter 2022 with BigPay as our new client. As a fintech company that is committed to democratising financial literacy, BigPay has an amazingly strong product with a multitude of offerings. We are excited to help BigPay drive their product narrative to resonate to a younger audience segment and grow their user base, while building their brand presence in the region with our creative and digital expertise.”
Chris Manguera, BigPay’s CMO said that as a fintech brand, they believe that they have a role to actively educate and advocate financial literacy.
“On top of that, we want our presence to be as fun as our blue card while still keeping true to our mission and vision. Lion & Lion stood out with their creative output and it was highly aligned with the bold direction we’re headed towards, which is to make fintech, ‘funtech’,” added Manguera.
In August 2021, BigPay secured US$100m in funding to establish itself as a ‘challenger bank’ in SEA.
Manila, Philippines – When you think of Valentine’s Day, most people think of sweet couples and their dates. But Philippine telco Globe had a different idea: for their newest campaign, they put the spotlight on pet friends, furry or otherwise, with special treats that they can enjoy with their humans.
The campaign, called ‘#MayFurEverWithGlobe’, invites customers to create tribute posts for their pets on social media and help spread feel-good messages about pet love. In addition, the social media campaign gives customers a chance to win 2,000 Globe or TM Rewards points that may be converted into Lazada or Shopee credits to purchase pet supplies. Prizes also include a love offering to the animal welfare organisation Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) on behalf of their pets to help look after stray dogs and cats.
Yoly Crisanto, chief sustainability officer and SVP for corporate communications at Globe, said, “Our pets are a source of simple joys, and they have shown us pure love amid the stressful times of the pandemic. Through this campaign, we hope to remind people that they are not alone in their fight against stress and anxiety. They have sources of love around them, such as the unconditional love that pets provide.”
The campaign has been supported by local artists and celebrities such as Kiray Celis and Arianne Bautista, celebrity athlete and volleyball icon Aby Maraño, Myx VJ Ai Dela Cruz, YouTuber, and singer Claudine Co, among others.
Said campaign is part of the telco’s ‘#AtinAngSimpleJoys’ campaign, which promotes purposeful everyday hobbies that have been found to help alleviate stress and anxiety, common symptoms of mental health distress. ‘#AtinAngSimpleJoys’ also gave rise to last year’s viral challenge #PlantHappinessPH, which focused on the positive mental health effects of taking care of plants.
“As a company that genuinely cares for the well-being of its customers, Globe continues to introduce programs that encourage people to find simple joys in life. It believes that positive and meaningful relationships with people, plants, and animals can play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy mental state,” the company said in a press statement.
Melbourne, Australia – Social media platform Reddit has introduced a new slew of features in their platform, specifically to their latest live audio product called Reddit Talk. This is aimed to increase engagement of the growing Reddit Talk community, as well as make it easier to find Reddit Talks in communities people belong to.
Since the launch of Reddit Talk, it has been used by over 1,000 subreddits, including popular ones such as r/cryptocurrency, r/movies, r/space, r/wallstreetbets, among others.
The first feature introduced to Reddit Talk is that it allows users to be able to listen to a recording of the conversation. The new feature includes a playback bar that enables redditors to skip to any timestamp, pause or unpause, and fast-forward or rewind 10 seconds at a time.
In addition, Reddit Talk is now also available for web users, where anyone can listen to Talks and raise their hands to speak and moderators can mute speakers and remove them from the stage when using Reddit.com. Creating talks via the web is coming later this month.
Another feature being introduced as part of Reddit Talk is the presence of a live bar at the top of home feeds that highlights what Reddit Talks are happening, making it easier for users to discover Reddit Talks in the communities they love.
Reddit has also introduced the use of text and emojis to actively participate in a Talk. Previously, redditors who were listening to a Talk were able to raise their hand to join the stage, but couldn’t comment in real time. Enabling comments and emojis makes Talks easier to engage with, even without speaking.
The pandemic has pushed for even greater dependence on social media. And while the platforms have already been ingrained in the fabric of peoples’ daily lives even pre-pandemic, the current times have made it evolve to now serve different purposes to consumers as well as to give birth to new challenges along with its usage.
According to Statista, the most popular social media platforms worldwide as of October 2021 are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. The popularized short-video platform TikTok during the pandemic has also expectedly entered the list.
In an interview with Stewart Hunter, the director of social advertising platform Smartly.io for customer success in APAC, he said that within this overcrowded social media space, brands are not only up against other brands, but are now dealing with a situation that requires them to understand the mindset of consumers towards each social media platform as each gives rise to unique perceptions and behaviours.
Hunter explains that today, each social media platform has grown to “serve a different role in the funnel and this poses challenges also to the brand message and format in various platforms.”
One of the greatest changes we saw during the pandemic was the transformation of the role of social media in consumers’ shopping journeys. While social media merely stood as a branding and promotional strategy for brands before, it has now made its way to the purchase pathway itself, serving as the touchpoint from discovery to purchase.
The multiple consumer touchpoints within social media
As we enter the new year still in the pandemic, it’s crucial to talk about how to approach social media now that it has become consumers’ go-to when searching for brands and products to purchase in the past two years.
Hunter explains that with this being the reality, brands will now have to deal with unique multiple touchpoints present in the consumer journey.
“As consumers spend more and more time on social media, they also have multiple touchpoints with a brand before ever making a purchase decision, and every touchpoint matters,” said Hunter.
This rings true for example with Australian shoppers, where one study found that 64% of 18- to 25-year-olds have researched products on Instagram during the past 12 months, while 67% of those 26 to 35-year-olds have done the same product research, this time on Facebook, within the same period.
Hunter shares a few principles to consider in navigating the new phase of social media, and lo and behold – values that brands must emulate in today’s social advertising are far from novel, emphasising that the fundamentals remain supreme – just directed towards a different goal.
For one, brands must take note of the importance of having a strong brand messaging and creatives.
Through an earlier experiment with some popular fashion brands, Smartly.io has also found that a clear brand identity drives business results and the social advertising platform showed the importance of branding in its platform to help in delivering more than product pictures – across the sales funnel.
In the post-cookie world as well, creative will be more critical than ever in driving successful campaigns. Hunter says that this has often been undervalued, but as privacy regulations take effect and social media platforms take proactive steps to change the way data is available to be used, advertisers will have to get creative with the privacy-friendly approach in 2022.
Second, in line with the stronger call for digital privacy, brands need to show that they are data compliant and ensure they are responsible with their consumers’ data.
“People want [openness] and transparency from brands around what their data is being used for and why. We have already seen some changes within the publishing industry, and a number of eCommerce platforms could follow suit,” said Hunter.
Above these changes in social media is an emerging new dimension – with the easing of restrictions, consumers will soon move from online to offline, and it is now brands’ job to find how the interactivity of social media with the offline journey will evolve.
“Shopping journeys will continue to grow complex as consumers seamlessly move from online to offline (with the easing of the restrictions in some countries) and jump between social channels. Hence for brands to succeed, they need to invest in a multi-platform strategy which allows you to meet your customers where they are while communicating a coherent brand story and ultimately building trust among your audience,” asserts Hunter.
Jumping into a multi-platform strategy this 2022
Fast gone are the days that each social media platform is viewed in silos. Hunter believes that brands must start diversifying investments across social media channels.
First of all, there’s no better time than now to start investing in social advertising and ramping up one’s efforts in this area. In fact, according to Smartly.io’s recent annual survey with top CMOs in APAC, one-third of respondents said that they will spend more on social media advertising in 2022 than they did in 2021.
For a brand to create genuine and long-lasting customer relationships with its consumers, building a multi-platform social advertising strategy will be key.
In order to successfully bring this to fruition, Hunter says to focus on talent and find ways on how expertise in the team can be leveraged such as by strategically adopting creative tech.
72.3% of respondents say that their social media advertising creation and delivery still involve manual processes that are often time-consuming. This manual work can be off-putting to talent and takes time away from the more fulfilling creative and strategic functions of the job.
With 51.5% of respondents naming lack of talent as one of the biggest internal challenges to their social media advertising processes, it’s time brands prioritise employees and take a closer look at the actual work being done.
Hunter says it’s important to automate in order to create and deliver social media ads at scale. Platforms like Smartly.io allow brands to manage their sprawling campaigns in a single place, enabling easy coordination and optimisation of creatives across platforms and formats.
Marketing trends to leverage in social advertising
We now know that we are now up against a different kind of social media and the next crucial step, therefore, is knowing which type of content and format are currently on top of consumers’ radar
Hunter says right off the bat – video.
TikTok has led the pack and has shown everybody how powerful short but sweet videos can make an impact on audience engagement. Hunter says the use of video will continue to become more prominent, with mobile being the medium.
The heightened fondness for videos has made social media platforms Facebook and Instagram roll out more video formats, and we expect to see more brands adopting video. So what type of video content would then attract audiences?
The style of videos will continue to evolve to follow what consumers want from their brands – which is authentic, open, and closer to their lives, said Hunter.
According to Hunter, campaigns that are based on user-generated content (UGC) will enable this style of communication and align with what TikTok and Instagram reels were made for – content created by people rather than brands. Advertisers should spend some time understanding how UGC aligns with their brand strategy and resonates with their consumers.
Another one is augmented reality. Today’s virtual reality space has now seen the emergence of the metaverse, which means that earlier immersive tech such as augmented reality will grow more into maturity, making it an imperative format for brands to stay relevant.
“As consumers get deeper into the use of social media and devices become more immersive and powerful, augmented reality will become a bigger part of social media creativity,” said Hunter.
AR is no doubt a powerful tool for consumer engagement and makes it even much easier for brands to showcase creativity through applying filters to videos, feature-changing effects to the people in them, and adding playful or informative stickers to enhance the message.
This article is written based on an interview with Stewart Hunter,director of Smartly.io for customer success in APAC.
Smartly.io is a global platform that automates every step of social advertising. With a global team of over 650, the platform automates creative production and ad buying at scale.
The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT.This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.
If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.
LAMC Productions, an independent concert promoter headquartered in Singapore, alongside its sister firm for comedy entertainment, LA Comedy Live, is expanding its team and looking for new members in the Philippines to join its company.
LAMC Productions is specifically on the lookout for potential joiners in the areas of PR & marketing, social media, online events & programs, and business & operations, as well as for the development of its specific platform, Words & Music, which is its episodic insightful conversations with prominent international music artists and comedians about a variety of issues.
According to Founder Lauretta Alabons, LAMC productions is building its entertainment platform and launching its own NFTs, hence, searching for new talents to help attain said goals. Alabons shared that team members will be working with her to help generate income for the company and grow the business regionally.
Words and Music, with the main showcase on YouTube, is its conversations with international music artists and comedians which include developments in their careers and their personal opinions on global matters.
Words & Music was created in 2020 and is now gearing up to launch highlight videos for an NFT drop. LAMC Productions will be requiring an experienced PR and digital media professional to work with them for the marketing, PR, and social media efforts for these NFTs.
Here are the specific responsibilities of the following open positions, which will be remotely-based:
PR and Marketing
Crafts and disseminates press releases for the events and the company, develop and pitch stories & interviews to local, regional and international media and influencers
Manages media inquiries and interview requests
Familiar with media landscape, maintain and grow media contacts, relations
Coordinates media coverage and the press conference for the events
Coordinates with local and international clients and networks
Plans and executes Marketing & Publicity campaigns and activities in Singapore and across Asia
Crafts Electronic Direct Mail marketing campaigns via Mailchimp for the companies’ databases
Dealing with enquiries from the public, the press, and related organizations
Providing contacts with information about new promotional opportunities and current PR campaigns progres
Social Media – Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter
Copy write content for websites and social media postsBasic to average editing for some video content on social media posts
Works with the resident designer in content creation for the companies’ social media platforms and website.
Constant maintenance, updates and plans effective advertising campaigns of all social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn).
Monitors and analyzes publicity value and results after campaign
Plans and executes fan engagement campaigns to help grow social media following
Communicate with followers, respond to queries in a timely manner and monitor customer reviews
Suggest and implement new features to develop brand awareness, like promotions and competitions
Stay up-to-date with current technologies and trends in social media, design tools and applications
Online Events & Programmes
Craft presentations and proposals for physical & virtual events
Attend meetings with clients from pre-production to post-production coordination
Establish client relationships and coordinates content, social media and marketing timeline and plans for the events
Coordinates with the team from pre-production to post-production for all events, online show and podcast.
Assists on producing programme scripts, questions and sequence guide for virtual and hybrid events
Words & Music
Produce transcripts and sequence guide, video podcast snippets and highlights for promotions
Research and gather necessary visuals to be used in editing the video podcast
Come up with creative plans for social media posts to promote the podcast
Business / Operations
Crafts presentations, proposals and corporate emails for business and investor-related opportunities
Assist in presentation meetings with corporate representatives
Establish corporate relationships, assists on the progress of business matters
Assists in writing story pitches for content creation-related opportunities
Writing submissions for grants and award-giving bodies
Update work tracker on progress of tasks
Brainstorm / discuss with the team for business plans and opportunities
Coordinates with ticket holders and ticketing agent on refund requests for cancelled and postponed events
Pre-Covid, the production company’s business model was selling concert tickets to the end consumer in country-specific markets. Now with digital, it targets to reach a wider audience.
Interested applicants can email their resumes and cover letters to [email protected].
Singapore – Global action star Jackie Chan was recently announced as top e-commerce Shopee’s newest ambassador in August which was launched as part of the platform’s 9.9 campaign. Shortly after, Chan makes a comeback to viewers’ screens for the platform’s 11.11 campaign.
In light of the backlash from some advertising and creative professionals on Shopee’s current ad for 11.11, MARKETECH APAC reached out to social listening platform Digimind to learn about how the mass audience perceives the latest campaign.
On October 25, just a few days after Shopee released its 11.11 ad with the international star, Singapore-based marketing expert Richard Bleasdale stirred quite a conversation on LinkedIn by sharing a post about the ad, describing it as the “worst ad ever made.” Soon, the post drew quite traction, serving as an invitation for other creative and marketing leaders to share their verdict on the ad–which was a unanimous disappointment over Shopee’s chosen creative direction.
The general audience, meanwhile, had been split on their perception of the ad. According to Digimind’s analysis, some had found the 11.11 campaign endearing, while a fraction showed displeasure over the latest campaign mixed with some neutral liking.
The main narrative of the ad in question was Jackie Chan fighting off bad guys ‘magically’ through the power of Shopee’s ‘big discounts’. For every press of the actor on his phone, discount bubbles pop up such as “$60 CASHBACK ALL DAY,” sending an enemy down and defeated.
Screenshots from Shopee’s latest 11.11 ad
Apparently, the negative sentiment by the mass audience drew some parallel with professional opinion, which is Shopee’s seeming failure to leverage Chan’s martial arts prowess. Following Bleasdale’s post, MARKETECH APAC formally reached out to some of the advertising professionals that commented on the post.
A consensus among the creative leaders was Shopee’s perceived faulty decision to favor a fictional story of ‘powerful’ discounts rather than spotlighting the ambassador’s renowned action-comedy branding.
A leader from ad agency Cheil Singapore described the ad as an “orange mess,” while an advisory board member from martech DAIVID said the ad could have been an opportunity to have “some whacky martial-arts impossibility” performed by the ambassador.
Digimind had rounded up some definitive comments which had been in agreement with the said professional flak.
Negative and neutral comments on Shopee’s 11.11 ad gathered by Digimind
One tweet said, “I guess Jackie Chan beating up people with a tap of a button is all [we’re] going to get in a Shopee ad.”
While another wrote on Twitter, “[Jackie Chan] did a [Shopee] ad, my life is ruined.”
Other hostile comments pointed out other ‘less-than-perfect’ elements of the ad such as Chan’s seeming wrinkle-free appearance and how the ad looked like a ‘deepfake’, which is the digital alter of a person’s face.
“I’m laughing, they [airbrushed] Jackie Chan’s wrinkles…,” one netizen tweeted.
While another one said, “Tell me why I’m so convinced that the Shopee ads with ‘Jackie Chan’ [are] [deepfakes]…”
According to the report, there were a total of 309 mentions in Southeast Asia, excluding promotional content, about Shopee’s 11.11 ad from the period of October 17 – 31 across leading social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
The study found that Malaysia conversed the most around the campaign with 40% of the mentions coming from the market, followed by the Philippines (30%) and Indonesia (20%).
Information from the study also showed that the inaugural Shopee ambassadorship of Chan for 9.9 in August garnered higher traction on social media than the sophomore campaign of the star for 11.11. There had been a 4530% fall in the total volume of mentions for the newer campaign compared to the previous 9.9 over the same period from August 19 – 31.
Shopee’s 11.11 ad was released on YouTube on October 18 across its covered markets in Southeast Asia. Thai viewership of the ad eclipsed the platform’s other markets, registering over 39 million views as of writing.
Digimind’s analysis covered the markets of Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.
Sydney, Australia – In a bid to reach a newer audience and focus on engaging online with customers, airline Virgin Australia has officially debuted on the short-video platform TikTok, making it the first Australian airline to debut on the platform.
The first few uploads on the TikTok channel range from a ‘talking aircraft’, a stewardess sporting the well-known Virgin Australia red lip, to behind the scenes of work among Virgin Australia employees, the airline has rolled out a line-up of fun and hilarious content to date, sharing the brand with existing customers as well as a whole new generation of travellers and TikTokers.
According to Libby Minogue, chief marketing officer at Virgin Airlines, future uploads will feature Virgin Australia team members and focus on behind-the-scenes footage, trending content and of course, their planes.
“TikTok really is the perfect platform to showcase our famous ‘Virgin Flair’ and our wonderful team members and we’re so excited to be the first Australian airline to launch on the platform,” Minogue stated.
Virgin Australia’s take-off into TikTok comes as the airline is about to celebrate its 12-month anniversary after being relaunched last year, with the airline focusing on its heartland customer and undertaking a long list of improvements and innovative new customer touchpoints.
“Our followers will get to see a different side to our business. From the lifestyle of cabin crew and pilots, to behind-the-scenes glimpses into our operation, TikTok has opened a new way for us to communicate with existing and new customers, as we fly into a new era of travel,” Minogue said.
She added, “We’re also encouraging our own Virgin Australia team members to join TikTok and create content that we know will resonate with users, like why cabin crew must wear a watch at all times, sneak peeks and secret flight hacks,” Minogue added.
The airline has already notched up almost two-million organic views since its first TikTok post.
Sydney, Australia – More younger consumers in Australia are utilizing social media to conduct product research and discovery before deciding to purchase a product, the latest survey from cloud-based e-commerce solutions ChannelAdvisor notes.
According to the survey, 64% of 18- to 25-year-olds have researched products on Instagram during the past 12 months, while 67% of 26 to 35-year-olds have researched products on Facebook within the same period.
Despite that, social media use for product research remains the least-used online channel for product research, with only 6% of all respondents using it. Search engines or organic search remains to be the go-tochannel for product research, which is used by 37% of respondents. This is followed by brand websites (23%) and marketplaces or retailer sites (35%).
In regards to what affects a consumer’s purchasing decision, price takes the lead with 79% of the respondents agreeing so, followed by availability (55%), reviews (44%), delivery speed (42%), brand name (35%), and payment options (35%), and flexibility of delivery time (22%).
“The survey results are clear: consumers aren’t buying products and interacting with companies the way they did before 2020. Consumers want convenience at each stage of the buying journey — from research to sale. Brands and retailers need to shift their focus to their consumers’ demands,” said Mike Shapaker, CMO at ChannelAdvisor.
The survey also noted that factors such as a product being out of stock (61% of respondents), a possible better price (46%), negative reviews (35%), unclear product information (32%), as well as unclear product images (26%), and too few reviews (17%) are reasons why consumers would abandon online purchases.
For the upcoming holiday season, about 36% of surveyed consumers plan to do more holiday shopping online this year, while 42% of survey respondents plan to use ‘buy online, pick up in-store’ or curbside options this season. Meanwhile, 7% plan to do less holiday shopping online.
“Ahead of peak season, they’ll [brands and businesses] need to reimagine and reinforce e-commerce strategies to take advantage of these permanent changes, as their competitors will soon begin doing the same,” Shapaker added.
Sydney, Australia – Despite ongoing lockdowns in Australia for the past few months, the local influencer marketing scene remains unfazed, as more and more brands have tapped online influencers via sponsored activity, according to data from AI analytics platform HypeAuditor.
From data collected from 1 to 28 of October, there were 3,179 sponsored posts from 1,651 influencers, categorized as those with an authentic following of more than 1000, with the hashtag #ad and/or #sponsored, slightly down from 3,722 sponsored social media posts in September when both Sydney and Melbourne were in lockdown.
While the brands’ influencer marketing campaigns were running as usual during lockdowns, influencers were quick to embrace #freedomday on their social media platforms. Between October 1st and October 25th, 794 influencers shared 1,037 posts using the hashtag #freedomday, reaching 2.5 million people.
The hashtag #freedomday refers to the sweep of restrictions lifting across Greater Sydney, with 213 posts by influencers peaking by 11 October.
On October 22, when Melbourne’s lockdown ended, influencers posted less than half as much, with just 95 posts. Considering it was Melbourne’s sixth lockdown in 2021, the novelty of #freedomday has clearly worn off.
“Australian brands and marketers understand that influencer marketing is a foolproof strategy within their overall marketing plans. A significant by-product of city-wide lockdowns was people being on their devices and on social media more than ever, seeking new forms of entertainment. Influencer marketing proved to be one of the best ways to reach consumers during a lockdown, and keep the marketing lights on when people are not out and about,” said Alexander Frolov, CEO and co-founder at HypeAuditor.
He added, “#freedomday for influencers means more creative freedom to create paid content for brands, as they are no longer restricted to the confinement of their homes. Over the next few months, we can expect to see a spike in travel-related content from influencers as interstate as well as international borders reopen and travel brands come back in full force after the devastating effects the border closures had on the industry.”
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