Magazine: Social media trends in the FMCG sector

What does social media can give that digital media tools can’t? Three things: interactivity, being viral and potentially unlimited opportunities. ‘Facebook is more important than television’ – announced Nestlé in 2013 when 11 percent of KitKat sales was realised thanks to campaigning on Facebook. Nestlé CEO Paul Pulcke recently revealed that each pound they spent on Facebook returned 1.34 pounds in their last campaign.

According to Erin Hunter, head of CPG marketing at Facebook their website is the best place to reach the widest layer of consumers at the moment. FMCG companies and their famous brands are the most popular sector on Facebook. In June 2014 84 million users were following Coca-Cola, followed by Red Bull with 44 million likes and Oreo with 37 million fans. Fashion brands – with flagship brands such as Converse All Star, Converse and Victoria’s Secret – constitute the second most popular sector, and third in the popularity ranking is the automotive industry (BMW, Ferrari and Audi USA), but these have much fewer followers, somewhere between 4 and 7 million. The big question is: How can Facebook activity be turned into actual sales? Thanks to Cannes Lions 2013, Coca-Cola’s sales rose by 2.75 percent in the UK alone – this was the most successful Facebook campaign ever. Red Bull doesn’t promote products on Facebook; instead they focus on brand building. Oreo builds on nostalgic feelings, asking the question