Indian brands growing fan base faster than those of global brands on Facebook

However, engagement levels for Indian brands are lower than that for global brands, says the Ketchum Sampark Social Media Engagement Study 2012

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | September 21, 2012

With the rapid growth in social media platforms in India in the last one year, Indian brands are growing their fan bases faster than global brands. The Ketchum Sampark Social Media Engagement Study 2012 has brought that Indian brands across categories are growing their fan bases faster than global brands by 7.78 per cent to 15.53 per cent.  Overall, the combined fan base of the 100 Indian brands surveyed grew by a whopping 105 per cent.

Ajay Sharma, Managing Partner, Ketchum Sampark, said, “Internet penetration as well as social media usage from outside the top 20 Indian cities is now estimated at more than 60 per cent of overall usage in India.  That, coupled with the growing use of internet over mobile devices, offers a significant avenue for brands to connect with customers not just in Tier 1 markets but also in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets using the power of social media. Even more than the growth in fan base, the ability to drive engagement will become the most relevant part of any campaign”

The study 2012 set out to understand levels of engagement of customers with Indian brands and the triggers for high engagement in each category. Key insights from the study include:

• Engagement levels for top Indian brands in eight out of the 10 categories surveyed are now higher than global brands. Jewellery/watches and Education are the only two categories where the engagement levels for global brands continue to be higher than top Indian brands.

• Average engagement levels for Indian brands continue to be high (1.96 per cent- 8.11 per cent across categories). However, for seven of the 10 categories the engagement levels have dropped drastically.
• Average decline in engagement for Indian brands was witnessed highest in Banks and Financial Services (-67.41 per cent), followed by Telecom (-39.25 per cent) and Automobiles (-39.91 per cent).
• The three categories that had an increase in engagement levels were Health/Beauty (83.76 per cent), Food and Beverages (49.83 per cent) and Travel & Tourism (38.89 per cent).
• Engagement levels for 26 of the 100 Indian brands surveyed were higher than 5 per cent of the fan base in August 2012.

• Despite the overall strong growth in fans, engagement levels for 41 of the 100 brands were lower than 2 per cent of the fan base in August 2012. (Reference point: Coca-Cola, the largest brand on Facebook, currently has engagement levels of 2.0+ per cent).

• Beauty brands in India have the highest average engagement rate across categories at 8.11 per cent.

The Ketchum Sampark Social Media Engagement Study 2012 analysed 100 Indian brands and 100 global brands across 10 categories. The analysis covered growth in fan base and engagement levels on Facebook during January 1, 2012-August 30, 2012.

The 10 categories include Apparel/Retail, Automobiles, Bank and Financial Services, Education, Food/Beverages, Health/Beauty, Jewelry/Watches, Technology products, Telecom and Travel & Tourism. The engagement for Indian brands was analysed on the basis of growth in fans and increases or decreases in engagement levels on the Facebook metric of “people talking about” and then compared the performance of Indian brands with top global brands in these categories.

Further details on the categories and the brands surveyed available at: http://www.slideshare.net/trup07/ketchum-sampark-engagement-study

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com