May 30, 2017
Luxury jewelry and accessories particularly performed up to 75 percent better than a regular brand campaign on Instagram
Luxury campaigns perform much better than mass brands' efforts on Instagram, with a 30 percent higher performance rate, according to a new report from HelloSociety.
HelloSociety's report looks at the difference in performance from luxury brands on Instagram and Pinterest. The data found that luxury brands can particularly benefit from influencer marketing campaigns on the two platforms due to their aspirational nature.
"One of the driving factors behind influencer marketing – and in many ways, social media in general – is the fact that it's aspirational, so it's not a surprise that the luxury category, which is aspirational by definition, sees such strong engagement," said Kyla Brennan, founder/CEO of HelloSociety, New York.
"The fact that fashion and lifestyle are already among the top-performing categories in this type of marketing only further drives success for luxury brands," she said.
Influencer marketing
Luxury is an industry that heavily relies on aspiration. The customers of many luxury brands make those purchases because they want to shape their lives into a certain ideal mold.
Since this ideology is at the sector's core, luxury items are, by definition, inessential and are purchased because the customer has the means to own something that can help define who they want to be.
Because of this, influencer marketing has played a huge role in luxury.
This idea is now being backed up by data provided by HelloSociety, which looked into how luxury brands perform on heavily influencer-based platforms Instagram and Pinterest.
A luxury-branded Instagram post
Luxury brands perform 30 percent better than regular brands on Instagram. This is particularly notable for watches and jewelry, which see performance 75 percent better than the average campaign.
HelloSociety attributes jewelry's success to its lower barrier of entry for consumers given its affordability compared to other luxury sectors.
On Pinterest, luxury campaigns continue their dominance, generating 17 percent more engagements per pin, 32 percent more repins per pin and 59 percent more likes per pin.
Luxury’s dominance on Pinterest also extended to the wedding sector, where luxury-branded wedding posts received 46 percent more engagements per pin than non-luxury-branded wedding posts.
The Instagram connection
Many luxury brands have embraced Instagram with the knowledge that their campaigns perform well there.
Bally, a Swiss apparel and accessories label, recently took to Instagram to promote the opening of its new shop in New York.
On Instagram, the brand recruited three prominent influencers for a video and photo shoot showing them walking the streets of New York on their way to the new location. Along the way they show off different luxury goods and accessories that can be purchased at Bally (see story).
Other luxury retailers have even used the platform to recruit new labels and talent. This was the strategy retailer Barneys New York took last month.
Designers discovered by Barneys on Instagram
Guided by Instagram’s visual medium, the buying team has uncovered a number of "buzz-worthy" labels outside of the traditional showroom environment. Taking the social media approach a step further, Barneys’ buying team used Instagram’s messaging feature to make first introductions and negotiate wholesale purchases (see story).
HelloSociety points to this data as proof that influencer marketing is something that every luxury brand must pay attention to.
"The most important takeaway for luxury brands is also perhaps the simplest: influencer marketing isn't something they can afford to ignore," HelloSociety's Ms. Brennan said. "The numbers prove it: engagement is unusually high for this category across social.
"If brands take the time to understand this kind of marketing and choose the right partners, the benefit can be huge," she said.
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