Tim Hill - The Australian retail industry is one of the most competitive on Facebook.
A common tactic for generating easy engagement is to post competitions and product giveaways. These posts generally achieve higher than average engagement rates. Like to win, last comment wins, orshare to win are all very successful in driving reach and engagement for brands, albeit in a bit of a spammy, generic way. So its no surprise when we look at the top 10 highest engaged posts in the Australian retail industry that we find no less than 6 competitions or giveaways where the mechanism to enter is like, comment or share. But this month something quite interesting caught our attention beyond these 6 posts – a quirky bag company with a bit of an attitude and a self-proclaimed ‘crap blog’, I’m talking about Crumpler!
July 2014 – Top 10 posts in the Australian Retail industry with the highest engagement rate
| # | Brand | Published | Post | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Amart Sports | 9 July 7.30pm | Last comment wins | 70.79% |
| 2. | Zelows | 4 July 2.56pm | Like & share to win | 27.64% |
| 3. | Logan Central Plaza | 8 July 12.37pm | Like & share to win | 23.78% |
| 4. | newsXpress | 26 July 11.59am | Humour | 22.94% |
| 5. | Crumpler | 29 July 5.15pm | Blog link | 21.81% |
| 6. | Logan Central Plaza | 21 July 4.18pm | Comment to win | 16.81% |
| 7. | Dollars & Sense | 25 July 9.12am | Like & share to win | 15.59% |
| 8. | Cairns Central | 3 July 8.04am | New store opening | 13.32% |
| 9. | Arndale Shopping Centre | 9 July 2.55pm | Like & share to win | 13.22% |
| 10. | Crumpler | 3 July 5.30pm | Blog link | 13.19% |
Engagement rate is calculated as Likes + Comments + Shares / Fans
Social Status tracks over 850 Australian retail brands on Facebook. Our monthly top 10 list is compiled from literally thousands of posts across these brands so the top 10 appearing here represent the cream of the crop in terms of their engagement rate.
So what exactly did Crumpler do to secure not only 1 but 2 of the top 10 spots? See for yourself…
Engagement rate: 13.19%
Crumpler’s tone of voice is immediately disruptive, no doubt about it. Specifically there’s 3 great components working here:
- The post copy – “Read our crap blog” – four little words that are almost the antithesis of how to build your brand 101. Crumpler’s self-degrading tone is totally refreshing and equally intriguing. (Trust me, click the link, you won’t regret it!)
- The image – an incredibly bewildering picture of an old man chilling on a bed with the space around him chockers with bicycles suspended from the ceiling. Indeed an image that you’ve likely never seen before. Good luck finding that one on Shutterstock.
- The blog title ‘Salmon Mousse’ – a quick Google of ‘Salmon Mousse’ reveals wall-to-wall recipes for everyone’s favourite party appetiser. As an aside, we prefer Nigella’s rendition. What does this have to do with Crumpler’s bags? Not sure, but hey its original.
Engagement rate: 21.81%
Here they go again, this time an image of the Iranian Army with a suitably Crumpler-esque description. Name another Australian retail brand posting content about the Iranian Army?
Travel, Create, Carry are the categories of Crumpler’s Salmon Mousse blog. But unlike most brands, Crumpler stretch these themes far into territory that most retail brands won’t go. But that’s why they stand out and why these posts on Facebook have such high levels of engagement. In both of these blog posts, the product is not mentioned once but Crumpler have successfully raised their engagement rates to industry-leading levels twice in a month through great Facebook posts derivative of these blog posts.
I think that’s a great win for Crumpler. The success of these posts gives the brand a strong platform for developing more and more great content. What do you think about these posts? Tweet what you think by using the #socialstatus hashtag.
