Confectionery brands on social media: size isn’t everything

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The article is part of our Confectionery Report 2014 .

Size is important when it comes to a social media following. But it’s not everything. Just look at who has come top in our ranking of confectionery’s most social brands for proof.

Maynards is number one in terms of social media engagement, according to our analysis, in partnership with digital marketing agency Headstream. Despite having no Twitter account and the smallest following on Facebook, at around only 5,000, the brand’s overall score dwarfs that of its rivals. Why?

The 10 most ‘social’ confectionery brands

	OVERALL	FACEBOOK				TWITTER
	SCORE	Interaction	Posts	Fans (000)	Score	Interaction	Tweets	Followers (000)	Score
Maynards	371.4	1,807	10	5	371.4
Haribo	30.1	2,886	9	746	4.3	183	8	8,852	25.8
Kit Kat	8.6	5,403	1	23,000	2.3	883	16	88,900	6.2
Skittles	6.3	17,987	6	26,000	1.2	3360	37	175,000	5.2
Galaxy	5.4	10,204	9	2,100	5.4
Mentos	4.2	6,955	17	10,000	0.4	106	64	4,353	3.8
Snickers	4.1	36,092	22	10,900	1.5	557	43	50,100	2.6
Dairy Milk	3	33,431	12	9,200	3
Mars	1	699	10	677	1
Maltesers	0.6	544	6	1,600	0.6

“Maynards’ success proves audience size is of little significance when talking of engagement,” says Steve Sponder, Headstream’s MD. “Although Maynards’ audience is the smallest of all the confectionery brands, they’re considerably more engaged than the other brands’ audiences.”

The brand is in solid sales growth too, with value up 5.7% on volumes up 3% [IRI 52 w/e 21 June]. Though how much Maynards’ apparent sociability has to do with this is another question. NPD, traditional advertising and an increase in promotions have undoubtedly had a greater impact on the brand’s performance.

Indeed, even Maynards’ brand owner Mondelez suggests the real opportunity is in reaching as wide an audience as possible, rather than catering for a small number of highly engaged people, who more than likely already buy the brand already.

“Social media is an established reality for tens of millions of our consumers,” says Mondelez marketing director Matthew Williams. “But it’s not about just engaging a small number of superfans. It’s about distributing brilliant and relevant tweets, posts and videos to as many of our consumers as possible.”