‘Facebook zero’. That’s the term bagged snacks brands have coined after seeing the number of people their posts reach on the social networking site plummet over the last year, exclusive research for The Grocer has revealed.

This article is part of our Bagged Snacks Digital Feature 2015.

Just nine of the UK’s 25 best-selling bagged snack brands currently have an official Facebook page, with some, such as KP Snacks’ Hula Hoops, stopping posting Facebook content altogether and others, including Walkers, merging the pages of several variants to one ‘mother brand’ page.

“Budgets to manage and maintain regular Facebook content may be limited,” says Victoria Bellamy, account executive at content marketing agency Headstream, which carried out the research for The Grocer.

“Another factor is that brands have seen their reach on the platform decline over the past 12 months, something many are starting to refer to as ‘Facebook Zero’.”

Walkers made it into bagged snacks’ top five social media posts after amalgamating its Walkers Sensations and Sun Bites pages into one Walkers page in late 2014.

“From just a single Facebook page it is possible to run multiple ad groups targeting different audiences for individual products,” says Bellamy. “As any ads direct back to the single Walkers brand page, this also helps to build the overall community size over time.”

But all is not lost for the other brands struggling to attract traffic and gain reach. This year Facebook will roll out ad services including Location Awareness, allowing brands to reach the right audience, in the right location at the right time.

“Because the customer purchase decision journey is very short for bagged snacks, any opportunity to get content in front of the consumer close to their point of purchase will be powerful,” says Bellamy.

“Using Location Awareness ads to advertise a product around the lunchtime period targeting those nearest to supermarkets, perhaps even in partnership with the stores themselves, could deliver measurable results.”

And with more than 800 million daily users, there’s no doubt Facebook continues to offer a significant opportunity to bagged snacks players.

Bagged snacks’ top five social media posts:

1. Kettle Chips (1,226,924 followers)

Kettle Chips Facebook 1

Hello, Dill Pickle!

Likes: 35,423 Shares: 5,811 Comments: 1,849

Dill pickle flavoured crisps might not tickle everyone’s taste buds but the flavour combination won Kettle Chips the award for the top performing piece of content. With more than 30,000 more likes and 5,000 more shares than the second most successful post, the introduction of the new flavour garnered more than 40,000 engagements. The brand’s page was inundated with comments from fans expressing their excitement at trying Dill Pickle and demanding to know where they could get their hands on the variant. With more than 5,000 shares the post also encouraged a vast amount positive sentiment and brand advocacy for Kettle Chips.

2. Kettle Chips (1,226,924 followers)

Kettle Chips Facebook 2

Win some tough snacks!

Likes: 2,742 Shares: 224 Comments: 5,225

Winning a box of new flavour samples was all it took to encourage more than 5,000 Kettle Chips fans to comment on the brand’s Facebook page, resulting in the second most engaging post in the ranking. The call to action also attracted more than 200 shares. The tactic may be a sure way to increase engagement in the short-term, brands should be cautious: the over use of this strategy in the long-term could affect the overall content quality score attributed to the page by Facebook and therefore be seen as ‘gaming’ the news feed algorithm, resulting in decreases in distribution by Facebook.

3. Walkers (569,406 followers)

Walkers Facebook

What’s in the box?

Likes: 588 Shares: 77 Comments: 1,157

Guessing which flavour of crisps was wrapped up in its festive ‘meaty 20 pack’ box  – to be in with the chance of winning the lot – gave Walkers its best performing post over the Christmas period. Turkey & stuffing, reindeer and mince pie flavour were among 1,157 suggestions, with the mystery flavour turning out to be a not-very-meaty cheddar cheese & bacon. With an online community half that of the size of Kettle Chips, it’s interesting to note that Walkers’ competition post performed equally well proportionally to its rivals.

4. Doritos (15,452,015 followers)

Doritos Facebook

Doritos party pack!

Likes: 936 Shares: 126 Comments: 900

People are more likely to engage with a post when there’s the opportunity for a reward, prompting Doritos to give fans the chance to win a party pack in the run up to Christmas. In the only video post to make the ranking, Facebook users had to guess the gift a pair of Mariachis were wrapping by watching a six second video on the brand’s Facebook page and entering by commenting. The prize included Sonos wireless hi-fi speakers and the post is the sixth most successful post in terms of engagement, generating 900 comments and more than 100 shares.

5. Tyrrells (78,805 followers)

Tyrrells Facebook

A year’s supply!

Likes: 454 Shares: 108 Comments: 348

Giving fans the chance to win a year’s supply of Tyrrells ‘proper English’ crisps (that’s 144 packets, in case you were wondering) secured the brand almost 350 comments and more than 100 Facebook shares. Entry to the ‘crisp-mas’ sweepstake competition, which was also advertised on-pack, was by way of a simple form on the brand’s Facebook page, in which users surrendered their email addresses and could agree to hear more from not just Tyrrells but Virgin via email too. The brand also ran a daily advent calendar competition throughout December, in which fans could win smaller prizes including a Cornishware mug and a Cambridge satchel.

Methodology: Content marketing agency Headstream, the agency responsible for delivering the Social Brands 100 for the last four years, compiled a ranking based on the number of interactions incurred on individual pieces of branded content posted across Facebook within a period of one month (December 4 – January 4 2015 inclusively). For the purpose of this report, an ‘interaction’ was deemed either a like, share or a comment. They then weighted each type of engagement due to their value to the brand; awarding one point for a like, two for a comment and three for a share to arrive at a total combined score. Headstream monitored Britain’s top selling bagged snack brands as defined by IRI.

Methodology: Content marketing agency Headstream, the agency responsible for delivering the Social Brands 100 for the last four years, compiled a ranking based on the number of interactions incurred on individual pieces of branded content posted across Facebook within a period of one month (December 4 – January 4 2015 inclusively). For the purpose of this report, an ‘interaction’ was deemed either a like, share or a comment. They then weighted each type of engagement due to their value to the brand; awarding one point for a like, two for a comment and three for a share to arrive at a total combined score. Headstream monitored Britain’s top selling bagged snack brands as defined by IRI.