Are customers really using social media as often as you think?
Yes.
One in three of all mobile minutes in Australia is spent on either Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, according to new data from the IAB and Nielsen.
The data, from the IAB Nielsen Mobile Panel pilot study, comes as the first round of paid Instagram advertising campaigns in Australia come to a close.
Facebook is keen to promote the new ad opportunities on Instagram to brands but wasn't able to produce much hard campaign data.
So far, only two Australian campaigns have finished their run but Instagram Australia's Sophie Blachford claims the data is shows the “huge opportunity” facing Australian brands.
Tourism Queensland's Instagram campaign reached 770,000 people in its target demographic of 25-54 years of age and Nielsen recorded a 25 pt lift in ad recall. Tourism Queensland will now be rolling the campaign to other countries like the UK to attract overseas visitors.
“It just blows my mind in terms of our reach and scale and the engagement that we see in Australia,” Blachford said.
“That audience is hard to find, hard to reach and a hard to engage audience and we know they spend a lot of time on Instagram. It really goes to show the effectiveness of capturing attention of those consumers and placing it into the mindset of Aussies.”
The Facebook-owned site began the foray into advertising last year in the US, but has only just begun rolling it out internationally, with its first push in Australia launched last month. Australia is the third country to receive the service, following the UK which started showing ads in September. Canada launched it's advertising run two weeks ago.
Electronics brand Lenovo is launching into the consumer market and using digital as 70% of its ad spend. Lenovo director of marketing and strategy Nick Reynolds said Instagram will be a core component of that as the brand looks to further brand awareness and engagement.
“We’re excited because in social media we get a huge amount of engagement and I want true engagement with people. Either parody or having fun or coming up with their own images, because ultimately I want to use that.
“I think that’s real engagement with brand, when you have advocates and fans they’re your best ally. This is for me about brand awareness.”
This story first appeared on sister site adnews.com.au.