A Pride Parade of Big Brands on Social Media

Just about every major brand – from clothing, cosmetics, food, beverage and even theme parks such as Disneyland – showed their pride during Pride Month. For brands, their respective social mediaOpens a new window platforms are key to show their support and connect with their customer base. But when it comes to engagement and interactions, who is really hitting it out of the park?  Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO, Socialbakers, has all the answers in this article.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1994, Ikea ran the first television ad featuring a gay couple. The TV spot ran late at night, after 10 pm, to avoid “family hour” programming.  Its broadcast was also limited to just three markets: New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Yet despite all of these limitations, the controversial ad made Ikea the target of boycottsOpens a new window .

So much has changed since then.

Today, it seems as if nearly every brand is festooned in the colors of the rainbow LGBTQI flag during PRIDE month. Big brands’ PRIDE-related efforts no longer spark the controversy that helped drive awareness through media coverage and must now rely on strong creative to break through.  That is true on both traditional media and social media.  

Also Read: Social Media Marketing Problems and Their AlternativesOpens a new window

There is also a buzz of activity related to the use of hashtags like #pride, #pridemonth and #pride2019 during the month of June. According to our analysis, these pride-related hashtags have never been as popular as they are today. In 2019, there were 3,200 posts with the hashtag #pride published on Facebook — more than double the number of posts (1,400) published in 2018 and more than four times the number of posts (700) in 2017. In June 2014, fewer than 200 posts were published on Facebook with the hashtag #pride. 

Usage of post on Facebook statistics 

To better understand the impact of major brands’ PRIDE-related efforts, we decided to take a look at some of the most popular, well-known brands and their respective PRIDE activity on Instagram from May 11^th to June 11^th – with a specific focus on PRIDE posts’ interactions within their Instagram profiles.  Our goal: To understand who is really hitting out of the park when it comes to social media engagement and interaction. 

Below are the most engaging PRIDE-related Instagram posts for three major brands:  Under Armour, Converse, and IKEA USA.  

Screenshot of most engaging pride post 

We also analyzed data from other popular brands such as Calvin Klein, MAC Cosmetics and Levi’s and determined that

• On median, Calvin Klein’s PRIDE posts underperformed. However, when you look into percentile scores that Socialbakers analyzed, two of their PRIDE posts performed better than median
• MAC pride posts performed the same as the rest of their content
• Levi’s PRIDE content didn’t gain much attention, in fact it gained fewer interactions than average/median post on its Instagram account
   

Does this mean that brands shouldn’t bother to invest in PRIDE-related content? Not necessarily. 

1. If the goal is to build awareness or drive engagement on social media, the creative needs to be strong. Period. In other words, merely posting PRIDE-related content is no longer a differentiator.

2. There are other, perhaps more important reasons for posting PRIDE-related content, however. For example, a brand may want to signal that they embrace and appreciate the LGBTQI community, including those who are their employees, customers, and partners. Now that posting PRIDE-related content seems the norm among major brands, brands that don’t post PRIDE-related content risk raising questions about their own values and views. 

Also Read: Social Media Advertising Made Easy With AdTech ToolsOpens a new window

Perhaps most important, however, as our culture evolves to embrace the full humanity of all individuals and groups, our marketing efforts can and should reflect that shift. It is our hope that over time, recognizing the LGBTQI community will be business-as-usual year round and not just a colorful theme for a particular month.