Brands should invest in experiential content to drive audience engagement with influencer campaigns in Q2.
CORQ’s data analysis of the most engaging content in March 2024 found 36% of the top adverts featured creators documenting experiences in partnership with brands, rather than directly promoting products and services.
This approach seems to have driven interest with influencers’ direct audiences as well as the wider global audience of Instagram. All of these posts achieved a degree of viral success – top experiential Reels from last month include Abbey Sadleir for Airbnb, Kseniia for Lego, Tomi Adebayo for Android and Marvin Brooks X Penhaligon’s.
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CORQ analysed 2,170 commercial posts across 15,000 influencer Instagram accounts posted between 1 and 31 March. Of these, 57.8% were signposted with the Advertising Standards Authority-approved #ad, while 23.5% were labelled incorrectly with #gifted, 17.3% with #PR and 1.3% with #affiliate.
Creators with audiences of up to 500K drove the most engagement overall. This segment produced 90% of the most engaging ads and 86% of top organic content, suggesting this is where brands should direct their budget.
In addition, creators of colour continued to drive a high volume of consumer interest – 46% of the most engaging ads and 42% of the most engaging organic posts were produced by this group. Creators producing the most successful content and adverts were primarily based in London, female and aged 25- to 34-years-old.
In terms of verticals, fashion brands sponsored 40% of the top influencer adverts in March, followed by technology and entertainment (16%) and beauty (14%).
By Sara McCorquodale, CEO and founder of CORQ. Subscribers to CORQ can access the full data report for March 2024 here. Find out how to sign up to CORQ here.