The Loudest Horsepower on Social Media
Besides Mercedes AMG, Porsche, and Ferrari creating bomb @$$ cars; what else do they have in common? → the need to dominate social media.
Before I talk more in depth, let’s address the elephant in the room. Now I know what you’re thinking….how can she compare a Mercedes to a Ferrari? “What a dingus…that makes absolutely no sense.” Well you’re kinda right but wrong at the same time. I’m not talking about your every day Mercedes sedan or mini-van…..I’d be crazy to compare my Mercedes c250 to a Ferrari FF(beautiful car, look it up). But if I compare a Mercedes AMG GT S to a Ferrari 488, now we’d be talking.
Since 1950, Formula One is sought out to be considered the highest and most prestigious race, taking place on tracks around the world. Brands like Mercedes AMG, Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault all compete to come out on top for the ultimate title: Champion. Of all the top luxury car brands who compete, who keeps #slaying at the Formula 1 races? → Mercedes-AMG, winning 13 of the 14 races that have taken place so far in 2016(Redbull Racing won the other). That’s not very picturesque for Ferrari, who is considered one of(if not the) top performing luxury sports car on the market. I’d say Mercedes is giving Ferrari and run for their money…..
Sorry for the rant, let’s get back on topic:
Mercedes AMG, Porsche, and Ferrari all share similar values: performance, excellence, design and innovation, personality, and culture. As a result, these brands have created a strong brand image amongst their peers, customers, admirers, and social media followers. All 3 of these brands have a strong presence on social media just like their presence on the road. But which automobile brand came out on top? To determine this, I analyzed the engagement of these luxury auto brands across social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. Let’s take a deeper look at the results:
Mercedes-Benz:
Mercedes-Benz had the largest google return with 508 million and a share of voice of 38.4%. It’s total followers across all 4 channels of social media added up to over 28.5 million with an average engagement of 122,260. That sounds great doesn’t it? Even though Mercedes had the largest following, they fell in second, behind Porsche, for audience engagement. They had more followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter than Porsche and Ferrari which also led to a higher engagement rate(on Facebook and Instagram).
Porsche:
Porsche had the least amount of followers: 16.83 million but had almost as much average engagement as Mercedes-Benz with 119,269. They had a google return of 419 million and a share of voice of 31.7%. Porsche had more engagement on Twitter than the other 2 luxury car brands and had more subscribers on their Youtube channel.
Ferrari:
Ferrari had the second most followers on the social media platforms with 17.255 million but lacked tremendously in engagement. Their average engagement, 32,222 is a fraction of what Porsche and Mercedes had. They also had the least google returns with only 396 million leading to the smallest share of voice rate at 29.9%.
Despite the great amount of success these 3 luxury car brands are experiencing on social media, their audience engagement seemed relatively low. From discussions, it became clear that brands should have an audience engagement rate around 1% (if not more). Based on the chart, shown above, Mercedes, Porsche, and Ferrari fell below this 1% which doesn’t seem right according to their established recognition and strong social media presence. Ferrari may have a loud and powerful precense on the road or racetrack but they seem to have a lousy audience engagement with only 0.01%. Ultimately, Porsche had the largest audience engagement rate of 0.07%, trailing ahead of Mercedes’s 0.04%, which makes them take the Champion title based of their average content that appealed to their total audience/followers.
It soon became apparent that having a lot of followers should not mean much to a company. These luxury car brands as well as other luxury brands should be more focused on creating content that will drive audience engagement, thus creating a buzz around their brand.
This post was created as part of the Global Luxury Management Program at the NC State Poole School of Management. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
