How does consumer engagement on Instagram content differ between fashion brands and their respective creative director? : an exploratory content analysis of fashion brands Instagram account with their corresponding crea

How does consumer engagement on

Instagram content differ between fashion

brands and their respective creative

director?

An exploratory content analysis of fashion brands Instagram

account with their corresponding creative director Instagram

account.

University of Amsterdam

Faculty of Economics and Business

BSc Economics & Business thesis

By Tsi Kwan Lam Student number: 10327568 Supervision by: Dr. Hsin-Hsuan Meg Lee

Statement of Originality This document is written by Student Tsi Kwan Lam who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.

Introduction

A recent report (Statista, 2015) showed that globally people spend almost 2 hours per day on social media, next to it a report of Nielsen (2012) showed that people spends 63% of their mobile internet time on social media. Social media has taken a crucial role in peoples’ everyday live and has been a source for information. The platform of social media provides a stage for everyone to share their everyday life and a place for companies to connect with (potential) customers to strengthen their connection. The platform of social media functioning as an exposure and connecting platform for brands with their consumers have proven to be effective. As Papasolomou (2012) stated “the Internet implementation in the marketing process is inexpensive, delivers instant international reach, offers great real time feedback, and reaches millions of people for whom the web is the center of virtually all communications” (p. 322). Mainly brands from the fashion industry have taken up the use of social media. In the past few years majority of fashion brands have doubled their following on social networking sites (Nawaz et al., 2015). The presence of fashion retailers on social media has significantly grown in comparison to other retail sectors (Nawaz et al., 2015). With visual content as the form of content being most consumed on social media today (Neher, 2013) Instagram has been seen as one of the leading social media platform (Bergström & Bäckman, 2013). Instagram, a photo sharing website and application on the mobile phone is one of the fastest growing social media platform (Bergström & Bäckman, 2013). With over 400 million monthly

users, Instagram is the 8th largest social networking platform in the world. The platform growth of users has cause interest from different industry, mainly the fashion industry. The platform is a perfect fit since the visual content matches to the needs of consumers and brands for showcasing different aspect of fashion. In 2014 the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA, 2014), one of the most prestigious fashion awards show, featured a new category “Instagrammer-of-the-year’’ as one of their recurring categories in the show and last year the CFDA even awarded Instagram their media award (CFDA, 2015). Instagram has not only attracted fashion businesses and consumers, it has also attracted public figures in fashion such as designers, executives and models. They are seeing an opportunity to connect with fans and supporters in a new way. Mainly creative directors of fashion brands have taken up the use of Instagram to capture their everyday life. These

creative directors also known as head fashion designers of the brands, are quintessential for the fashion brands and are seen as the executives of the brands since they are the one deciding the creative direction a brand is taking. Paired with the openness and visibility, the creative directors of today are almost inseperable with their brands (for example, Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel or Olivier Rousteing and Balmain), causing customers of the brands to be interested in the social media content of the creative director too. As more brands and creative directors has entered the Instagramscene, a deeper understanding of the engagement and relationship of the brands and their respective creative director with the consumer is needed. Although the rapid growth in social media usage, there still lacks research regarding consumer engagement with brands and executives on social media. Mainly Instagram usage by brands and creative directors and their engagement with consumer have not been investigated before. Current papers have only addressed the importance of social media presence and general social media strategies. It therefore remains unclear what the relationship between consumers and executives from brands (mainly fashion brands) are on social media and how this affect the difference in social media strategy usage with the brands account. As the connection between consumers’ engagement with the fashion brand and their respective executive have never been documented before, established industry standards regarding the use of social media by the fashion industry is therefore also still lacking. This paper aims to address this gap in research by focussing on the fashion industry and by offering a explanatory research through providing a content analysis on the current posted content on the platform Instagram. Doing so by directing the research on fashion brands and their respective creative director we aim to offer a base for future research in industry standards for fashion and other industry on social media. Since fashion is ever changing and the industry is a turbulent dynamic market with a growing consumer group, making this a relevant industry to research in. Next to it the fashion industry is also one of the largest industry on social media (Nawaz et al., 2015). This research may contribute to identify opportunities and implications for other industry on social media and may help setting general industry standards of social media use by executives and their brands.

Aim

This research is an explorative content analysis on the current Instagram content of creative directors accounts and their respective fashion brands accounts. Aiming to analyse the content that is posted and which pattern can be concluded from the elements in their content and how this is received by their followers on the platform. The main objective of our research is channelled through the following research question:

How does consumer engagement on Instagram content differ between

fashion brands and their respective creative director?

Theoretical framework

Power of fashion brands on social media

Social media is described by Kietzmann et al. (2010) as the phenomena that “employ mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content.”. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) explains marketing on social media platforms as being more effective and cheaper compared to traditional marketing. Above of that Mangold and Faulds (2009) argue that there are advantages in communication involved with social media, social media do not solely provide means for customer-to-customer interaction but also for business-to-customer interaction and customer-to-business interaction. Meaning social media allow the receiver of a message to interact with the sender as well as sending the message through to a whole group on the platform (Jadhav et al., 2013). This follows upon the idea of Kaplan and Haelein (2010) arguing that social media have evolved and transformed from the Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a term referred to as the occurrence of Internet which has ceased from functioning as an information database for users to search information also known as Web 1.0 (Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008), to mere a platform where individuals could interact with other users and where users have to ability create new content and join in conversations (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). While some authors (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004; Singh et al., 2008) argue that todays’ shattered marketing landscape made it more difficult for new marketers to reach their customers, as the consumers of today have learned to ignore mass media marketing attempts. Others have seen social media as a new opportunity to connect and maintain customers (Berthon et al., 2012). Kotler and Armstrong (2011) in addition argue that

“New media formats let marketers reach smaller groups of consumers in more interactive, engaging ways” (p. 271). This new opportunity is argued by Kaplan and Heanlein (2010) further on as they urge businesses to be present in social media and use the platform to their advantage. The advantage can mostly be found in the brand image; traditional media has always had a strong impact on brand awareness but nowadays social media communication has shown to have a strong influence on the brand image (Bruhn et al. 2012).

The use of social media offers opportunities to engage with consumers in a new way, for example engaging customers in the production process through social media content or to introduce new collections to loyal fans. In the past the fashion industry was limited in its public relations tools, causing restricted interaction with consumers and limiting the consumer exposure and knowledge on upcoming collections and the companies’ activities. Social media offers more access between fashion brands and their consumers which makes fashion more transparent and open (Noricks, 2010). The use of social media by brands has made a significant impact on the brand and consumer relationship opposed to merely advertising or selling merchandise (Noricks, 2010). Content created by the firm are shown to have an important impact on the functionality of the brand image than other aspect of the brand. Next to it the presence of brands on social media exerts a high impact on young adults, as Qualman (2009) concluded that young adults are the main power users of social media sites and are growing in a rapid rate. These young users are also seen more using social media to engage with their favourite fashion brands and consider their opinions on brands important (Qualman, 2009). Considering the power users and the past research on the instability, changeable attitude of young adults (Abeles, 1987), it’s therefore plausible to conclude the strong influence strength of the fashion industry on social media.

General uses of social media by brands

Past research of Polasik & Kunowski in 2012 revealed that the main three uses of brands on social media is mostly to inform consumers about (new) products (78,8%), offering updates on company’s activity (63,6%), direct communication with the consumers and exploring their opinion (57,6%). As mentioned before social media is an effective cheap way for brands to promote themselves. The main use of brand is informing consumers on the products of the brand as Kotler & Keller (2007) stated there are three primary purposes for promotion: to increase product awareness, to persuade consumers to purchase the product and to remind consumer of the product existence. Social media therefor fits perfect with the purposes of promotion since it offers a great international reach; brands have the access towards a greater audience. Next to it brands have the opportunity to promote their products on a low cost in comparison to the traditional marketing channels (Polasik & Kunowski, 2012). Besides the purpose of promotion, brands are considering the rise of consumer force on todays market (Kaplan & Haelein, 2010). It is in the interest of brands to be as transparent possible, by giving updates of the brands and providing information on the brands activity brands are valued higher significantly by their consumers (Kim & Ko, 2012).

Next to it the accessibility of the social media platforms and the interactive aspect of it offers brands a new way to have access to their consumer opinion than ever before (Qualman, 2009). Giving the current research in the general practicality of social media usage for brands, it remains unclear what the contributing factors are on specific social media platforms, such as Instagram, for consumer engagement.

Social media Strategies

Personal branding of executives on social media A research in 2013 (Brandfog) revealed that top level executives have evolved in becoming more visible, connected, accessible and social than ever before. The changing competitive environment has likewise changed, stakeholders, consumers and investors are expecting to have access to insights and vision of the brand executives on a continuous basis (Karaduman, 2013). Mainly in the fashion industry executives has been more presence and transparent. The fashion executives are seen as opinion leaders due to their capability to speak to the masses and influences peoples’ opinion. For example, Vivienne Westwood an iconic fashion designer and activist speaking on issues regarding climate change and social injustice. Some designers are even reaching a semi-celebrity status almost inseperable with the brand for example, Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel. As Karaduman (2013) urges, brands executives should therefore take place in their firms’ social media plan as a brand of the firm. This type of branding is called personal branding, with similarities to product branding, personal branding is about capturing and promoting the individual strengths and uniqueness to the consumer (Kaputa, 2005; Schwabel, 2009). The influence of the creative directors from the fashion industry is exercised greatly through their ability to adapt and determine fashion trends which they accommodate to their own style. As Kim et al. in 2008 said “Changes in fashion involve a combination of personal adaptation at the micro-level and social diffusion at the macro-level”. Besides influence, social media creates great opportunities for personal branding efforts for both personal and corporate purposes of the executives. As Karaduman (2013) research revealed that with a well-planned brand management and high level of engagement on social media, top level executives can create value for both themselves and the brand of the firm.

Social media content strategy In the last decade there has been a growth in consumers using internet as a source for consulting before making a purchase. According to the study of Total Retail 2015, by Price Waterhouse Coopers, a staggering 70% of the consumers search the internet before making a purchase in the physical store. The use of social media platforms has therefore been of increasing interest for brands to market products (de Vries et al., 2012). Since social media offers consumers to follow and unfollow companies within a click companies can no longer solely create the kind of content they want to see exposed, they must take into consideration what their followers want to see (Tran, 2015). The overwhelming amount of content from companies has increased the competition for attention from the audience. Meaning marketers have to be more considerate of their content strategy and consider what their consumer wants to see (Neher, 2013). Considering the increase of online activity of consumers, brands should act upon this activity by being present online and capture the advantages of it. Celebrities endorsement on social media Past research (Friedman and Friedman, 1979) have shown that celebrity endorsement is more effective than other type of endorsement. It effectiveness surpasses the use of experts, executives and the “typical” customer of the brand. Firms have noticed the possibilities of using celebrity endorsement outside the traditional media and exploiting it in the social media world. Celebrity endorsement has been rising on social media and to capitalise on this effectiveness fashion brands has sought after celebrities to endorse their brand online. For example, Calvin Klein was endorsed by Justin Bieber in 2014 (photo 1). The Canadian pop star had an online and offline campaign for the brand linked with a hashtag encouraging followers to engage in the campaign by using the hashtag to show their Calvin Klein product. This led to more than 4,5 million interactions on different social media platforms count together in the first four months (Strugatz, 2015).

photo 1 Justin Bieber Calvin Klein online and offline campaign photo Unique Content Ibeh et al. (2005) state that successful online branding depends on giving customers a unique message and, consequently, unique content. As such, unique online content is essential for the creation of effective Internet branding. Content that is appealing to the customer could make them more prone to returning to a brand’s website and interact with the brand in a deeper way (Griffith et al., 2001; Taylor & England, 2006). By offering an exclusive unique content from behind the scenes, followers are more likely to be appealed by the account and show interaction.

Methodology

Instagram This research will be conducted on the platform Instagram. Instagram has been founded over 6 years ago, meant as a platform for users to share pictures. Companies have been using it as a channel for promotion of their products and to interact with their customers. Companies use Instagram as a tool to connect and communicate with (potential) customers. The platform offers companies to present a more personal approach of the brand. The idea of Instagram having pictures that lie on event that are happening right now a sense of on-the-go adds an extra layer of honesty and personal side of the company in question (Kim & Ko, 2012). Following Kietzmann (2011) Honeycomb framework of the buildingblocks of social media Berg & Sterner (2015) defines Instagram three main features as; “Conversations (conversations,

or rather comments are one of the main ways of communicating and interacting on the platform), Sharing (the main function and feature of Instagram allows users to share pictures and videos with their followers) and Presence (Instagram is a platform created for showing and sharing what is happening right now).” (p. 12) Giving the three main feature this feature will be focused on the building block “conversation”, as this represents the engagement of users on the platform. Instagram engagement The platform Instagram has a high community of active users, users spend on average 21 minutes a day on the application (Iconosquare, 2015). 61% of the Instagram engage at least in an interaction of one content piece per day. This can be a “like” or a comment under a content piece (Iconosquare, 2015). A Staggering of 30% of the users are truly active by engaging in interactions of over 10 pieces of content each day. The main marketing goal for companies on social media is to get users to engage and show interest in the company and its product (Peppers and Rogers, 2010). In comparison with traditional media channels, engagement on social media is taking place instantly. Users have the opportunity to be active participants instantly in their free will rather than being a passive viewer. Where marketing on traditional media channels leans on the principles

related to motivation and making choices under uncertainty by consumers (Smith et al., 1994), social media leans on relationship building. Reciprocity is the principle of social media for building social networks; reciprocity is employs in that social media works with engagement of the viewer, that encourage commenting and “likes”. This research therefore measures the effect of engagement on Instagram based on the responses given from followers on the photos analysed. This is counted in the amount of likes the photos have received in ratio with the amount of followers and the amount of comments the photo received in ratio with the amount of followers. Sample The objective of this analysis was to examine the social media usage on the platform of Instagram of fashion brands and their respective creative director that has been recognized for their Instagram presence. The selected brands and their respective directors were chosen from the recommendation list of a vogue online article (Vogue, 2015). The same creative directors were also recommended in the article “12 designers to follow on Instagram” by Hapers Bazaar later that year. An overview of brands, creative directors and accounts have been given below in table 1. Table 1 presents the Instagram account name with an indication if the account is the brand account or a personal one from the creative director by stating a “Yes” by corporate if it’s a brand account and a “No” when the account is creative director one. Also the corresponding brand is mentioned to be clear. The amount of photos that are analysed has been limited to 150 due to lack of time and human resources. The content was captured in a period of time between 31 May 2016 till 15 June 2016. The content analysed were posted in a time frame between 26 February 2016 till 12 June 2016. The average lifespan of an Instagram post is 21 hours (Over-graph, 2014). To ensure the popularity of the post might prolong the lifespan of active user engagement, a three-day rule has been set for the analysis. Meaning the content analysed needs to be posted online three days before the analysis date. Since social media is a dynamic platform and new engagement happens 24 hours’ day, all analysed contents are captured using screenshots and translated to one document. This gives a static sample which can be used for coding and analysis.

The final sample included 150 photos and 1342 comments which yielded 193 A4 size pages of content. Analysis Data was collected through the use of a content analysis approach. The theoretical part of Weber (1990) for conducting a content analysis formed the basis for this approach. Content analysis has been proven to be an effective method in analysing the content of visual contents (e.g. Dahl et al., 2009; Mcquarrie and Phillips, 2008). The content analysis approach helps to identify social media strategies (Ashley and Tuten, 2014) and provides quantitative information (Kress y Van Leeuwen, 1996). Data gained from a content analysis offers therefore a more practical implementation possibility. The analysis is conducted through the use of defined criteria for codes which can be found in table 2 below. The codes help to identify specific element found in the content and is used as a variable for the analysis. The content analysis is conducted on the brand Instagram account and the corresponding personal Instagram account of the creative directors from the brand. Each account is analysed using 15 most recent photos. These 15 photos are coded according to the visual presentation diverted from the code sheet.

Code sheet development Instagram is a platform used for photo sharing therefore, image elements are a key factor to seduce the consumer. The captions and comments contribute to the attractiveness but this is only when the photo have already captured the attention of the audience. Hence this research is based solely on the visual elements. Prior to this research an observation has been made of the content from the sample Instagram accounts. Through this observation we have concluded six recurrent elements in the photos fitting with the marketing and social media theory of the used literature for this research consisting of Polasik & Kunowski (2012); Karaduman (2013); Kaputa (2005); Schwabel (2009); Tran (2015); Neher (2013); Ibeh et al., (2005); Griffith et al. (2001) and Taylor & England (2006). These six elements are: -Executive -Personal -Celebrity -Work -Campaign -Event Based on the observed elements an overview of the definition has been made in a form of a code scheme. The code scheme can be found below in table 2 with an elaborated definition for each element. An example has also been given for each photo element, these can be found in the order of the scheme below (photo 2,3,4,5,6,7).

photo 2 photo element “Executive” photo 3 photo element “Personal” photo 4 photo element “Celebrity” photo 5 photo element “Work” photo 6 photo element “Campaign” photo 7 photo element “Event”

Result and discussion

In the following part of the thesis the brand account will be dubbed as “corporate” and the account of the corresponding creative director account will be dubbed as “non-corporate” for the purpose of clarity and ease. Followers count The numbers of followers of all the researched accounts are presented in table 3. The table shows both creative directors account and the corresponding brand account, the order is based on the amount of followers. Giving this ranking order Louis Vuitton corporate account is shown as the account with the highest following and Diesel non-corporate account with the lowest following. The non-corporate account of brands has a significant lower amount of followers in comparison to their respective brand account. Meaning that creative directors has a significant lower following than the brand account on Instagram. As mentioned earlier most creative directors are more visible than ever before. However, since the brands analysed has been around for decades and are world known luxury brands it is plausible to believe this has a higher brand awareness and contributed to a larger following than the non-corporate accounts.

Table 4 presents the mean likes of the coded post per Instagram account, ordered from the highest mean likes to the lowest. The sample of photos used in this research is 15 from each account, for a total of 150 post, which is represented as N. The mean likes ranking however is not congruent with the ranking order of the following of the accounts presented in table 3. This indicates that a large following does not relate to the same relative amount of likes, meaning the interaction measured as engagement with the account does not solely rely on the relative following. This interesting phenomenon of the interaction aspect will be elaborated later on with the results of the interaction ratio.

Comments

figure 1 pie chart of the type of comments in general for all the accounts analysed The comments accrued with the rest of the data will not be discussed throughout due to the impracticality. The comments of the posted content consist of emoji’s (emoticons used on mobile devices), internet slangs, a variety of languages and tags, which made it hard to execute a content analysis on it in consideration with the limited amount of time and resources of the research. However, in figure 1 a general overview of the comment type in ratio for all the content analysed from all the accounts have been given. The figure shows that 64% of the comments consist of Emoji’s. Through observation most of the emoji are expressing loving or desiring emotions (VOORBEELD), which therefore is plausible to perceived as positive. Next to the Emoji’s, 25% of the comments consist of name tags. These are comments which consist of the “@” symbol with another username connected to it. By writing down another users’ username the person of the username will receive a notification. These “tagged” users will be pursued to see the content if they open the notification. It is however unclear if the tagging can be perceived positive or negative. However, this generates more interactions between users on the content and offers more exposure since the tagged user may not see the content if it wasn’t for the tag. Emoji's 64% Name tag 25% Words 11%

Type of comments in ratio

The rest (11%) consist of users addressing the content in words. This will not be addressed due to the variation in language and slang used. The comments as mentioned before are not analysed but are included in table 10, the table represents the mean number of comment per account and is provided with the interaction ratio with regards to the followers of the corresponding account. This has been done since commenting is still a form of interaction and shows engagement of the consumer.

Photo elements

Photo elements general In general, the highest scoring element (45,33%) of the photos analysed are shots with a campaign element. This was expected as informing consumers on new products and

collections is one of the main use of social media by brands (Polasik & Kunowski in 2012). The table does reveal interesting result regarding the element event and executive. Both element scores a ratio above the 30%, meaning more than one in the four photos analysed showcases an event which is not open for the general public and/or feature the executive in the shot as one of the protagonist. This falls in line with the content strategy of unique content discussed in the theoretical framework. In order to have a deeper understanding of the similarities and difference of the elements used between the two types of account (corporate, non-corporate), a separation has been

made in the analysis. In the following we will give a photo element analysis on the non-corporates accounts and on the corporate account separately, which we will discuss further on. Photo elements non-corporate When taking all the non-corporate account all together, a general analysis has been provided below. We can see a difference in the elements use in comparison to the general elements usage. Photo elements of non-corporate accounts feature a lower ratio campaign photos compared to the general analysis of all accounts type. This is understandable since these are the personal Instagram account of the creative director, which is focused on their everyday life. The elements “Executive” and “Personal” therefore have evidently shown to be the highest scoring element (56% for Executive and 49,33% for Personal). Meaning the non-corporate account tend to frequent photos shot with that are not brand related and with themselves as protagonist as often as one in the two photos. This element use falls in line with the personal branding strategy, as creative directors are considering themselves as brands and showing their personal strength and uniqueness. This can be clearly seen from the creative directors “executive” element photos, since most of these photos present them doing activities such as travelling or sports. The ratio of “Personal” and “Executive” element is in significant contrast with the ratio of the rest of the analysed elements. The table however still show that campaign photos are still a frequent element with over 30% of the posted photos include the element “Campaign”. The frequency of the element “Campaign” is relatable to the personal branding strategy since the creative directors shows their creativity and finished work through those images, it is therefore understandable this element is frequented in their content.

When looking in the elements used per account however we can see a division in elements used per account. There is a clear difference in element usage ratio when comparing the accounts. The Versace non-corporate account for example tend to feature more non-brand related content, content showcasing her personal life with herself as the protagonist of the shot. The appearance of celebrity is also an element which often can be found in their content. In contradiction to the general overview of photo elements of non-corporate accounts (table 6) Versace non-corporate account feature a low ratio of “Campaign” element content. In contrast with the Versace personal account, the personal account of Marc Jacobs has a different elements use for their account content. The element “Event” (66,66%) is the highest featured element in the content and the Marc Jacobs account scores the lowest of all non-corporate accounts on the “Personal” (26,66%) and “Executive” (33,33%) element. This element use in the content of the account contradict the personal branding strategy theory discussed before. However, we can argue from the element used by the Marc Jacobs non-corporate account a unique content strategy is implemented instead by offering mostly “Event” photos rather than photos that shows the personal strength and uniqueness off the creative director. the Marc Jacobs non-corporate account tend to frequent shots taken from events which are not open for the general public, for example a fashion show or a red carpet event. Rather than “Personal” photos or photos with him featured in it as a protagonist. Both the non-corporate Versace and Marc Jacobs account do show similarities in low ratio of “Campaign” element featured in their content. The low ratio can be explained since the two accounts focusses on other photo elements and showcase a different style of content for

their followers. As the non-corporate Versace account tend to be more personal and connects with consumers on a personal level since the photos are relateable and consist of elements that every persons encounters in their everyday life. This is done so by showing shots that are almost non-brand related and rather are focussed on her personal life and her friendships with celebrities. The Marc Jacobs non-corporate account tend to give their consumers a ‘’behind the scene’’ shots of the events the creative director visits and with the content focussed on the event rather than himself. Photo elements corporate A general overview of all the corporate accounts together with the corresponding ratio of the analysed elements have been given below in table 8. Since the corporate accounts represent the brands it is expected that “Campaign” photos are the main element based on the previous study of Polasik & Kunowski (2012) assuming brands on social media main uses are promoting their products. Table 8 indeed shows the “Campaign” element scoring the highest ratio which is congruent with the theory. Next to campaign element we see a high percentage of the element “Event” (40%). When looking into the general sample, shots of fashion shows and behind the scenes of fashion shows seems to be frequent often by the corporate account. This is congruent with the unique content strategy since photos of fashion shows are offering consumers an exclusive behind the scene footage that is not open for the general public. Another significant element usage ratio is the element “Celebrity”, this seems to be a featured commonly with a ratio of 21,33% meaning one in the five photos used for the analysis featured a celebrity in the shot. This can be linked back to the celebrity endorsement strategy discussed in the theoretical framework.

When taking a deeper look into the data by analysing the photo elements used per corporate account (table 9), there seems to be less variances in photo element usage. Meaning the strategy implemented of the corporate accounts compared to the variances of strategy of the non-corporate accounts is significantly less. With the exception of the Balmain corporate account the rest of the corporate account tend to put the focus more on the the “Campaign” and “Event” element. Meaning the rest of the corporate account tend to focus their content more on their brand campaign, brand products and the exclusivity of events rather than including the more personal element such as “Executive”, “Personal’’, ‘’Celebrity” and “Work”. Looking into the ratio of elements used in the different corporate account, it becomes apparent that there is less variety in general. In general, most of the account feature only one of the element in the shot rather than multiple since the ratio of one account add together lies around 100%. Compared to the non-corporate photos, where the ratio of one account added up are exceeding significantly from the 100%, meaning more elements were used in general for one photo.

As mentioned before the Balmain corporate account do tend to deviate from general variances of element use and tend to offer more variety. There is a significant use of the element “Celebrity”, this can be explained by the creative decision of the creative director. The creative director of Balmain is one of the few directors that collaborate with celebrities on regular basis and frequent them in their campaign. One of the campaign photo analysed has for example multiple celebrities; the Kardashian family and supermodels Jourdan Dunn, Sean O’Pry and Cindy Crawford that are arguably celebrities.

Instagram interaction ratio

Table 10 presents the average interaction of followers from the accounts analysed, the ranking order is based on the interaction like ratio, the ratio of followers and average amount of likes per content. The table shows that the creative director account of Versace scores the highest interaction ratio, both the comments and likes interaction from all the accounts analysed. The lowest scoring account on both interaction variables is the Marc Jacobs brand account.

Versace non-corporate account Versace non-corporate account showed to be the most interacted account of all the non-corporate account analysed in this thesis. As discussed earlier, there is an evidential difference in chosen element used (table 7). The creative director account of Versace has photos with the element ratio that scores above 50%, these are “Executive”, “Personal” and “Celebrity”. Meaning content with heavily usage of non-brand related shots that features the executives and celebrity figures as protagonist contributes to higher engagement of consumers. This can be explained with the celebrity endorsement theory, as Erdogan (1999) stated that the use of celebrity helps making brands connect better with their consumer and relatable due to the use of a known public figure. Since the creative director is also featured frequently in the shots followers can feel they can relate to the account content more. Marc Jacobs corporate account Marc Jacobs Corporate account scores the lowest on interaction on both interaction variables. Looking into table 9 we can see that the account includes almost all elements in the content they post except the element “Work”, but this is element has not been frequent used by the other accounts as well. It becomes apparent that the corporate accounts however do not have a clear result of element that contributes to more interaction. Since none of the corporate accounts analysed have a notably high interaction ratio (table 10) in comparison with each other it remains unclear what the element contributing to a high interaction ratio is. With that being said, we can argue that the low interaction ratio may be caused due to the absence of a significant focused use of element as all the other corporate account has a photo element on which in ratio they provide content of above the 50%. Meaning the rest of the corporate account tend to focus on posting content with a specific element more than 50% of the time.

Conclusion

In conclusion we can argue that there are differences found in the photo element use of the Instagram content in the two types of account, corporate and non-corporate. The element “Executive”, “Personal” and “Celebrity” tend to work the best as element used in the content for non-corporate accounts. Meaning shots of non-brand related photos with the creative director and a celebrity figure included in it as the protagonist tend to cause higher engagement with the consumers. In contrast for the corporate accounts elements that contribute to higher engagement have not been found due to the low variances of element usage of the analysed accounts. However, it is apparent that not having a clear focused type element used in the account content contribute to a lower engagement with followers. Meaning when a brand Instagram account does not have a specific frequent type of content followers engage less than when they do have a specific frequent type of content. This research evidently shows the difference in elements that can be found in the two type of account, brand account and their respective creative director account, and evidently the influence the chosen elements can have on the consumer engagement.

Limitation

Due to a limit amount of time and resources only a small sample could be analysed. The small sample might therefore not be representative. Also only the main six elements where analysed in research and there a more elements featured in the content that this research has not looked into. Also there are more factors contributing to the level of engagement a photo can receive, there are more factors that come to play in attracting more interaction on the platform Instagram (Bergström & Bäckman, 2013). For example, time of posting, frequency of posting, likeability of the protagonist in the shot, colour use, angle of the content shot in, ethnicity of the protagonist etcetera.

Future recommendations and implication

The results of this research have only covered a limited amount of contributing factors of interaction on Instagram post as mentioned.

For now, we have only looked into the general interaction per account instead of per content. Exploring the modifying and mediating influence of the element on each other might give a better tangible representation. This can be done so by an in depth case study of one brand account and their corresponding creative director account. However, the result of this thesis can be implemented by brands and the creative directors. The creative directors based on this research is encourage to feature less brand related photos and more personal photos of their everyday life. The brand account can be advised to focus on a specific type of content rather than to feature a variance of content type on their account.

References

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