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vegency, a unit of the Berlin-based communications agency united consultancy/united communications, took a close look at the performance during the first half of 2022 of vegan brands, which sell their products in the DACH region and target their customers via social media campaigns, and came up with a top 10 list.
The Belgian Danone subsidiary Alpro came first among the most successful B2C social media channels – closely followed by the vegan full-range retailer Veganz from Berlin and the food company Oatly from Sweden.
In places 4 to 10 are: the Düsseldorf food brand LikeMeat, SimplyV from Allgäu, the wholesaler for purely plant-based specialities Vantastic Foods / AVE from Bavaria, GREENFORCE from Munich, the Swiss start-up Planted Foods, the second vegan Danone subsidiary and organic pioneer Provamel as well as the company followfood from Friedrichshafen – both in ninth place – and Licorne, a start-up from Thuringia.
“For our ranking, we took a closer look at the presence of numerous brands in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that exclusively offer vegan products on the usual B2C social media platforms. First, we evaluated the channels according to follower numbers or, in case of TikTok, according to likes,” Gunhild Flöter, Unit Director Sustainable Brand Communication at vegency, explains the procedure. Over the last six months, vegency has analysed more than 80 vegan brands on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. For each social media channel, the communications agency determined the top 10 and awarded points accordingly. These were added up at the end to determine the overall winner.
Alpro, Veganz, and Oatly stood out, consistently securing the top positions on almost all platforms. TikTok was an exception: There, other brands came out on top. “On the youngest of the six platforms, Licorne, LikeMeat, and the Berlin start-up vly secured the top three places,” says Gunhild Flöter.
On Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest, Alpro emerges as the clear winner. With almost 2 million followers on Facebook, 27.7 K followers on YouTube, nearly 62 K followers on Twitter, and 6.3 K followers on Pinterest, Alpro heads the race on all these channels.[1] In addition to regular postings and delicious recipes, the brand’s history is probably also an essential criterion for the high number of followers: The Belgian company, which has been part of Danone since 2017, has been around for over 30 years. Alpro has been leveraging social media for over a decade.[2]
On Instagram, Alpro has to admit defeat to another big player: With 340 K followers (21 K more than Alpro), the Swedish company Oatly is in the lead. The latter is consistently in second place on almost all previously mentioned platforms.
Although the Chinese portal TikTok, which was launched in 2016 and has over one billion monthly active users[3], is no longer entirely new, it has not yet secured a strong foothold among the long-established plant-based brands. This is where other brands took their chance: with 310.1 K likes[4], Licorne, the vegan specialist for yoghurt alternatives and seed-based fresh creams, is best received by TikTok users. “Licorne makes funny TikToks with good stories and cool effects,” explains Meike Koch, Marketing Communications Manager at vegency. “We didn’t just look at the follower numbers, but also at the content of the winners. LikeMeat in second place and vly in third place also regularly produce varied, young, as well as colourful content for TikTok and thus generate an increasing reach. It is particularly impressive in the case of LikeMeat: the company has only been posting on its TikTok channel since March 2022 and has already won over 24 K followers and generated almost 260 K likes in that short time.”
It is apparent to all those involved in social media: no matter which platform, the algorithm wants to be fed regularly and rewards posts with many interactions. “To achieve this, you need good stories, funny ideas, a consistent and creative design that reflects the zeitgeist and offers variety,” says Gunhild Flöter. Vegan products are ideal for this – if only because delicious recipes and tips for preparation can be designed in a visually appealing way and at the same time are close to the everyday life of the target group. But the topics of sustainability, development trends, and health also go down particularly well with followers of vegan brands if combined with appealing infographics or videos in an entertaining edutainment format, for example. And, of course, people who eat a vegan diet are confronted with numerous prejudices, which provide a sound basis for humorous reels.
“Know your target group is our philosophy! What are its needs and expectations, and what are its pain points? Which challenges does it face? What problems should the products and services solve for it? Only those who can answer these questions can produce content that resonates with this target group,” says Gunhild Flöter.
Specialising in branding vegan, vegetarian, and cell-cultured innovations: vegency puts brands on the map. Vegan and vegetarian products have long since arrived in the middle of society – vegency recognised this trend early on and has served clients from the food, research, and media sectors since 2014. vegency is a unit of the Berlin communications agency united consultancy/united communications, which has been supporting companies and NGOs from the IT, telecommunications, education, science, and research sectors in branding, PR, CSR, marketing, and channel communications since 1995.
Further information on vegency can be found at https://www.vegency.de.
Press enquiries can be sent to:
vegency c/o united consultancy/united communications GmbH
Gunhild Flöter, Meike Koch
Tel.: +49 30 78 90 76 0
E-Mail: to@vegency.de
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/vegency-de
[1] At the time of data collection on 14 June 2022
[2] Alpro has been present on YouTube since 2009, for example.
[3] Source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tik-tok-statistics/, last 20 June 2022
[4] At the time of data collection on 14 June 2022