Brief:

• Puma and Nike were among the most-mentioned brands on Instagram this year because they appeared in posts by celebrities with strong followings. Brands that posted directly to their own Instagram accounts were mentioned less often, highlighting the importance of influencers, according to data from social media analytics firm Talkwalker shared with Mobile Marketer.
• Singer and actress Selena Gomez, who is the most popular woman on Instagram with 144 million followers, helped sportswear brand Puma with a post that spurred 7.5 million interactions, more than any other brand-related post. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese soccer star, has the most popular Instagram account with 149 million followers, and his post that featured Nike received 6.6 million interactions, the second-highest number of interactions.
• Among brand accounts on Instagram, Nike Football had the most interactions at about 2 million interactions, while lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret received 1.3 million interactions. Many of the other top brand accounts were somehow connected to Cristiano Ronaldo and soccer, including Real Madrid, Juventus and Nike Football, according to Talkwalker.

Insight:

Talkwalker's data show the importance of influencers in boosting the engagement with brands on Instagram. The top Instagram posts tend to be attached to major celebrities, while Twitter is a better platform for micro-influencers — those with fewer than 10,000 followers — because users can re-tweet posts to share them friends and followers, Todd Grossman, CEO Americas at Talkwalker, said. Instagram Stories lets users string together images collected from other Instagram accounts, but those posts can't be easily shared.

Even as some studies show that some younger consumers aren't swayed by celebrity endorsements, they clearly have power on Instagram, especially as the platform tests special accounts for social influencers. While Selena Gomez and Cristiano Ronaldo helped boost Puma and Nike, respectively, the biggest celebrity on the image-sharing platform overall was Kylie Jenner. The celebrity had five of the top 10 Instagram posts for the year, but Talkwalker limited each Instagram user to appearing once on the top 10 list.

Jenner, who has 122 million followers, had popular brand-related posts including for her beauty brand Kylie Cosmetics (5.2 million interactions), Waist Gang Society (5 million) and Daniel Wellington (4.6 million). Jenner and her Kardashian sisters this week announced they won't share photos, videos or recipes on their own subscription-based apps in 2019, possibly foreshadowing an even larger push across social channels.

Influencer marketing is still a small slice of the marketing budgets for many companies. More than half (57%) of companies said influencer marketing accounts for less than 10% of their total marketing budgets, according to a survey by influencer management platform Traackr. Another 29% said the tactic represented 10% to 20% of the marketing mix. Almost 9% of companies surveyed allocated 30% to 40% of their budgets to influencer marketing, the survey found.