Bananas in Pyjamas among top 20 Facebook brand pages

Start-ups looking to build up their Facebook presence should look no further than Bananas in Pyjamas, which is one of Australia’s top 20 brand pages on Facebook, according to a new report.

The October Facebook Performance Report, by digital media agency Online Circle, ranks the top brand pages on Facebook based on the number of fans they have and the rate of engagement.

Four new brand sectors in the entertainment category were added to the report: TV shows, quick service restaurants, alcohol brands and electronics.

They replace the travel sectors (airlines and accommodation), pharmaceutical, and energy and utilities, which had little movement over the last year.

Based on fan numbers, ABC-TV program Bananas in Pyjamas has a distinct lead with almost two million Facebook fans, followed by Bubble O’ Bill Ice Creams (1.2 million) and Pringles Australia (1.07 million).

The Bananas in Pyjamas page encourages fans to send in their own photos, which are uploaded to the page, while the Bubble O’ Bill page is characterised by regular status updates featuring jokes, comics and quirky images.

Pringles Australia, meanwhile, “continues to use strong engaging posts focusing primarily on distinctive and original images incorporating their product”.

“Their introduction of a new product competition with a prize pool of over $20,000 also contributed to their strong engagement performance,” the report said.

Also in the top 20 are Coca-Cola, Domino’s Pizza, Australian wine brand [yellow tail], KFC, chewing gum brand 5 Gum, Lorna Jane, Freddo, Jay Jays, Supré and V Energy Drink.

These pages are organised into categories, one of which is fashion retail. According to the report, fashion retail fell from the number one industry in July to the third highest ranked in October.

“Three brands experienced fan growth of more than 10,000 during the report period, led by Lorna Jane with 34,197, ahead of City Beach’s 26,902 and Princess Polly’s 14,738,” it said.

The report praised a City Beach Facebook competition titled “Casting Call #2”, which invited fans to vie for a chance to appear in a nationwide advertising campaign.

“The competition powered the highest engagement rate (8.6%) of the top 10 brands,” it said.

A special mention also went to youth fashion brand Jay Jays, which “combines product photography and youthful captions to build and engage with their community”.

While Jay Jays has a high number of fans, it lags behind with regard to its engagement rate, the report said.

“Jay Jay’s posts do not usually ask for ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ but instead focus on reach. The result of this approach is seen in the engagement rate of 0.9%, the third lowest of the industry,” it said.

“While Jay Jays has the second highest amount of fans in the industry (480,389), it reflects only 3.7% of all engagements throughout the month.”