Are you tired of shooting in the dark about how to target your audiences within your marketing campaigns? Well, come on, Barbie, let's go party with Meta’s new Consumer Trends Tool! Your solution to unraveling the mysteries of consumer behavior. Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to precision! Curious about leveraging the buzz surrounding the Barbie movie to enhance your campaigns? Look no further and continue reading for more insights.

Meta’s tool taps into the goldmine of Facebook and Instagram’s first-party data, equipping marketers with extraordinary insights. It allows you to track and get better insights into trends. This allows you to be well-prepared to create marketing campaigns that truly hit the mark with your audience. As such, campaigns will generate more meaningful engagements. It is like having a reliable compass to navigate the ever-changing landscape of consumer preferences. 

The Consumer Trends tool allows you to explore and discover the online chatter about your brand on Facebook and Instagram. Find out the geographical roots, ages, genders, and conversational dynamics of these consumers, witness their interactions, and uncover related subjects they engage with. The fact that this listening aspect is combined with first-party consumer data is what sets this tool apart from other social listening tools and makes it a perfect addition to your current social listening strategy.

The tool can be used for three different analyses: 

01

Brand building

Brand building helps you to gain a better understanding of what is important to your target audience. Have a look at the hot topics of the moment and see how your target audience reacts to them. Hot topics are key words that have grown the most in popularity month over month.

This image shows an overview of the hot topics at the moment. As you can see the topic ‘Barbie’ has an uplift of 40.22% vs. the last month, due to the movie being released.

Barbie has generated significant buzz lately. Many brands take advantage of this trend by employing diverse marketing strategies, including incorporating the color pink into their content. These approaches help your brand to align with your consumers’ viewpoints on these subjects. Ciaran McKeon came up with a marketing idea for Heineken where he implemented the Barbie trend in a creative way. With the ‘KEN – Come on.... Let’s go party!’ ad, he stayed true to Heinekens own visual guidelines; the logo is trimmed but remains unchanged while at the same time also capitalizing on the “come on Barbie let’s go party” song lyrics that fit perfectly with the product Heineken sells.

McKen, C., (2023). (https://musebycl.io/film-tv/im-just-ken-story-behind-viral-heineken-ad)

02

Sales activation

Sales activation lets you dive into discussions surrounding your own brand to uncover how it is discussed and by whom. You can also explore how your brand stands in comparison to others and assess the language and emotions your intended audience uses when referring to various brands (see graph below). This information can be used and implemented in your campaigns. Brands currently incorporate the tone of voice of the Barbie movie in campaigns and even products to capitalize on this trend. For example, O.P.I. is activating their sales by introducing a new nail polish named by the famous phrase from the Barbie movie “My job is beach”. And Burger King Brazil has created a whole Barbie-themed pink menu to uplift sales.

03

Key moments

Explore specific holidays (such as Christmas, Easter, and more) and pinpoint when conversations about these occasions begin, along with the themes and subjects linked to them so you know when to start off your first holiday campaigns. Again, the Barbie movie can be used as an example. Analyzing the graph provided, it becomes noticeable that the trend is gradually declining in terms of popularity. This decline could potentially signal marketers to discontinue the use of the Barbie reference at a certain point when it is no longer the center of attention.

This graph shows the decline in daily topic mentions on the key word ‘Barbie’ over a month

Merkle was selected as a distinguished participant in the beta testing phase of Meta's Consumer Trends Tool, currently only available for agencies. We are excited about the prospect of integrating this tool into our strategies for diverse clients. Our team is committed to leveraging this tool to its fullest potential, enhancing our ability to deliver exceptional results and insights. Are you ready to elevate your campaigns by conquering the consumer behavior mysteries? Do not hesitate to contact us!