Bynder Releases State of branding report, 58% attracted by visual engagement

May 2, 2019 Marco | Editor

In the annual Bynder x OnBrand State of Branding Report, we got inside the heads of marketing and branding experts to discover their biggest challenges and opportunities for the year, what’s at the top of their to-do lists, and how they’re leveraging the latest industry trends to attract—and retain—customers. This year, we put their insights to the test, going directly to the source: consumers.

Bynder conducted an online survey via SurveyMonkey of over 1,000 US citizens in March 2019. Respondents were between the ages of 18 and 100 and live in the United States.

General findings

The majority of consumers (58.2%) think brands are listening to their needs and meeting their expectations, while 22.73% disagree and 19.07% are unsure.
As brands seek new ways to engage with consumers, 46.15% of consumers cite mobile technologies as the most important technology-driven service/experience to them, followed by customer service technologies (25.59%) and visual/immersive experience technologies (23.72%).
The vast majority of consumers (58.7%) are most drawn to / impacted by visual engagement. Other types of engagement, including interactive engagement like AR and VR (16.7%), conversational engagement like chatbots (12.06%) and blog posts or articles (9.88%), are far less popular among consumers.
Social media is the most popular channel for interacting with brands (37.65%), followed by the company’s website (17.89%), mobile channels (17.89%), content channels like blogs (12.75%) and in-person events (9.09%).
Among those who prefer to interact with brands on social media, Facebook is the preferred platform (38.13%), followed by Instagram (28.21%), Twitter (14.49%) and LinkedIn (3.7%).
When it comes to launching a new technology to connect with consumers, consumers are split on the biggest mistake a brand can make. Consumers consider launching technology that doesn’t make sense for the brand (27.08%), launching uncompelling tech without enough investment (26.38%) and creating an inconsistent look and feel for the content (25.69%) to be essentially equally pressing problems for brands to be on the lookout for. Slightly less consequential is falling behind competitors brands when launching new technologies (17.39%).
The majority of consumers follow and engage with just 1-9 brands on a weekly basis (67.59%). 22.63% interact with 10-19 brands, 5.93% with 20-29, and just 3.85% interact with thirty or more brands in a week.
Being served irrelevant content is consumers’ biggest pet peeve regarding branded content online (41.3%), followed by being inundated by the same content from multiple companies (34.29%) and receiving content that doesn’t make sense for the platform it’s served on (21.84%).
A superior product is the most important to set a company apart today (30.43%), followed closely by excellent customer service (28.16%). To a lesser extent, a company’s storytelling and vision (10.77%), community involvement (10.08%), innovative campaigns (8.99%), content personalisation (5.34%) and industry thought leadership (4.94%) can help brands stand out.
Articles and blog posts (28.26%) are the most likely content type to influence consumers to try a new product or service, followed by social media (22.63%), online advertising (17%), in-person events (15.32%), celebrity/influencer endorsement (9.09%) and print and offline advertising (3.75%).
The majority of respondents cite ease and convenience as the most important form of product / service personalisation, followed by product customization (25.59%), packaging customization (10.87%) and customised digital experiences (8.2%).

Age

Consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 are most likely to report satisfaction with a brand (63.64%), compared to just 46.46% of those between the ages of 45 and 60.
70.71% of consumers between the ages of 45 and 60 state visual content is most impactful, compared to just 54.78% of those between the ages of 30 and 44 and 57.71% of those between the ages of 18 and 29.
Consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 prefer to engage with brands via Instagram (37.47% compared to 20.13% of those between the ages of 30 and 44 and 15.48% of those between the ages of 45 and 60). Meanwhile, those between the ages of 30 and 60 prefer to engage with brands on Facebook.

Gender

Male consumers report that launching uncompelling tech without enough investment is their number one pet peeve (29.46% compared to 23.53% of female consumers). Meanwhile, female consumers report that an inconsistent look and feel of content is their number one pet peeve.

Income

Respondents with a household income of $125,000+ are most likely to say they are indifferent about their interactions with brands (28.50% compared to 16.65%).

Are brands meeting consumer needs? (yes vs. no)

Consumers who say their needs are not being met are more likely to identify community involvement (16.09%) as a priority than those who are satisfied with brands (8.83%). However, both groups agree a superior product is the most important deliverable.

Engagement platform of choice

With the exception of those who prefer to engage with brands via emerging tech, consumers prioritize visual engagement over any other form (conversational, interactive, long-form, etc).
- 70.60% of those who prefer to engage on social report visual engagement is the most impactful.
- 60.98% of those who prefer to engage via mobile applications report visual engagement is the most impactful.
- 56.35% of those who prefer to engage via company website report visual engagement is the most impactful.
- 47.29% of those who prefer to engage via content channels report visual engagement is the most impactful.
- 47.83% of those who prefer to engage via in-person/live events report visual engagement is the most impactful.

About Bynder

Bynder is the fastest growing digital asset management (DAM) solution, helping marketing professionals at the world’s most successful organisations create, share and organise the full lifecycle of their digital content in the cloud.

Founded in 2013 by CEO Chris Hall, Bynder has grown to 350+ employees in seven offices around the globe, including locations in the Netherlands, USA, Spain, UK and UAE. Known for its best-in-class user experience and customer support, Bynder has since earned spots on the 2015 and 2017 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, with recognition by the Financial Times as the 20th fastest growing company in Europe in 2018.

Bynder is backed by Insight Venture Partners and in February 2018 announced the strategic acquisition of the California-based digital asset management solution, Webdam. Together, Bynder and Webdam help 1500+ customers like PUMA, Spotify, and innocent drinks manage their digital content. For more information, visit www.bynder.com.