Social Performance Measurement For Agencies
The Top UK Lifestyle Brands On Instagram
Sahail Ashraf posted on 6 December 2017
Lifestyle brands are big business, and this is often reflected in the social media accounts that they run. From cookery to exercise, social media has allowed numerous brands to develop and set up their ‘shop’ online.
In the Locowise Leaderboard, we focused on the largest lifestyle brands that have Instagram accounts in the UK and for a UK audience. And we ranked them by the number of total engagement during the last month.
We dug deep, and found out that all brands can learn some lessons from these giants of lifestyle. Here’s our top 10 Instagram lifestyle brands in the UK:
Jamie Oliver
Anyone who has spent more than half an hour in the UK over the last ten years or so will know who this man is. He’s the original celebrity chef, and has released numerous books, as well as hosted many TV series.
He’s also a bit of a cultural icon, and currently has over 6 million followers on Instagram. In addition to that, his feed on the platform is an interesting mix of his food (what he’s famous for, after all) and snaps of him hanging with celebrity pals like Will Smith.
The posts are comment heavy, which shows plenty of engagement. At the top of our lifestyle leaderboard for the UK on Instagram, his total engagement over the last month was 604,020.
Typical post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb6muY6Dg7N/?taken-by=jamieoliver
Extra note: This post has had nearly 50,000 likes in one day.
Niomi Smart
This lady isn’t as famous as Mr Oliver, but she comes in at number two on our lifestyle leaderboard.
A celebrated vlogger and author, she’s all things food and wellness. She also has 1.7m subscribers on YouTube. Her Instagram has huge engagement because what she puts on there is basically snippets from her life. And since every one of her followers wants her life, this works perfectly.
If you’re in lifestyle, this is how you would ‘show’ that life. It’s a perfect extension of her YouTube channel and the personality she has. It probably helps that the photos are so expertly done too, even the ‘in the moment’ photos are exceptional and fit perfectly with who she is and how she lives her life.
Typical post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb4usPNH3to/?taken-by=niomismart
The fact that this post shows her mother just confirms that she is a personality within an industry. And it gained more than 100,000 views.
Sophie Kasaei
A stunning Instagram feed here from the reality TV star. If you asked any Sophie fan what they would want to see more of in reference to her online profile, they would say ‘the stuff that’s on her Instagram feed’.
It’s perfect lifestyle material. The audience wants to be Sophie, and she wants to be Sophie too.
Typical post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb6-VUcFaRy/?taken-by=sophiekasaei_
Victoria
She’s a travel blogger who also has her own unique fashion style. Again, personality dictates the flow on Instagram, with Victoria flaunting what can only be described as a ‘jet set’ lifestyle.
She doesn’t have a huge number of followers (relatively speaking) but her Instagram is perfectly pitched at her audience, with a focus on what it means to be Victoria. Again, like all successful users of the platform, the photos are exquisite.
Typical Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbhmgn6HBip/?taken-by=inthefrow
Victoria very much represents a ‘dream’ for her fans. She knows what they want to see and she gives it to them. So while she wouldn’t feature in a chart based on size of audience (like Niomi Smart would) she makes up for her small audience with excellent engagement. It’s a platform that has been built on the back of YouTube.
Fleur De Force
Another beauty vlogger, this one has a focus on beauty equipment, but also spends a lot of her time on Instagram showing off her life (which is picture postcard perfect).
She blew up on YouTube (and has been on the platform for around eight years) and continues to deliver great content there. In addition, her Instagram feed is only ever full of beautiful photos.
An interesting point to note here is that she is due to have a baby. This has been followed by her fans all the way, and the comments she receives about parenthood and her super-mum qualities are something that a close family friend would write, not a follower.
Typical post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb2QH0Rlt0I/?taken-by=fleurdeforce
Highlights from the rest of the top ten
We have BBC Travel at number 6.
This brand is backed by decades of world-class production values and tons of accumulated experience of reporting and comment. It’s also made some incredibly powerful travel documentaries.
The images on the Instagram feed are world-class too. It’s all about travel, and the quality of the images make the whole thing evocative and aspirational. They’re also quite social-savvy as well. A recent post showcasing a destination that was featured in Game of Thrones included a #gameofthrones hashtag.
Tastemade (number 7) is correctly described (by the brand itself) as ‘food porn’.
The first thing you’ll notice when you venture onto their Instagram is the fact that it is made up of video, more video, and then more video. They know their audience wants quick and easy recipes that will still wow other people, and they give them short, easy to follow videos that have a fun aspect to them.
Here’s a typical video that the brand has placed on Instagram. Note how it is quick and snappy. The quality of the video brings out the attractive nature of the food. A post on how to make a chocolate biscuit snack is equally snappy, and shows only the crucial parts of the process, with the recipe in a sidebar.
While Tastemade may not have the biggest audience, it does have a ton of engagement and this has been earned through the brilliant idea behind their videos. Drop in on their feed, choose a dish that looks good, and use the onscreen action to follow the recipe. It couldn’t be simpler.
At number 9 is Byrdie.
A lifestyle ‘catch all’ for women, the website it springs from covers beauty, fitness, hair and skin, as well as many other areas. Here’s a typical post, which focuses on a new slant on eye makeup. Big performing posts for Byrdie tend to be about them, which shows that audience sentiment is positive.
The pages featured here are not all personality heavy, but it’s an important distinction. The fact is that lifestyle is dominated by people who offer a glimpse of a desired life, which means that vloggers who travel (or just have cool friends) gain the most momentum.
If there are any lessons other brands can take from this, it’s probably best to reiterate the idea of giving the audience what they want. There isn’t one example of wrong-footing here. From Jamie Oliver to Tastemade, each account is perfectly tailored to address the pain point of the audience.
Need to get stuck into some real metrics? Want to be able to show your clients exactly where they are at on social? No worries. Try out Locowise free for seven days. It’s what great agencies are made of.
