Spate used its recently launched Popularity Index to identify and surprise a handful of companies at Natural Products Expo West with a “top trending” award that recognized a spike in their consumer engagement online and which showcased how the platform can help companies measure and improve their digital presence as well as uncover white space for innovation.
The consumer insights platform analyzes consumer search data from Google and TikTok, which it organizes in an easy-to-navigate dashboard to help brands understand how consumers are talking about and assessing their products – and those from competitors.
Earlier this year the company launched its Popularity Index, which weighs search data from Google and TikTok differently to account for the platforms’ trajectory and uses, to create a more accurate depiction of what consumers are searching for, where they are searching for it and why they are searching for it, according to Alyssa Williams, food and beverage category insights manager for Spate.
“Ahead of Expo West, we went and looked through all of the exhibitors coming and cross referenced with our Spate dashboard to see who is trending the most with consumers. It’s not that just they’re trending with Spate, it is that they are trending with consumers. And we are here to be the voice of consumers. One of the really cool things we were able to do is identify about 38 brands, and we awarded them with little badges to put out at their booth, so you might have seen those around, and we identified their year over year growth on both Google search and Tiktok,” she explained.
The list of winners revealed emerging themes within the food and beverage sector that also signal areas ripe for innovation, including functional but holistic wellness and clean label, Williams noted.
While the list includes some startups, it also featured many established brands that have remained relevant to consumers either through rapid innovation and product expansion – like Impossible Foods, which saw breakout year-over-year growth in TikTok hashtag views and 27.9% year-over-year growth in Google searches – or by remaining true to their core, as in the case of Clean Cause, which is a better-for-you beverage brand with a mission to addiction recovery that saw year-over-year growth in TikTok hashtag views of more than 600% and a more than 50% increase in year-over-year growth in Google Searches.
Innovation, social mission inspires brand ambassadors for Clean Cause
After nearly 10 years on the market, Clean Cause’s VP of Marketing Execution Cortney Hollinger admitted the company was surprised, but also delighted, to be considered among the most popular brands at Expo West as identified by Spate’s Popularity Index.
She attributed the brand’s long-term success in part to wide selection of flavors and beverages featuring lower-sugar and slightly higher caffeine levels, as well as its mission to give back to those in need.
“Our drinks just make people feel good form the inside out, because you have got that great cause, so they know they are doing good, but it also makes them feel good as well. You don’t get the crashes and jitters you get with coffee or other energy drinks. So once you try it, you really like how this is a drink that is doing good and makes you feel good, too,” added Alex Gusmer, marketing manager at Clean Cause.
She also attributed the company’s success to its email marketing and social media posts that highlight the success of those recovering from addition who the brand has helped.
“All those are individuals who are huge brand ambassadors now. We love sharing their stories on email and social whenever we can,” she added.
Lifestyle positioning that empowers creators boosts Owyn’s social presence
Another top-trending brand at the show was Owyn, which is a better-for-you brand focused on plant-based protein, that owes its nearly 60% year-over-year growth on TikTok hashtag views to the company’s positioning as a lifestyle product and by relying on creators to tout the brand rather than pushing out posts from the company, according to Owyn’s Chief Marketing Officer Julia Perez.
“The way that Owyn is positioned, we are more of a lifestyle brand versus a super-fitness-oriented brand, where that has not really been the case in our category in the past,” she said.
She explained that while the brand has deep “medical roots” with efficacious formulas and high-quality ingredients, its “cool lifestyle” branding allows it to “dance” between consumer groups seeking to improve their health and social status.
She also noted that the company’s approach to TikTok is to take a back seat to creators and influencers, some of which it “seeds” on social media. She explained TikTok is more about entertainment, playing and discovery, which is better led by creators. Alternatively, she noted, the company’s Instagram page is more carefully curated by the brand to serve as a landing page where products are beautifully positioned, and consumers can learn about their attributes.
Spate’s Popularity Index serves as a marketing blueprint for companies & competitors
Companies can use Spate’s new Popularity Index to improve their performance on TikTok or Google, identify potential marketing partners or measure campaigns’ effectiveness and even find areas ripe for product development and innovation, according to Williams.
She explained that Spate’s user-friendly consumer insights dashboard has granular week-over-week data that allows companies to measure the impact of marketing campaigns and see how competitors’ campaigns are performing.
Spate also tracks hashtags, which allows companies to identify adjacent trends (other hashtags) that are associated with their products. Spate also examines hashtags by demographic, which can help brands understand their consumer base better.
Finally, Williams said, the Popularity Index has an influencers tab within the dashboard that allows companies to see all the influencers related to a certain brand or trend and the type of engagement they receive – which could help identify future spokespeople or ambassadors.
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