Baselworld 2018 - Social media analysis
Since my article analysing social media trends during the SIHH proved popular, I decided to use the same approach for Baselworld 2018 and the results are interesting, particularly when put into direct comparison with those of the SIHH.
Activity around the hashtag #baselworld2018 over the ten-day period from 19th to 29th March was higher than that for #sihh2018 (also measured over a ten-day period), given that the exhibition lasted for seven days (including the press day) rather than the five days of the SIHH. What is interesting, however, is that the biggest activity involving the #baselworld2018 hashtag occurred over the first two days of Baselworld. For the SIHH, social media was spread a more evenly over the week.
#baselworld2018 related hashtags
One of the things that stood out with the coverage of the SIHH was that Postchup’s object detection algorithm indicated that the Instagram posts using the #sihh2018 hashtag predominantly featured people, which was also borne out by the most popular posts by likes and comments. As far as #baselworld2018 is concerned, the posts were more consistent with the theme of the event. The algorithm recognised that 60% of posts featured watches, with the remainder showing people (or “person” or “human”).
#baselworld2018 object recognition
Rolex and Chanel the undisputed champions of Instagram at #baselworld2018…
Whether measured by likes or comments, the official Rolex Instagram account had five posts in the top 10 on Instagram for #baselworld2018. The “Rainbow” Cosmograph Daytona took the top spot in both categories, with over 389,000 likes and over 4,700 comments. Chanel’s official Instagram account featured two posts of its new Boy.Friend skeleton model, one on the wrist of a beautifully manicured lady and one as a packshot. Both made it into the top ten. Even combining the 186,257 and 130,215 likes for these two posts, however, is still not enough to beat Rolex.
#baselworld2018 most commented posts
#baselworld2018 most liked posts
…but not Twitter
While Rolex is completely absent from Twitter, Chanel has over 13 million subscribers on the micro-blogging platform. Yet the French luxury house does not figure in the top 10 Twitter accounts by influence or engagement, according to figures from Twitonomy. Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Omega, Chopard and Breitling were the most influential on Twitter, with Omega and TAG Heuer also the most engaging.
Facebook analysis – a costly affair
Recent news stories have once again illustrated just how much data Facebook has on an individual and how much that data can be worth. The few free tools for analysing data from Facebook are limited to the activity of business pages that are visible publicly. To analyse the activity around a hashtag such as #baselworld2018 across all social media platforms, including Facebook, involves a budget of at least 500 US dollars per month for access to tools such as Tagboard or Talkwaker and is thus far beyond the scope of this modest article.
