Will brands shy away from the 'branded content' tags now available to all Facebook Reels?

Meta has made branded content tags available to all Facebook Reels Creators. In February, Facebook launched Reels and new ways for creators to make a living. 

According to Meta, Reels is one of the fastest growing new formats on Facebook, and creators can use this format with the Branded Content tag tool on Facebook Reels in their organic posts to “easily convert these Reels to Branded Content Ads” having a “sponsored with” label. Using the tag allows business partners to be notified of the post and they can receive metrics about the performance. Meta’s guidelines also currently state that all content which is influenced by a brand or product must state so clearly.

While in the past there was generally a negative connotation associated with products that are labelled as “paid”, and many brands tried ways to weasel out of the "sponsored" label, the trend has changed in recent years, say industry players. Speaking to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Smith Bhatt, head of commerce, Wavemaker APAC said brands are now more open to paid partnerships.

One of the key reason for the change is that in today’s era consumer is more loyal to a creator compared to a brand. Hence, brands can leverage a lot of insights and engagement from paid collaborations. However, the catch is to find and be associated with the right creator, at the right frequency. 

Bhatt added that consumers today are also more receptive compared to content marked as paid instead of pure brand product ads. "As the creators often set the context in their style it makes the brand experience more trustworthy and believable," he said.

Echoing his sentiment, Oddie Randa, managing director, Gushcloud International for SEA region who said that consumers will not be turned off by a well packaged story, even if its a paid partnership by a brand. On the marketing front, brands are also becoming more pen in allowing customers and audiences know that it is a paid campaign, he explained.

"The creator economy is more than a decade year old this year. Hence, a lot has happened in this space in the last decade. Audiences have also become more savvy and understand the 'power of followers' and how influencers can monetise that," he said.

Nonetheless, there will always be brands who might be slightly hesitant to have the sponsored tag. Often these brands look to get ahead through PR. "They will ensure that these influencers actually like that products first ahead of time. They start off with PR seedings. Following that, they work on a long term relationship together. We see that being more effective for the brands and the influencers.”

More visibility?

With Meta now focusing all their efforts to show more reels (short-form content) to entice consumers, it can be a good opportunity for brands to be a lot more visible especially during the year-end sale period, said Wavemaker’s Bhatt, adding:

This can be a quick win for short stories which can give brands another area to maximise their exposure as the platform is allocating more placements to show reels on the Facebook app.

Specific categories such as beauty and personal care, tech and entertainment might see a very quick and/or early adoption.

With Meta implementing the new feature, Randa believes it will definitely be easier to track and boost the performance of a social post - especially for brands in the FMCG industry that activate influencers' content effectively.

“We believe that this feature will increase the efficacy of their influencer marketing budget and allow them understand better which creator or influencer is more suited for their strategy,” he shared.

In August, Meta introduced a series of new features for both Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels. In a video released by Meta for Creators on Facebook on 16 August, it introduced six new features for both platforms. One of the new features brought on board the "Add Yours" Sticker, formerly rolled out on Instagram Stories last year. The sticker can be used on both Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels. Through the "Add Yours" sticker on Instagram stories, users can create or join a chain of responses to prompts and trends. With its rollout on both Instagram and Facebook Reels, users can now create chains of video responses to prompts.

Meanwhile, in Asia, the number of brands spending more than 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing has increased to 25.4% this year, up from 21.4% in 2021. Around, 69.4% of brands are spending 1% to 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing, according to The Southeast Asia Influencer Marketing Industry report by influencer marketing and commerce platform Partipost and Quest Ventures.

The report surveyed consumers in Singapore, Indonesia, and Taiwan, the three countries where Partipost first set foot and built its presence in Southeast Asia. Instagram (71.4%) was ranked the most popular social media platform across the three countries, followed by TikTok (15.8%), YouTube (6%), and Facebook (5.2%). This was also the same for Singapore and Indonesia. Meanwhile, Instagram and YouTube were the top two most popular social media platforms.

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