People drive six times more new product trial than paid ads – Roastbrief US

Recommendations from friends, family, creators and reviews drive more than six times as many new product trials as all paid advertising combined, according to new research from Social Soup, Australia and New Zealand’s community-first influence agency.Among main grocery buyers who had recently tried a new product, 27% said another person was the biggest influence on their decision while just 4% named paid advertising across TV, social, digital and outdoor as the biggest influence.Discovery also shifts with age: shoppers aged 18 to 34 are almost four times as likely as those over 55 to name a creator as their biggest influence, while 45% of shoppers over 45 rely more on what they see in store.The findings were revealed yesterday at a Social Soup briefing, where Founder and CEO Sharyn Smith presented the research alongside brand strategist, Four Pillars Gin co-founder and host of the StoryWork podcast, Matt Jones.The research, which covered a nationally representative survey of 850 Australians aged 18 and older, comes as FMCG brands struggle to make new launches succeed, with Nielsen data showing 76% of FMCG launches fail in their first year.Sharyn said: “Marketing has moved from the attention economy into the trust economy, and a lot of FMCG launches haven’t caught up. Most launch plans are still built around buying reach, but shoppers are deciding what to try based on what the people around them say. A creator who buys the category every week, or a friend at a barbecue, will do more for a new product than another TV spot.”Australians are still keen to try new products, with 79% of main grocery buyers trying a new food, drink or household product in the past three months. Fifty-one per cent bought it on the spot and 83% within a week of seeing it for the first time.Social Soup’s research found that 78% of people who try something new tell other people about it, with an average of 15.1 people told. Sixty-eight per cent talked about it in person, while just 6% posted about it on social media. Sixty-two per cent of people who hear about a product from someone else then buy it.AI plays a small but growing role, with one in 30 shoppers using an AI tool to help decide on a new product. That rises to one in eight in household, personal care and health, where shoppers use it to compare ingredients and summarise reviews.Matt Jones said: “What has changed profoundly is how things get discovered and trusted in the first place. The 20th century was this era of control. We made the product, wrote the ad, bought the media and controlled the message. We are now no longer in control. AI increasingly decides what is said about us. We need to empower creators to talk about us.“Price promotion doesn’t inspire loyalty. If we train those behaviours, we’re not training loyalty.”Half of all new product trials are bought on special, and waiting for a special is the number one reason people hold off trying something new. But discounting makes little difference to repeat purchases: 57% of people who bought a new product on special bought it again, compared with 55% of those who paid full price.“Discounting is the first lever a lot of brands reach for at launch, and with cost-of-living pressures front of mind it’s easy to see why,” Sharyn said. “Our data shows a discount can generate the first purchase but it makes no real difference to whether people will come back. Recommendation gets people to pay full price in the first place.“AI is a small part of how Australians choose new products today, but it’s growing fastest in the categories where shoppers do their homework. Those tools are summarising what real people have already said, so reviews and community content are what they’re reading. Brands that want to make the AI shortlist need real people talking about them first,” she said.“Shoppers talk about new products in kitchens, in group chats, at the school gate and in social media. The brands that launch well next year will put products in the hands of real category buyers, giving them something worth passing on. We’ve spent 19 years building a community of more than 200,000 real people so brands can do that. This research shows why it matters so much in FMCG.”Roastbrief is a digital media with global presence that seeks to share knowledge and updates about the creative industry.Privacy PolicySend your press releases to: press@roastbrief.usLogin to your account below Remember Me Fill the forms below to register Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. 2023 Roastbrief is a digital media with global presence that seeks to share knowledge and updates about the creative industry. Privacy Policy Send your press releases to: press@roastbrief.ussource