businessinsight TREND REPORT The Apparel Top 50: Rankings by Social Media Popularity n July, Apparel released its annual Apparel Top 50, tracking Fans continue to stream in, but monetizing the apparel industry’s most profitable apparel companies content remains the holy grail of social Iwith sales of at least $100 million that report their data pub- licly with the SEC. This month, for the third year in a row, media for apparel retailers and brands. we’ve ranked this year’s Top 50 companies by social media standing. certainly germane to industries outside these markets, particu- In the two following charts, you’ll find the Top 50 companies larly those that directly serve the end consumer. ranked by number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, A recently released report from Gartner, “Forecast: Social respectively. Media Revenue, Worldwide, 2011-2016,” anticipates that world- In the three years that we’ve been compiling these rankings, wide social media revenue will hit $16.9 billion this year, up 43.1 social media has continued to push deeper into both the micro- percent from 2011 revenue of $11.8 billion, with advertising and and macro-spotlights: At the micro level, apparel retailers and social gaming contributing the greatest shares to that pie. brands (along with businesses in other verticals) have gone Usage of online social media has matured, and more than beyond dipping in their toes but many have still not taken a full one billion people worldwide will use social networks this year, plunge, feeling for the stones as they make their way into the said Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner, in a state- murky waters of social media, trying to incorporate it to best ment announcing the results of the report. Although the num- effect in their enterprises. ber of social media users is large, and in some cases increasingly At a macro level, no event probably made bigger headlines mature in their usage patterns, the market is still in its early on this subject than the highly anticipated launch of the Face- stages from a revenue perspective. book IPO and the subsequent and continued fallout from it, as How much any of this matters to Facebook users is hard to its stock price came in like a lion and quickly went out as a know, but judging by the burgeoning numbers of them — and lamb, with investor value having plummeted, at press time, the astronomical leap up in numbers of Facebook fans of our almost 50 percent from its original offering price. own Top 50 — it may be safe to assume that they, at least, are How its stock will fare is anybody’s guess, but key to its suc- happy and engaged. And that’s been Facebook CEO Mark cess will be the ability to increasingly monetize its incredibly Zuckerberg’s objective from the start: to focus on the user expe- popular social media site — an issue that concerns all stake- rience as part of his stated goal to make the world more open holders, from Facebook executives to Facebook investors to cor- and connected. porate advertisers and corporations with Facebook pages — all Taking a closer look at the numbers shows that fandom in of whom would like to convert Facebook’s 955 million (and the apparel retail world has not slowed a bit. With three years growing) monthly active users to active consumers of its adver- of data under our belt, we have seen the number of Top 50 tisers’ products. companies boasting Facebook fans of at least one million grow To share a few other statistics from Facebook: As of the end from four in 2010 to 13 last year to 21 — almost half — in 2012. of June 2012, approximately 81 percent of those monthly active Eight companies have more than five million fans — and that’s users were located outside the United States and Canada; the just counting those fans in the particular brand we’re tracking. social media site reports 552 million daily active users on aver- Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, is ranked No. 6 with age; and there are 543 million monthly active users who have 7,028,068 fans, but those are just fans of the Abercrombie & used Facebook mobile products. Fitch nameplate. Its Hollister brand has even more: 9,339,340. On that topic: the growing number of people interacting Abercrombie Kids has 335,101 fans, while Gilly Hicks isn’t far with Facebook via their mobile devices has added convenience behind with 307,343, for a grand total of more than 17 million. to the user experience, but it may actually be a drawback when And that doesn’t include fans of individual stores (the Dublin it comes to pushing Facebook to achieve greater financial store alone has 11,817 fans) or fans of Abercrombie & Fitch results — monetizing content on a two-inch screen poses an Models (92,681), for example. even greater set of challenges than converting on a laptop or When it comes to Twitter followers, the pure numbers don’t iPad. A recent article in Fortune, “Mobile and social profits: approach those of Facebook fans, but the percentage increases Like chasing purple unicorns,” captures the quandary perfectly: this year are much higher. Of the 38 companies that were in Mobile and social haven’t just become favorites in the corporate last year’s rankings and had Twitter followers, 11 saw increases world, they have become necessities. And yet, so few compa- of more than 200 percent. Last year we reported that just four nies truly benefit. While the article was particularly focused on companies crossed the six-figure threshold in terms of follow- tech companies in web and mobile markets, the statement is ers; this year that figure is up to 10, with No. 1, Victoria’s Secret, www.apparelmag.com • OCTOBER 2012 19 Rankings by Social Media Popularity, Facebook Top 50 Last Rank by Facebook Facebook % Change in experiencing 690.6 percent 2012 Year’s Profit Fans as of Fans as of Facebook growth to cross the seven- RANK Rank Margins Company Summer 2012 Summer 2011 Fans figure mark, nabbing more 1 1 12 Limited Brands (Victoria’s Secret) 19,449,751 14,477,665 34.3 than 1.1 million followers. 2 3 45 Levi Strauss (Levi’s) 13,891,883 6,134,759 126.4 Drivers of growth are 3 2 7 Nike (Nike Football) 13,628,348 8,490,521 60.5 surely varied, and similar to 4 6 44 Aeropostale 7,901,556 4,877,891 62.0 last year’s: more sheer 5 5 33 American Eagle Outfitters (American Eagle) 7,041,355 4,882,966 44.2 numbers of people living 6 4 43 Abercrombie & Fitch (Abercrombie & Fitch) 7,028,068 5,082,227 38.3 digital lives and more retail- 7 Change 11 VF (Vans) 6,545,567 N/A N/A ers reaching out from their 8 7 9 Polo Ralph Lauren 5,183,557 3,450,956 50.2 end to engage consumers 9 N/A 29 PVH (Calvin Klein) 4,509,885 N/A N/A with editorial content and 10 10 26 Gap (Gap) 2,646,404 1,568,513 68.7 promotional coupons and 11 12 10 Guess? 2,621,547 1,192,969 119.7 offers. For example, a quick 12 8 25 HanesBrands (Hanes) 2,550,265 1,748,925 45.8 visit to Men’s Wearhouse’s 13 13 15 Express 2,510,750 1,052,090 138.6 FB page (which saw its fans 14 9 47 Wet Seal (Wet Seal) 2,199,546 1,578,258 39.4 escalate 1,785.1 percent to 15 15 19 Under Armour 1,982,558 819,305 142.0 146,210 from just 7,756 last 16 16 20 Nordstrom Inc. 1,617,388 762,163 112.2 year) turns up a coupon for 17 14 34 The Children’s Place 1,308,635 988,146 32.4 $5 off your next purchase, 18 17 13 Urban Outfitters (Urban Outfitters) 1,279,442 752,915 69.9 while a visit to Maiden- 19 20 39 Ann (Ann Taylor Loft) 1,228,086 459,715 167.1 form’s Twitter page (up 20 18 30 rue21 1,224,015 564,835 116.7 914.6 percent from 719 to 21 22 17 Zumiez 1,197,795 370,126 223.6 7,295 followers) uncovers a 22 19 6 True Religion Apparel 806,723 462,189 74.5 series of style tips and con- 23 29 28 Carter’s (Carter’s) 792,608 171,315 362.7 tests: first five tweets to cor- 24 31 24 The Ascena Retail Group (dressbarn) 757,141 118,915 536.7 rectly answer the question, 25 23 2 lululemon athletica 713,021 347,646 105.1 “What type of bra cup did 26 27 31 The Warnaco Group (Calvin Klein Underwear) 551,587 182,762 201.8 MF revolutionize,?” win the 27 Change 40 Oxford Industries (Lilly Pulitzer) 432,100 N/A N/A tweeter a T-shirt. 28 34 46 Perry Ellis International (Perry Ellis) 412,987 69,751 492.1 There’s no doubt the 29 26 3 The Buckle 291,000 200,031 45.5 millennials are also playing 30 28 49 Stein Mart 286,329 174,718 63.9 a major role in the growth 31 37 22 Chico’s FAS (Chico’s) 199,398 47,440 320.3 of social media, as is evi- 32 32 23 Columbia Sportswear (Columbia Sportswear) 188,047 117,655 59.8 denced once again by the 33 39 27 Maidenform Brands 178,986 14,151 1164.8 fact that so many of the 34 42 32 The Men’s Wearhouse (Men’s Wearhouse) 146,210 7,756 1785.1 highest ranked companies 35 35 42 Delta Apparel (M.J.