Macy’s, Sephora Lead L2's Facebook 'Genius' Marketers

Macy’s, Sephora, Lancôme, and Michael Kors are ranked as Facebook “Geniuses” in the second annual L2 Facebook IQ Index, the New York-based luxury think tank that measures the aptitude of 100 luxury and prestige brands across Beauty, Fashion, Specialty Retail, and Watches & Jewelry.

The study, conducted in partnership with Buddy Media, ranks brand efforts across four criteria: Size & Growth, Engagement, Programming, and Integration, and each brand was scored against over 350 qualitative and quantitative data points, and assigned a Facebook IQ ranking of Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble (a description we'd quibble with, by the way).

The rest of the top ten prestige brands in L2's new Facebook index? The envelope, please...

1. Macy's
2. Sephora
3. Lancôme (tied)
4. Michael Kors (tied)
5. IWC
6. Smashbox
7. Swarovski
8. United Colors of Benetton
9. El Corte Inglés
10. Estée Lauder (tied)
11. Pandora (tied)

“Facebook investors have shifted the measurement stick: from promise to performance,” says the study’s author, L2 founder and NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway. “Similarly, the marketing and digital professionals at prestige organizations charged with building and engaging communities on the world’s biggest platform, will face heightened expectations and scrutiny. As tomorrow becomes today for prestige execs, the issue of what, and how, return is achieved on Facebook takes center stage.”

Key findings include:

• While community growth is up, engagement across prestige communities has declined, with the average interaction rate or the percentage of the community liking or commenting on brand posts declining almost 50% year-over-year
• The move to the Timeline interface in and of itself does not appear to be a growth driver; Prestige brands added 125% more fans in the 50 days prior to the Timeline launch, than they did in the 50 days after the mandatory switch to the new interface
• More than 20% of prestige brands still do not engage in any two-way conversation and one-third prohibit fan posts on their Facebook walls
• 41% of brands now maintain at least one local country page; local Facebook pages have grown at double the rate of Global and U.S. prestige communities and register 50% higher engagement

“We’ve seen tremendous growth by prestige brands on Facebook, specifically as they expand globally,” says Jeff Ragovin, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder, Buddy Media. “The more these powerful global brands open up two-way engagement, create localized content, and amplify their efforts with social ads, the more return they will see.”

Additional details are available on Ragovin’s blog, including the fact that, “Emerging Markets Are Taking Over: More than 44% of prestige brands are registering an emerging market city as their top engaged city, as determined by Facebook’s “People Talking About This” statistic.”

Maybe retail geniuses will give a boost to the prestige of the mothership they are riding.