THE HOTTEST FOOD KOLS OF 2023!
THE REVEAL OF 50 FAMOUS KOLS AND THE FOOD MARKETING TREND
Food KOLs have created the trend of group buying in Taiwan., Besides group buying, brands have invited KOLs to unbox various delicacies or foreign souvenirs in the form of gift boxes recently, leading to the revival of food trends locally and internationally. Thanks to the dedicated promotions, topics related to food have dramatically increased. Through the AIE database by AsiaKOL, we are ready to reveal the ranking of Food KOLs in 2023 along with the latest leading trends, providing a clear insight into Food KOLs’ features in the community. AsiaKOL can also assist brands in finding suitable KOLs and developing effective marketing strategies.
1. The Reveal Of Top 20 Food KOLs Ranking – Most Of Them Are Cross-Field Influencers With High Traffic
According to the AIE database, the total followers of each KOL in Top 20 Food KOLs ranking exceed 200 thousand. All of the KOLs on the list are active on Facebook and Instagram, and over half of them are active on YouTube. Besides food and delicacies, the Top 20 KOLs also invest in 10 famous fields, including skincare and beauty, family and baby, pets, fun and comedy, travel, 3C technology, profit sharing, fitness, fashion, and education.
Brands are suggested to choose suitable candidates through the interaction rate and cross-field attributes. For example, influencers in food, family and baby fields are perfect for products such as baby food and healthcare supplements; Influencers who share content about food and travel are ideal for domestic and international souvenir promotion. Hence, the products are successfully promoted to the precise audience by analogy.
2. Topic Trends Of Food KOLs In The Community – “Gourmet Unboxing” mainly on YouTube and Instagram, Utilizing Five Senses To Enhance Impacts
According to AsiaKOL’s statistics on the “Gourmet Unboxing” community topic trend, the interaction rate on YouTube and Instagram is discovered to be higher than on Facebook, especially the latter. Instagram Reels featuring short videos easily boost reach, while Stories and related interactions are used to pre-introduce upcoming products and increase netizens’ curiosity. Finally, videos of unboxing are released in order to provide detailed presentations and information about the products.
One of the most popular promoting strategies today is to invite both local and international KOLs to “reel” the gourmet unboxing or restaurant dining experiences. The products or places being featured are gradually revealed throughout the video, satisfying audiences’ curiosity and stimulating their buying desire. In the past, successful unboxing videos featured content creators who shared their genuine experiences by describing the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors of the restaurants and dishes. By doing so, the audience is fully immersed in the actual atmosphere of the videos, which greatly motivates them to consider making a purchase or visit.
1) “Gourmet Unboxing” Topic On Instagram – Make Good Use Of Short Videos To Boost Discussions
With attractive, diverse and atmospheric depictions, short videos are mainly used for the “Gourmet Unboxing” campaign on Instagram. Let’s take a look at the hot Food KOL “77.food”! She uploaded a short video to introduce the stunning Fake Club, an entertainment bar with handsome and sexy male models, dancers and waiters in Thailand. The video has successfully caught followers’ attention and aroused discussions among netizens by showing people the excitement and what to experience when visiting the bar. Every influencer has their style of creating videos. Another famous food reviewer “4foodie” unboxed her exciting Ippaku-nishoku (One night, two meals) trip to Komatsu, Japan through the recent fine dining experience video. In the video, she meticulously added text to introduce each cuisine and specialty of the accommodation, which helps raise the reputation of the restaurant, along with Japanese rural tourism.
2) “Gourmet Unboxing” Topic On YouTube – Attracting Netizens To Boost Views And Discussion Rate With Interesting Themes
Most of the unboxing video lengths on YouTube are longer and more eye-catching when paired with fun contests or other interesting themes. YouTuber “Ku’s dream” is a foreigner living in Taiwan. He introduced Taiwan’s fruits through a competition between two foreigners. The funny video attracted over a million views by showing viewers the lively reactions of foreigners when they unbox Taiwan’s specialty fruits. Another hot YouTuber “Ladyflavor_brain” has her own way of approaching potential viewers by unboxing various office afternoon tea snacks, tasting them with her video-editor husband, and giving out comments on each snack. The funny and natural approach successfully provides viewers with relaxing entertainment.
3. The Topic Trend Of Food KOLs In The Community – “Japanese Food” Obtains The Most Discussion Rate On Instagram With Massively Increased Popularity In The First Half Of 2023
After totalizing the “Japanese Food” topic trend in the community, AsiaKOL figured out that such a topic obtained the highest discussion rate on Instagram. As the number of people traveling to Japan substantially increased in the first half of 2023, discussions about Japanese food soared and reached a peak in June. Most popular food accounts expose pictures, texts and short videos on Instagram, along with netizens who like Japanese food are usually young people, they will make good use of Instagram’s tag function and directly discover the information of the restaurants or stores through those exposed attractive posts.
1) Topic About Japanese Food On Instagram – Videos Of Food Travel To Japan Inspirit Viewers To Visit
It’s common to witness many food KOLs share their experiences about local food and desserts when traveling to Japan through Instagram Reels. Not only their experiences, the processes of food-producing, menus, packaging and steps to enjoy are not something the KOLs prefer keeping for themselves now. Hot Instagramer “Imyusyuan” attracts thousands of interactions and followers visiting the food stop only with a short video of Tokyo’s must-try dessert: French mille-feuille. Differing from the style of“Imyusyuan”, another hot Instagramer “Ryan.food” detailedly shared the cuisines and the romantic scenery outside in his famous short video - the Train Coffee Shop in Kamakura. He also revealed the address of the coffee shop inside the video, making it easier for those who need to escape from life with delicious food and dreamy views.
2) Topic About Japanese Food On Instagram – Short Video Unboxing About “Tasting Japan” In Taiwan
Besides sharing local food when traveling to Japan, “Tasting Japanese food, even when you’re in Taiwan” is also a secret code to high traffic used by many food KOLs on Instagram. Food KOLs prefer share short videos in a lifestyle way, such as Instagram food reviewer “Iamteresa0424” uploaded a short video about discovering The famous Japanese chocolate ice bar in a Taiwan convenience store, shouting out to followers to try out the delicious dessert even without flying to Japan; The well-known Instagramer“77.food” chose to attract viewers by unboxing The Japan signature Mont blanc that can be easily found at a Taiwan dessert house. The dessert-making process was completely shared with a soothing and relaxing vibe in the video, arousing widespread discussion among netizens and successfully increasing the dessert house's popularity.
4. Top 3 Food KOLs Of 2023 - Prominent Influence In The Community With Multiple Platforms To Expose Product Information
The top 3 Food KOLs in the Top 20 ranking list are @yungingrace, @Fat Uncle and @corgimango. Standing at the top, @yungingrace has over 1.6 million followers, becoming the most popular influencer in the food community, followed by @Fat Uncle and @corgimango, who also have over 800 thousand followers. While Grace catches followers’ eyes with exquisite photos and texts, Fat Uncle mainly cooperates with group-buying projects and Corgimango focuses on sharing content about his own mango business and pet-related information. Each of the above KOLs has their own powerful influences in the social community, with more information provided below:
1) TOP1－@yungingrace
As the Top 1 on the list, Grace has over 550 thousand followers on Instagram. Featuring diverse content, she treats followers with beautiful and delicate photos, displaying the elegant and splendid vibe of her life. Besides, she sometimes shares short videos about delicacies and cooperating products. Fans also find it joyful to follow her posts about elegant life routines and food presentations, such as content about her four-member family’s daily life, cooking recipes and stylish bentos.
2) TOP2－@Fat Uncle
With funny, entertaining text content and short videos, Fat Uncle obtains over 80 thousand followers on Instagram and becomes the Top 2 KOL on the list. His videos are mostly about Taiwan's local food, attracting fans to follow his footage and try the gourmets. He also launches Facebook live streaming at a fixed time every week. His content style is very friendly and interesting. He also shares cooking videos to instruct fans how to use the kitchen products, or simple delicious gourmets that are to be launched in the group-buying promotions.
3) TOP3－@Corgimango
Corgimango is a dried mango store located in Tainan Yujing District, famous for nurturing 3 cute corgis. With over 200 thousand followers, @Corgimango is a food KOL and ranked in the Top 3 list in Pet KOLs of 2023. His social account attracted followers and becomes popular throughout Taiwan for sharing photos of three adorable corgis (Jiujiu, Dada, and Duoduo). Besides the photos of corgis, he has been featuring funny and lovely short videos about food, making good use of the perspective of pets to develop different kinds of cooperation fields.
5. Food KOLs As The Souvenir Unboxing Ambassadors To Boost Consumers’ Expectations
When it comes to gourmets, choosing the suitable KOL to serve as the brand’s ambassador is relatively important. Through lively and interesting ways of introducing food, giving out useful comments and entertaining unboxing processes, the ambassador can precisely convey the product information to the target audiences, which effectively helps enhance brand awareness.
According to AsiaKOL’s analysis, the Taiwanese deeply fall in love with Japanese souvenirs and cuisines. If brands neatly utilize the power of Food KOLs combined with the AKBOX souvenir unboxing campaign, product information can easily reach more potential consumers with a soft-sell approach. One of our successful case studies recently includes the DONKI x AsiaKOL AKBOX Gourmet Unboxing Campaign, reaching thousands of netizens in a short period and achieving high praise from all walks of life. AsiaKOL is here to provide you with A to Z KOL-related services, working alongside you on the journey of brand awareness enhancement!
AIE - KOL Evaluation Database
The AIE – Asian KOL Evaluation Database can search for KOLs in specific fields with various categories, and analyze the important reference scores of KOLs such as interactions and breadth of influences, helping brands locate the “dream type” of KOLs, enhancing the accuracy of marketing campaign. If you want to know about community performance of Taiwan or international influencers, contact us for more details!
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