Are you excited? I’m excited! Why? Well, the infomercial is back. But instead of living on our TV screens and making up most of the viewing time during those sick days of our youth, it now lives on TikTok and Instagram.
New research from Oysterly Media has found that short tutorial and demo videos are now Australia’s number one purchase trigger, with 33% of Australians saying a how-to clip is the content most likely to tip them into buying.
That puts tutorials ahead of strong promotions and deals at 27%, and personalised recommendations at 22%.
Social drives product discovery
The report, The Changing Landscape of Discovery and Trust, was commissioned by Oysterly Media and conducted by Oaktree Insights and Consulting.
A survey of 1,200 Australians found that social media now drives 29% of all product discovery, more than three times the rate of brand websites at 9%.
Seven in ten Australians discover new products on social at least once a week.
Melissa Laurie, CEO of Oysterly Media, said the findings point to the return of a familiar sales format.
“Anyone who remembers Big Kev knows this playbook. He’d hold the product up, show you exactly what it did, and you believed him because you could see it working.
“Now it’s back, living on TikTok and Instagram. The 30-second tutorial is ‘Big Kev with a smartphone’, and it is just as effective as it was then.”
Melissa Laurie
The brand website becomes the last stop
The research found that only 11% of Australians start product research on a brand website.
In the past three months, 42% of respondents used a brand’s social profile rather than its website to decide what to buy. That figure rises to 57% for Gen Z and 47% for Millennials.
Laurie said the brand website still matters, but its role has changed.
“By the time many consumers land on it, the decision is essentially done.
“They have watched the tutorial, read the comments, and checked the brand’s social profile.
“The website is where they complete the purchase. Companies selling online should stop trying to make their homepage do the heavy lifting and focus their energy on the feed instead.”
Social is the new storefront
Oysterly Media found that social media is increasingly being used as a search and shopping engine.
More than two-thirds of Australians use social media as a search tool at least once a week, with Gen Z at 69%, Millennials at 60%, and Gen X at 38%.
“Australians are typing search queries into TikTok and Instagram the same way they used to type them into Google Search,” Laurie said.
“Social search has become the entry point for the consideration process, and brands with a strong, searchable presence in the feed are the ones getting found.”
Who could forget the Brand Power infomercials of the ’90s?
Attention must be earned
The research also found Australians are actively curating their feeds.
In the past month, 31% hit “not interested” on an ad, 29% unfollowed or muted accounts, 25% reduced notifications, and 24% cut time on a specific platform.
Seven in ten Australians said they want more control over what they see, even if it means seeing less new content.
“More reach does not necessarily mean more attention,” Laurie said.
“The tutorial format wins because it gives people something useful, and that is what makes them stop scrolling and watch.”
Top image: Big Kev