That camera you used when you walked five miles through the snow to get to school…
Following In Some Big Footsteps...
As Facebook has begun to reveal their business acumen and money-making will, we’re not the least bit surprised to see Instagram following right along, bringing 15-second videos and advertising center-stage, and aggressively courting brands as users.
We shared a link with you a couple weeks ago from the “Instagram for Business” blog, and by all means we’d suggest hitting the link again and reading the article in its entirety.
But since you asked -- you asked, right? – here’s the stuff we thought was particularly interesting:
- 2.9 – A nice, almost round number, quoted as the multiple (over norms for online advertising) for “recall” of Instagram campaigns. That’s 2.9 times better, by our math. This number was derived form a Nielsen study involving 475 different campaigns – and it makes sense to us. We here at Tongal have always believed in the power of visual stimulus.
- Facebook Targeting: No bones about it – Instagram is partnering with their parent to allow brands to use the big advantage in targeting that Facebook provides. We talked about those capabilities in our Facebook edition of this series. Combining Facebook’s targeting capabilities with the emotional / inspirational user data collected on Instagram? Boy, you can almost hear Zuckerberg doing the Dr. Evil laugh…
- Passion Play: Instagram waxes darn near poetic about their core strength –the idea that one navigates Instagram with the heart more than the head: “People come to Instagram to follow their passions, from travel and fashion to cars and entertainment. They want to see ads that reflect the things they care about.” Yes, this is promotional copy, but it’s also worth remembering when you plan your own Instagram strategy: How can you reach people with images and video, and connect emotionally? That 2.9X suggests that when you do get it right, you really can create a lasting preference.
- Buy Now: Under the heading “Empowering people and advertisers to do more” Instagram reveals their intention to make the connection between browsing and buying as natural as breathing. Their primary mechanisms for this are not yet fully baked though – you can all but see the edits from the Dev Team in the final clause here: “Advertisers want to drive business results across a variety of objectives — from awareness and message association to website visits and offline sales — and our ad formats will evolve to serve all those goals.”
- The Velvet Rope: It’s probably best to parse the conclusion of the article sentence by sentence. What seems clear is that heavy Facebook advertisers will be the first to get the cool new stuff for marketing on Instagram. Here it is, sentence by sentence:
- It’s general admission:“To give all businesses the opportunity to reach the right people, we are working to make Instagram advertising available through an Instagram Ads API and Facebook ad buying interfaces over the coming months.”
- But...there’s already a line outside the club: “There are more than two million advertisers who actively use Facebook to market their business and we want to leverage the best of Facebook’s infrastructure for buying, managing and measuring the success of ads on Instagram.”
- Check your ticket: “We will start by opening the Instagram Ads API to a select group of Facebook Marketing Partners and agencies, and we plan to expand globally throughout the year.”
Wherever you find yourself in Instagram’s queue-score ( see what we did there?), we firmly believe the best thing to do is get started. Instagram’s audience statistics continue to skew young, and their base and overall growth numbers make them a must-invest in your Social Portfolio. 65.3 million users by 2016 according to this AdAge article.
The Five C’s of Instagram Success
Before sharing some of our favorite Instagram brands, we wanted to share our simple 4-C’s code for creating great Instagram sites.
Color: When we look at great Instagram sites one quality stands out above all the others: color, color, and more color. Arguably this is the bedrock seduction of Instagram: a pure and simple joy for the senses. Don’t overlook it!
Character: What are the lyrics to that song? “People, who need people…are the luckiest people of all…”? Your brand and your Instagram site need people too.
Fill your site with beautiful images and real people, and they’ll be even more beautiful together.
Co-Create, Curate, and share: You don’t have to own every #hashtag you use – let folks find you as they wander (following their passions eh?). Also, co-create with your customers – and think about making it more fun with a competitive incentive. We’ve done several projects with an Instagram backbone: whether with images or videos – one of the things our community and platform can do for you is invite people to play, and structure some cool rewards for the folks who really hit the mark.
Commerce: While Instagram readies its even cooler “buy now” capabilities, consider making use of Curalate’s like2b.uy linkage. Obviously it’s not something you need on every post, but it sure makes sense as a marketing strategy to have your video or product snapshot a click or two away from purchase. Watch for Instagram’s new tools to make this even easier. We boldly(!) predict Instagram will become a leading shopping site in the not-too distant future.
Ten Instagram Brands We Love
In Instagram’s show-to-tell spirit, we thought we’d share a few of our favorite Instagram brands and why we love them:
- Airbnb: If you’ve never taken a tour through the Airbnb on Instagram, by all means have a go. Their unique blend of exoticism, humanity, individuality, and stunning beauty is unparalleled. Color? Fuhgeddaboudit. Commerce? Just try to resist. Co-creation? Check this out. As with many other great Instagram brand sites, Airbnb will make you believe Instagram was conceived specifically with their brand in mind.
- Oreo: An amazing array of colorful images and videos, all informed by the familiar free-spirit of Oreo lunacy. Quick example? We call this video “Oreo interruptus.” You can tell that the sense of humor that informed their “dip in the dark” Superbowl moment is still very much alive on Instagram. We’re also looking forward to the “click for an Oreo to come out of your USB port” capability
- Lenovo: We worked with them to create Instagrammable videos for their #ihackedlife campaign, which invited Lenovo devotees to send in their best life tips and tricks. The videos Tongal produced feature Lenovo products in use for the featured hacks. Here’s a sample video you’ll love -- as long as you’re not the one who does the dishes.
- Sharpie: Great combination of brand-sponsored and user-created material. If this site doesn’t make you want to go visit the local art-supply store, you gotta put down that iPhone now. Check out their gallery from their creative community on their .com site as well.
- Nordstrom: Gotta love their brief intro: Serving customers since 1901, Instagramming since 2012. Sounds like they’re committed, no? Like2b.uy fuels their Nordstrom Instagram shop. They also share liberally and show up in the Instagram, “commons” quite often (Did you know that #ootd stands for “Outfit of The Day”? Well, now you do!) Nordstrom has also done a great job bringing UK sensations Topman and Topshop to us State-side webshoppers.
- Kiel James Patrick (KJP): If your idea of the American Dream is piloting a yacht out of Hyannis in the morning, then dropping by The Vineyard for a glass of Sancerre and a lobstah roll with Carly Simon, you gotta check-out this site. Seriously, the clothes and backdrops on display here make Ralph Lauren look like a Maoist.(People who love a good block of ad-copy will also love the “about” section of their website.) …You’re welcome.
- Petco: The Power of Together. We love to share what our fans share with us! There ya go…just add dozens and dozens of ridiculously cute companion animals, and you’ll break that 100K followers mark by noon. Amp it up with a Pets of Summer contest, and boom. You have broken the internet…again.
- Nike: How do you like this for a headline: “Instagram Video Boosts Nike’s Followers by 8 Million”? Not a bad day at the office. Other brands that are mentioned in the article as Instagram video savants include Victoria’s Secret (we have no idea why video would be so important for them), GoPro, the NBA, and Starbucks. In addition to the great video, the Nike feed is astounding in terms of how many likes they rack up per image. And the images (and videos) are everything you’d expect from them. Full of heart, life and grit.
- LEGO: It’s not just because we like them – well, it’s partly that – but it’s also because these guys are just plain good at what Elvis Presley called TCB. (Takin’ Care of Business.) They get their fans involved, they know their brand, and they keep the laughs coming. Check out “Case Quacked” from their LEGO Duplo tiny film festival. Directed by “5 year old James.” With a little help from the duck maybe? And yeah, you totally want this Ferrari while you wait for that real one.
- NBA: As previously noted… The first thing you notice is how much video there is on their front page. Okay…maybe the very first thing you notice is that they have 8 million followers.Then you notice how much stuff gets posted, and how many comments there are on all the posts. Clearly, something is going very right here. Even the big bad NFL is looking up with just 3.5m followers. We hope the Laker fans in our neighborhood will forgive us if we tell you we love this picture.
