Instagram Advertising: The Beginning of a New Era

By Zachary Shapiro on 07/15/2014

Advertisers, businesses, and consumers today are faced with an ever-expanding presence of digital media. Similar to the introduction of the DVR allowing people to skip commercials on TV, internet advertising can be easily avoided by skipping video ads and just ignoring banner ads on websites. This is why, and as many businesses are starting to realize, social media—specifically Instagram—is the answer to their problem.

Instagram has been a prominent form of social media since its creation in 2010, its purchase by Facebook in 2012, and its continued growth today. Instagram is a medium in which people post pictures and videos while following the posts of their friends and other users they are interested in. People follow what they want and like to see, and they do not want to waste their time. Businesses have caught onto this, and instead of flooding advertisements into pages and placing intruding videos like on so many other sites, they have integrated themselves into the fabric of Instagram, and actively participate while subtly advertising their brand.

Currently in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, Instagram allows big companies to intrude into people’s Instagram newsfeeds with “advertisements.” These ads are equivalent to the posts by the companies’ Instagram profiles but with a “Sponsored” designation, and according to Instagram are meant to be creative and engaging, yet still engineered to promote products and identify with users. Specific “advertising” is not yet utilized in the United States, although there are substitutes.

As an active member of Instagram—and a Maxus client—Panera Bread has an account with a lot of followers and engagement (“likes” and comments). In the posts Panera includes interesting pictures of countless menu items while acknowledging the customers that sent the pictures in. They also utilize many hashtags (buzzwords that connect people searching for the same word) and captions to peak viewers’ interests. Panera posts pictures and captions regarding holidays (such as Father’s Day), behind the scenes activity, gift card giveaways on Instagram using specific hashtags, and even posts about everyday occurrences. Another example of extremely effective Instagram presence is seen by Ben & Jerry’s, who in one campaign for a new ice cream flavor had posted four images of their new ice cream flavor over eight days. According to FastCompany.com this small, cheap campaign reached 9.8 million users and caused a 33% increase in ad recall.

Instagram has also helped small businesses advertise and increase sales. Hair salons, bakeries, clothing stores, and other companies with tangible products have seen success through Instagram campaigns. They show pictures of their products as well as paying celebrities and local models to advertise products both on their own accounts and through the company’s account.

The use of Instagram by businesses is changing the way advertising is done, and the way it is seen by consumers. Ultimately, Instagram allows these companies to create personas and add faces to originally face-less companies; thus letting them build, customize, and flourish their brands more than ever before.

Instagram Advertising: The Beginning of a New Era

Leave a comment:

All comments:

Subscribe to rss

Tags

Categories

Search

Archive