2016 is now well underway and set to be a big year for Instagram marketing campaigns. We’ve taken a look at some of the savviest Instagram campaigns from the last couple of years….
Air B&B use Carousel
Arguably, travel brands have an easier ride than most when it comes to content, with an inexhaustible supply of beautiful locations, transport, experiences and properties in their arsenal. Air B&B are a fantastic example of a brand who have created a highly effective air of storytelling around their brand, which sets their campaign a cut above the rest in their industry. Air B&B were one of the first brands to use Instagram’s carousel advert format to promote their ‘Never A Stranger’ campaign. The feature allows users to swipe and visit other images; there’s also a call to action button which takes you to a weblink. Air B&B’s vibrant truth-to-life-style campaign was perfectly complimented by Instagram’s carousel feature, with included a swipe feature encouraging users to browse through their selection of beautiful travel images with ease, creating a journey-like user experience.
Starbucks White Cup Challenge
Starbucks used their signature brand identity to make waves on Instagram, launching the #WhiteCupContest. In 2014, Starbucks set their customers the creative challenge of customising their iconic cups and tagging their entries on Instagram with the hashtag #WhiteCupContest. As you might have guessed, the winning design was then made into a limited edition cup, sold worldwide. This contest worked for Starbucks on several levels. They allowed their creative client base to visually engage with the brand on a public scale, resulting in online sharing left, right and centre. It also allowed Starbucks to promote their status as a waste conscious brand, encouraging reusable cups. Starbucks turned a picture-based client contest into a successful multi-purpose marketing campaign that targeted several angles of their business including brand, ethics, environmental and service – not to mention receiving 4000 submissions from their customers and fans.
ASOS Instagram marketing techniques
ASOS do all the essentials really well. Posting great quality photos, of people in great clothes, from great angles – it’s a winning formula already. However, the UK online fashion brand have taken things a step further by assigning each stylist an account that’s associated with ASOS so that they, in a sense, become brand lifestyle ambassadors or bespoke-ASOS fashion bloggers. Each individual account drives attention to the main ASOS Instagram page – clever eh?!
Tiffany’s ‘True Love’ campaign
Tiffany’s have always centred around the concept of ‘love’, being a luxury jewellery brand. Since 2014, they have been using Instagram to help them to translate this theme much more visually. Tiffany’s appointed Instagrammers to collect pictures that depict and characterise true love in both New York and Paris and then share these through their account. More importantly, they encouraged fans to post their own photos illustrating true love, to which they received an overwhelming response. Tiffany’s campaign targets a huge range of people – people in love – that’s a pretty decent outreach!
The moral of the story is…
The most successful Instagram campaigns or indeed social media campaigns are those that enable users to get involved. It may seem a simple point to make, but social media is about sharing. When brands and companies allow their users to share, they’re giving them the opportunity to connect with the brand in a personal way. What is it they say? A picture is worth 1000 words?