So you’ve started an Instagram account for your brand. You’re posting eye-catching photos every day that exude your brand’s unique style, and optimising, which hashtags to use. But then after a while things get stagnant. You want to grow your Instagram presence faster. You could launch a giveaway, but everyone seems to be doing that. It’s time to do something different.
While Instagram’s functions can seem restrictive, there are ways around it. You just need to reimagine how to use it as a medium. To get you started, here’s how 4 brands used Instagram differently:
1. As a website – IKEA
The renowned home furniture brand wanted to launch IKEA PS 2014 – a new 34-piece collection created by 14 young designers from around the world. However, they needed to do something unique to engage their young and urban target market. Their creative agency noticed that photo tags function in a similar way to website links, and this formed the crux of the @ikea_ps_2014 instagram catalogue.
When users land on the account, they are shown a selection of photos that represent each category in the collection. Once users have selected a category, all they need to do is tap on the photo to reveal tags, which lead to products hosted on other Instagram accounts. This allowed users to browse the entire IKEA PS 2014 collection without even having to leave Instagram. Within one month of the campaign launch in Russia, the account had already attracted over 12,000 followers.
Expert tip: explore novel ways to use photo tags
2. As a product customiser – Mercedes Benz
In-store and website car customisation has been offered by car manufacturers for years. Instead of sticking to the industry standard, Mercedes Benz wanted to bring the experience to Instagram’s millennial users to promote the launch of their new model GLA.
Starting with @GLA_Build_Your_Own, users can choose the car components that they want by tapping on the photos (e.g. colour, wheels, roof and grill). At the end of the journey, users can then take a photo of their fully customised GLA and bring it into their closest dealer.
Expert tip: link the online and offline experience
3. As a Christmas advent calendar – ASOS
With Christmas fast approaching, UK’s savvy online fashion store wanted to get into the festive spirit to boost sales. Traditionally, people count the days till Christmas with an advent calendar. Each day, they open a door to reveal an image, poem, or a small gift like a chocolate. ASOS wanted to do the same thing, but on Instagram.
The campaign centered around @asos_advent and ran across the US, UK, France and Australia. Starting on December 1, they uploaded a Christmas-themed photo asking users to post their own Christmas snaps with the hashtag #instadvent for the chance to win daily prizes such as ASOS vouchers, cameras, goodie bags and magazine subscriptions. To improve entry tracking, ASOS changed the hashtag depending on the day of the month (e.g. the hashtag on December 24 was #instadvent24).
Expert tip: link campaigns to holiday themes in an interactive way
4. As a menu – Comodo Restaurant NYC
Initially started as a supper club out of an apartment, Comodo grew so popular that it became a bricks and mortar restaurant in New York City. Just 3 weeks into opening, they realised that patrons were constantly snapping photos to upload to Instagram, and thought that it was an opportunity to improve the restaurant experience.
They added the hashtag #ComodoMenu to their real menus and asked guests to post photos of their courses, as well as browse the hashtag for inspiration. This enabled new customers to see what the food really looked like before ordering, and get honest feedback on how the dishes tasted. #ComodoMenu catapulted the restaurant into the worldwide limelight, generating 280+ million media impressions and maxing out table reservations for the next 5 months.
Expert tip: utilise user generated content collected through hashtags to enhance the customer experience
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