Why You Should Focus On a Creative Instagram Marketing Campaign

By: David Nunez-Ariza

The internet has gone mobile and with it the age of advertising. Whether it’s through Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest, or any one of the countless smartphone applications users access on a daily basis. Social media marketing campaigns have become the best way for brands to reach out to users and interact with them instantaneously.

But, one app stands out amongst the rest; Instagram!

Before we get into a few ideas, let me tell you why it’s so important for you to remain active on this specific mobile platform.

Some Facts:

• Instagram now has over 500 million active users.

• With over 300 million daily active users, making Instagram the second most engaged network after Facebook.

• With around 4.2 billion “likes” given out daily, there’s bound to be some in there for you.

• Thirty-two percent of US teens list Instagram as their top social network more than any other.

Here’s the best part:

• Users engage with brands on Instagram at a rate 10x higher than Facebook, 54x higher than Pinterest, and 84x higher than Twitter.

Now that you know why your brand should be on Instagram, let’s give you a few ideas and strategies on how to do it successfully.

Hashtags Matter (and so do influencers)

There’s definitely people on both sides of the hashtag battle, but one thing you cannot deny is a well-placed hashtag can work wonders for your campaign. Certainly not all hashtags matter, #you #know #what #I #am #talking #about, but the right one can have users engaging with your brand more than ever before. Take the #LetHawaiiHappen campaign for instance. The goal of this campaign was to attract first-time visitors and provide locals with some hidden wonders they might’ve never been to before. By working with some of the most popular travel Instagrammers in the world and their thousands of followers, the Hawaii tourism department was able to generate over 100K posts in a year.

The key here is that not only was a hashtag used to help spread the campaign, but also collaborate with top social media influencers and brand ambassadors. Having user generated content (UGC) from already popular Instagram accounts as the focus of the campaign expanded its potential reach and brought people in organically. Users were able to see everyday people like you and me enjoying in the beauty of Hawaii and were quick to get in on the action with a picture of their own.

By revolving their campaign around an inviting hashtag, generating leads with users that already had a dedicated following and allowing other to get in on the action, the #LetHawaiiHappen campaign was able to reach 54% of all US travelers through organic and paid marketing efforts.

Let Users Do the Work (and reward them for it)

In another brilliant use of the hashtag, but with a slightly different call-to-action, Marc Jacobs started a campaign that had users flocking to post new content even long after the competition itself had ended.

In an effort to find a new face to model the 2014 collection for his clothing line, Marc Jacobs announced a casting call via social media. He asked users to submit their best pictures on Instagram or Twitter with #CastMeMarc in the hopes of earning the surreal honors of being chosen as the newest face of the brand.

Hundreds of thousands of posts were submitted, and several lucky fans were chosen. If you too have hopes of one day becoming a model via insta-fame, don’t give up hope. The campaign was so successful Marc Jacobs ran it again the year after.

Make It Relevant to Users

You can come up with the coolest idea ever, have the best graphics and design, amazing pictures, and even the perfect caption. But, if no one understands what you’re talking about or even cares, your campaign will be a failure. If it helps, please remember that 90% of current Instagram users are younger than 35. What does this mean? Well, the Penn State study defined teens as people between the 13 and 19 and adults as those between 25 and 39. More than half of the photos for teens fall under the topics of “mood/emotion” and “follow/like.” Topics that do not necessarily represent the content of photos but instead a user’s emotional status or the intention to have more followers. Adults on the other hand have posts falling under more diverse topics such as “arts/photos/design,” “locations,” “nature,” and “social/people.”

A campaign by Canada’s Scotiabank is a perfect example of staying relevant. In the hopes of increasing visibility for their credit card program aimed at young students aged 18-22, they would post pictures of various items in the form of the popular everyday carry pictures, and asked users if they knew what movie it represented. Hinting at all the free movies they could earn with the rewards from a Scotiabank card.

Not only was Scotiabank staying relevant with their pop culture references, they were also inviting users to engage on the company’s account—double win!

So Now What?

Now that you have all of this information you’re probably asking yourself what to do with it? Start planning and get to posting. Think of a campaign that is relevant to your brand and figure out which of these examples works best for you. Maybe it’s one, maybe it’s two, maybe you found something completely different. Don’t be scared to fail, the only way you can do this wrong is if you try nothing at all. Finally, if you’ve tried everything here plus more and you’re still not successfully engaging your followers remember, there’s one thing that never fails on the internet: kittens and puppies, kittens and puppies.