Visual storytelling is the natural evolution of existing consumer behaviors and helps to humanize brands. Brands can interact with consumers to drive the creation of branded content, which drives additional attention in a user’s social activity stream, thus driving additional consideration for the brand. Services like Instagram and Pinterest show their power in their simplicity, ease of publishing pinning and the deep integration of each into users’ social graphs. Pinterest has reaffirmed consumer interest in visually searching for information. Meanwhile, Instagram embodies the convergence of mobile and social.
Instagram now boasts more than 50 million users, and it is adding new ones at the rate of roughly 5 million per week. More than 1 billion photos have been uploaded on Instagram, with 5 million-plus more photos being added every day. This article highlights five brands that have incorporated visual imagery and social curation via Instagram into their broader digital strategies. Each brand offers a different value proposition to its followers, but there are common themes demonstrated by each example.
American Airlines
American Airlines’ recent “Get Mobile Get Moving” campaign amplified the premise that travel and visual imagery are closely connected. American Airlines published a weekly photo theme and invited users to submit photos via Instagram and other owned social channels with the hashtag #AApic.
Selected images were then featured on American’s Facebook brand page and a brand microsite photo gallery.
Every image submitted also served as an entry to win weekly prizes and a larger grand
prize sweepstake. Ultimately, the American Airlines program netted more than 69,000 total photo submissions.
Red Bull
Red Bull has taken visual storytelling to new heights with its visually stunning content that reinforces the key attributes of the brand. Their owned social properties are impressive, with more than 315,000 followers via Instagram and more than 600 photos published.
Red Bull uses multiple hashtags that represent different types of content, such as #GivesYouWings, #shareyourwings, and #FlyingFridays. Going beyond its content stream and “liking” other images also reinforces engagement by humanizing the brand.
Red Bull has also created a branded hub for sharing images tied to its products. At ShareYourWings.RedBullUSA.com, fans of the brand can share via the #shareyourwings hashtag across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr in exchange for free products.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. understands how visual storytelling can drive engagement for its brand. For Tiffany’s “What Makes Love True” campaign, Instagram played an essential role in creating the mood that ultimately is an extension
of the brand.
Instagram has iPhone hooks that allow any other iPhone application to interact with the Instagram application. So if a brand wants to create custom filters, it can build the functionality into its branded application and publish into the Instagram photo stream. As a way to provide value and differentiate its iPhone app, Tiffany’s incorporated three new Instagram filters. Users were treated with black and white, peach, and Tiffany blue. The images inspired from the campaign are posted to
Users simply tag their photos through the Instagram app by including the #TrueLovePictures hashtag in the caption. By leveraging Instagram’s built-in hooks, Tiffany’s was able to create additional value for the consumer through a complementary extension of its brand.
Ford
Ford has created something that focuses on visual imagery powering the brand. It is evident in its recently executed “Fiestagram” program rolled out to European markets. The campaign challenged Instagram photography enthusiasts to upload photos in several categories inspired by the technologies and features of the Ford Fiesta. Each week, Ford communicated the weekly challenge as a hashtag associated with technology related to the Ford Fiesta.
Participants could interpret the categories in any way they saw fit and use any of the filters and effects available on Instagram to enhance the mood of their images. Running on the Ford Fiesta Facebook page, contestants could enter simply by uploading photos with the hashtag #Fiestagram and #(weekly challenge) via
Instagram captions. All images submitted appeared in online galleries on Facebook, and some of the best submissions also appeared on billboards and in real-world photography galleries across Europe. A total of 16,000 pictures were submitted, with 12,000 new Facebook fans gained during the course of the
promotion.
Nike
Nike’s “How will you #MakeItCount in 2012” campaign takes the traditional New Year’s resolution and turns it into a rallying cry to motivate and inspire individuals to meet and exceed their goals via visual imagery. Nike has enlisted the help of superstar athletes like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dirk Nowitzki as catalysts for sparking the #MakeItCount movement.
Since launching in January, more than 41,000 Instagram images have been tagged with the #MakeItCount hashtag. By staying true to its core brand attributes, Nike’s call to action and the imagery that it evokes become the visual embodiment of the brand. That is carried forward as a virtual representation of both the brand and the
individual.
Other noteworthy players
There are many other brands making an impact with Instagram-generated content, including Pepsi, Starbucks, Burberry, Volkswagen, Warby Parker, Puma, and Maersk. With Facebook’s recent purchase of Instagram and the launch of its own photo-based app, no one quite yet knows what the future will hold for Instagram. But with numbers continuing to grow across the board, Instagram is not looking to slow down any time soon.
If you want to hear what I have to say in 140 characters or less, please follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/erikpenn.