Monday, 28 March 2016

Instagram: the new tool to market your event/brand

Since being acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has taken off like a rocket. In many ways, it is the perfect social media platform for the modern generation. It’s mobile-friendly, easy to navigate and it allows users to share their universe rather quickly. It is also the new trendy and efficient tool for companies to communicate on the one hand and to interact with their followers on the other hand. Following this wave, Pinterest, Tumblr and others rushed into that opportunity.
Indeed, Instagram is generally known as the image equivalent to more text-based platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Images can be posted with captions and hashtags to provide additional information. Instagram also allows users to upload 15-second video clips.

Advantages of using Instagram for events or brands

At first glance, Instagram is thus not a traditional way to communicate, especially for events. But it has proven to be a social media platform that helps businesses engage current customers and attract new ones.
Firstly, it is a fast way to communicate with users as they are always connected on their Instagram account on the go.
Secondly, it is an innovative way to grasp the audience attention with behind-the-scene pictures or teasing videos. Interaction with audience is made possible thanks to Instagram walls and thus raises engagement from the event participants and from Instagram subscribers of the brand.
Instagram is the perfect way to promote products like for Starbucks which has 100.000 likes for each published picture. Each picture posted is spread on the net and highlighted by Starbucks followers. Indeed, Starbucks strategy is based on shares and clients’ participation widening its audience as more people can see its posts shared and spread by other accounts of social networks.
Thirdly, hashtags can make your event unique and easily fundable; it is an easy way for clients to communicate on your brand/event and for you to get detailed analytics to evaluate the popularity of the brand/event.
Fourthly, Instagram allows to reach a younger audience. In 2015, more than half of Instagram users were under 30.
Fifthly, thanks to sponsored posts and user generated content, Instagram allows a better visibility of your brand/event. Thus this specific social media can help
Finally, Instagram video ads are an effective tool to give your audience a sneak peek of the ambiance and atmosphere of your event.

Examples of successful Instagram campaign for events:

For the 350 years of Saint Gobain, the 200 000 people company celebrated all around the world its anniversary thanks to a Social Wall powered by Dialogfeed live. On several screens, it displayed Instagram posts and photos from public audience in full screen. Saint Gobain staff all around the world shared a drink and some food around this social wall. Public and employee photos were shown on social walls in all the different offices of Saint Gobain and on the web worlwide.

Image from Saint Gobain Instagram Social Wall

Barack Obama also took a large benefit from Internet and social media. As far as Instagram is concerned, with his 1.4 million followers, Obama posted from 10 to 20 pictures per month. These pictures were high-quality and showed important instants of his campaign (prospectus, moments of complicity with Michelle Obama and his daughters, meetings etc.), increasing the proximity feeling he spread around him and easily spreadable by his audience.


From our perspective, Instagram has several advantages compared to its competitors. Thanks to native content, sponsored posts can be included in the news flow of the users according to their features and make them discover the brand/event. As Instagram users are mostly young, a new target can be reached by this mean. Few companies use Instagram to promote their event for now; it is thus an innovative competitive advantage compared to competitors.
Another advantage of Instagram is the fact that an image can be more efficient than text, especially innovative pictures like puzzle ones (a picture separated in 4-6). It is ideal for storytelling (e.g. Oasis 15-second Instagram video series of Ramon the Strawberry).
However, this mean doesn’t fit every kind of industry. If the event is not “visual”, Instagram represents a limited way to communicate on it.

Camille COURTIAL-SPIROUX
Manon GATTEGNO


Sources:
Livre-Blanc-Ligne-Editoriale-et-Strategie-Social-Media-Barack-Obama.pdf
Livre-Blanc-Ligne-Editoriale-et-Strategie-Social-Media-Starbucks.pdf
https://www.saint-gobain.com/fr/350-ans

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