Instagram takes the cake in targeted campaigns

Chennai: Mohit Sachdev, created an account on Instagram in October 2016. Soon enough, he followed the instagram account of upcoming brands like Bblunt – a salon chain of Godrej Consumer Products and Paperboat and began to make purchases through their campaigns.

Instagram is turning out to be the next big social media platform for companies to engage with the end consumer. Instagram stories, a feature introduced last December in India, gaining momentum and brands are using the platform to run campaigns.

Companies state that since Instagram provides the flexibility of easily discovering what other brands and people are talking about, it is a great source of data. They add that most new brands want to be seen as warm, people friendly. The new feature allow the brand to bring out that candid side.

“By simply clicking on a hashtag, you can see the number of posts using the same hashtag - a direct indicator of how popular it is. From a mere 1,200 followers in June 2015, to almost 33,000 in March 2017, the growth has been organic,”said Thomas Dawes, creative & digital director, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, speaking on behalf of BBlunt Salons.

Digital marketers see an increase in the uptake of Instagram, with brands creating visually-appealing products. Being an image-centric platform, having young working professionals as the customer base , it has surpassed Snapchat, which is popular among college students who have lower purchasing power. Infact, data from creative studio and social video analytics platform Delmondo for the period from August to November 2016, shows that the average unique viewers per Snapchat Story has decreased about 40%.

A Nielsen study says that 90% of the users are below the age of 30. “Facebook is cluttered, compared to Instagram, with many unrelated posts and the latter is focused. As as a result, the engagement is better,” said Swaminathan, CEO, Hansa Cequity.

For FMCG brands such as Paper Boat, the medium gives the opportunity to reach out to their target customers with the medium providing photos and videos, which lines upon the increasing number of users sharing pictures of food on it. “ With seasonal campaigns that appeal more to the users’ creative side, such as making colourful mocktails with our products or linking the colours of holi to the drinks in our portfolio, the campaigns have clicked with the followers,” said Parvesh Debuka, marketing head, Hector Beverages.

However, the platform is not compatible for brands that aren’t high on visual appeal. “Digital marketers add that Instagram does not work for companies trying to sell insurance or auto spare parts, since the medium banks heavily on a picture or a video. People view the platform to check out appealing photos,” said Santhosh Palavesh, founder, UMM, a digital marketing firm.


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