A picture used to be worth a thousand words, but what is it worth to brands and businesses that want to connect with people on Instagram? We’ve been measuring the impact of several campaigns since Instagram ads first launched in the UK last September, and we’re delighted to share the results.
Instagram is the perfect platform for a mobile, visual world. Images can show us places we’ve never been, connect us with people we’ve never met and take us directly into the heart of the action, whatever and wherever it might be. It’s where people come to be visually inspired – and brands can be an important source of that inspiration.
In the UK, we’ve seen incredible results across Entertainment, Automotive, Retail, FMCG and Travel, from brands including John Lewis and Channel 4.
John Lewis turned to Instagram when it wanted to change perceptions of its brand among a younger, fashion-conscious female audience. It partnered with some of Britain’s hottest young bloggers for a six-week campaign that brought its Christmas party range to life through photoshoots, ‘get the look’ videos and even Hyperlapse.
People are excited about Instagram as a channel. We can be quite experimental and it’s really helped us grow our community.” — Angela Bertram, Social Community Manager, John Lewis
Thanks to Instagram, John Lewis was able to reach an audience of younger, influential women, driving a 14-point lift in purchase intent and a 3-point lift in brand favourability according to Nielsen.
When Channel 4 wanted to promote a new series of its smash hit reality show Gogglebox, it faced a problem. As each episode of Gogglebox is only filmed a week before broadcast, Channel 4 couldn’t rely on its usual strategy of teasing content from the show. Instead, it developed an Instagram campaign that used beautiful images to celebrate the personality of the show’s stars. Each shoot comprised different household items that might accompany a night in front of the TV, with the channel’s target audience on Instagram encouraged to guess which Gogglebox character they represented.
The 18-34 year-old audience is incredibly important for Channel 4. Venturing into the Instagram advertising space was a great opportunity to try a new way of creatively engaging with them.” — James Walker, Head of Marketing, Channel 4
With over 750k 18-34 year-olds reached on Instagram, Channel 4 saw a 19-point lift in ad recall, while the campaign also strengthened Gogglebox’s association with the Channel 4 brand by 7 points.
We’ll continue to track the impact of Instagram campaigns over the coming months while sharing key learnings and insights about the community. For more information, check out our global Instagram for Business website, or head to our Success Stories page for further inspiration from both Facebook and Instagram.
Andy Pang is the Advertising Measurement & Research Lead for Instagram UK