The global fashion industry is expected to grow from $1.5 trillion in 2020 to $2.25 trillion in 2025. This clearly indicates that the demand for clothing, footwear, handbags, and other fashion accessories is on the rise. These figures are particularly encouraging because the fashion industry registered a decline of 20% in its 2019-20 revenues.
Although things look much better for the fashion industry now, the competition between different fashion brands is massive. Therefore, fashion brands must come up with solid marketing campaigns that can help them boost their online presence. To that end, they would do well to leverage the potential of different marketing platforms available to them, just like these three fashion brands used Instagram to drive their brand awareness and revenue.
1. StyleShare
StyleShare is a South Korean fashion and beauty community and e-commerce platform that has more than six million customers.
Their Objective
StyleShare sought to boost a joint promotion by two brands on its platform- US by StyleShare and Toii to find a new approach for driving sales cost-effectively.
Solution & Approach
StyleShare used branded content on Instagram for the first time to drive winter collection sales for two of its partnering brands. The company teamed up with specialized fashion content creators to showcase its unique outfit styles through its Instagram feed and Stories.
The posts uploaded on creators’ accounts were marked “paid partnership with StyleShare”, which directed viewers to StyleShare’s mobile app or website.
StyleShare worked in close collaboration with the Facebook Marketing Partner Vamp, which connected the company with content creators and helped with publishing branded content ads. The content creators adapted the creative for all branded content ads to fit the unique specifications of Instagram feed, Stories, and Facebook.
The Result
StyleShare’s Instagram campaign turned out to be exceptionally successful and drove a 31% lower cost per purchase. Moreover, it resulted in a 27% increase in return on ad spend and a 42% increase in the number of people reached. Moreover, the campaign led to a 17% lower cost per add-to-cart.
2. Brandi
Brandi is a well-known South Korean fashion e-commerce app for women and is particularly popular among millennials and Gen Z.
Their Objective
Brandi sought to reach a wider audience and drive greater brand interest and consideration. It also wanted to make its creator campaigns more engaging.
Solution & Approach
Brandi launched a campaign using branded content ads on Instagram to reach young fashionistas in South Korea. It teamed up with a few fashion icons, who posted Instagram content that promoted Brandi’s products directly. These posts were clearly marked as “paid partnership with Brandi”. Upon clicking on these posts, users were directed to Brandi’s website or app.
The campaign mainly revolved around South Korean women in the age group of 18-34. Brandi also created a lookalike audience based on the brand’s top app users to reach more people similar to Brandi’s loyal customers.
The Result
The Instagram campaign performed outstandingly well for Brandi and resulted in a 12% higher return on ad spend and 11% lower cost per purchase. Also, the campaign led to an 8% lower cost per landing page view.
3. ONE BOY
ONE BOY is a well-known fashion brand that was established in Taiwan in 2008 to create functional yet fashionable clothing.
Their Objective
ONE BOY sought to drive sales by implementing an innovative consumer engagement strategy into its online marketing activities.
Solution & Approach
ONE BOY began using Instagram Shops to come up with a more cohesive customer interface and immersive shopping experience as Shops is optimized for viewing on mobile. ONE BOY’s shop also makes it more convenient for customers to discover products as they can easily browse the catalog on Instagram.
ONE BOY worked with the Facebook team to make the most out of Instagram Shops to create ads with product tags. The team also conducted a split (A/B) test to compare the performance of campaigns with and without product tags on Instagram Feed and Explore.
The Result
ONE BOY’s Instagram campaign was a roaring success and helped the brand earn a 30% lower cost per purchase and 1.4X higher return on ad spend from ads with product tags than from ads without product tags. Also, it helped them rake in 20% more link clicks from ads with product tags than from ads without product tags.
Bottom Line
Time and again Instagram has proved its worth as an effective full-funnel solution that can help brands boost their conversions at a low cost per acquisition. You can leverage its visual nature to your advantage by using the highest quality product images. Moreover, try putting your product or service front or center and refrain from using images that don’t showcase your brand. There’s a lot Instagram has in store for every business; they just need to find out how to capitalize on its potential.