The fact that 90% of customers prefer a brand that they are following on social media over a competitor proves that social media is pivotal to a brand’s success. The fact that digital retail marketing spend is expected to double from 2015 to 2020, shuns the misnomer that social media is killing retail. If anything, it encourages retailers to evolve and utilize social media for business growth and demand generation.
The State of Digital Advertising 2019 Report highlights some interesting trends in Retail advertising:
77% of marketers have plans to augment the use of audience targeting.
Further, almost 90% of marketers want to explore the response ads for the retail sector.
Lastly, around 31% of the marketers see a greater potential to use Amazon Echo and Google Home for outreach.
With millions of active users, Instagram becomes a primary medium for retail brands to enhance their audience. As of 2019, the average time spent on Instagram by its 800 million monthly active users is 53 minutes. As a retail brand owner, you can use Instagram in myriad ways to increase your brand’s awareness and convert more leads.
Let’s see how these three brands in the APAC region leveraged Instagram to fulfil their goals.
Instagram Ad Campaigns by APAC Retail Brands
Krispy Kreme
Run Time: 5 Weeks of April and May 2019
Target Region and Audience: Australian Millennials
Performance
Due to 5 weeks of the Retro-Inspired Ad campaign on Instagram, Krispy Kreme saw an increase of 30% in their eCommerce sales. Along with this, there was a 51% increase in the number of website visitors.
Goal
Krispy Kreme wanted the millennials to know about doughnuts by connecting it with the past and bringing forth nostalgic memories.
Approach
Krispy Kreme capitalized on the existing trend of throwbacks and retro by launching some retro arcade games that the users could play on their profile. Themed as the Throwback Party Range, four arcade games were launched, each depicting a new flavor of the doughnuts.
The millennials being unaware of the doughnuts’ cultural connection, got a chance to know their importance. Also, they played fun retro games without ever leaving Instagram.
Further, those who played the arcade games, their scores were tracked, and the top position holders of the leaderboards were rewarded with three months, six months, or one year’s supply of doughnuts at zero cost.
Buyer’s Journey Targeted:
To garner more attention, Krispy Kreme first ran ads to create awareness among the target audience. Their ads ran in stories, photos, and videos on the feed. The engaged audiences can either visit the Krispy Kreme profile page or just swipe up in the stories to play the games.
The ads were formulated to take the engaged audience back to olden days and bring back some memories. Further, the motivation to get a reward from the gameplay also increased the engagement potential, thereby helping Krispy Kreme get the desired results.
Did they succeed?
Yes, Krispy Kreme observed wonderful results with the campaign as they were able to increase sales and website visits. Other than this, these campaigns saw a 33 point increase in unique users and a 25 point increase in ad recall.
Products Used
Ads (Photos and Videos) and Instagram Stories
FBB
Run Time: September 17 to October 8, 2019
Target Audience and Region: Millennial Audience in West Bengal, India
Performance
FBB proved that tapping into the right audience at the right time will certainly get results. With this approach, FBB was able to increase the coupon redemption rate by 28% and saw a 22% increase in customer visits.
Goal
With a motive to increase the brand’s affinity prior to the festivities of Durga Puja, fbb wanted the millennials to converse with their brand and relate to it on a personal level.
Approach
FBB proved that if you want to build your presence, take an innovative route. To make sure that their target audience resonates with the brand fbb launched a small web series on Instagram Stories named, #PujoPerfect Love Story. These five episodes played in the stories and feed. The best part is that the users were able to give in their responses about what happens next.
This was something far better and interactive than letting the users watch a story passively. It garnered a lot of interest for the brand and got them good results. All of this was done to give a coupon code to the users, which they can redeem.
Buyer’s Journey Targeted
The story part where the users were shown an interactive web series was done to generate awareness about the brand and its festival-related collection. Once any user started interacting via polls, responses, GIFs, emoticons, and text, they were given the option to get a coupon code.
The conversion was based on the user’s interest. Coupons were the motivation that a customer needed, but for that, they had to give their name, email, and phone number to receive the coupon.
Did they succeed?
Yes, the fact that FBB got $90,000 in sales and 20,000 store visits certifies that their target audience was both impressed and sales-qualified.
Products Used
Interactive Web Series in the form of ads, polls, emoticons, GIFs, Instagram Stories, and Feed.
Nicobar
Run Time: March 15 to 31, 2018
Target Region and Audience: Interested Audiences in India
Performance
Through this campaign, Nicobar achieved a 5X return on its ad spend with a 40% lesser cost per mile.
Goal
After observing the first version of the Nico dress’s overwhelming response, Nicobar wanted to garner more attention towards the new version of the dress. The motive was to generate awareness among the new audience, recall the previous ones, and excite the brand loyalists.
Approach
The fact that this was the first Instagram ad campaign by Nicobar, and still they got amazing results, is commendable. The campaign was simple yet effective. They ran ads in the video format and carousel of the dress. Several women were shown wearing the dress with engagement-worthy taglines.
Nicobar leveraged from lookalike audiences and existing customers to create an outreach campaign that will get better results.
Buyer’s Journey Targeted
Nicobar ran a single campaign for both its existing customers and the new audiences. The reason being that both the type of audiences were new if we look at it from the perspective of the product.
This was a new dress, and the amazing thing is that Nicobar ran ads for a single type of product.
Did they succeed?
Yes, not only did they create enough awareness that Nicobar got a 5X return on ad spend, but also observed a 30% lower cost per purchase. Nicobar proved that if you have the right direction, even a single product can get the desired results at much lower costs.
Products Used
Carousel and Video Ads.
Conclusion
Instagram has conceptualized the social commerce method of using social media. From influencers to brand-specific marketing strategies, the Instagram marketing space has evolved significantly. With this in mind, developing innovative and new-age ad campaigns for our brands is pivotal to success.