Stories Are Everywhere

Background

Instagram, the visual storytelling app that your mum has probably heard of, is a global phenomenon. Famous for filtered photos, latte art and well-lit selfies; many falsely believed Instagram was a place for life’s highlights. Enter Instagram Stories; an inflection point in the evolution of the product. A feature that invites users to share all the moments in their day, not just the momentous ones. To exist in the now and revel in the time in-between. For a youthful brand built around expression - that relies on a hungry, engaged, passionate flow of users - this presented a very real, distinct opportunity to build relevance. The challenge for communications was to build awareness of Instagram as a place for seeing and sharing casual moments (positive lift in brand attributes) and entice teens users to check out the new feature (stat sig usage lift) across key US, Italian and German regions.

Idea

Stories Are Everywhere” was an assertion. The task was to show rather than tell people what was possible on Instagram Stories, and in doing show shatter the fallacy that it was only for certain moments. The “Stories Are everywhere” message acted as an intimation that every moment has potential. And seeing it brought to live visually acted as a friendly nudge to make something of it. Product demonstrations are typically creatively barren. They lack joy in every sense of the word. But the Stories feature was brimming with joy and creative opportunity. Rather than trying to convince people of its value with smart words - they wanted to show it in action. The approach was to show how any moment could be make something worth sharing with Instagram Stories - so it demanded proof.

Results

‘Stories Are Everywhere’ created a depth of engagement that has now become the benchmark for all Instagram communications. Usage of Instagram Stories increased to a statistically significant higher level in the exposed cities (versus control cities), proving that communications were effective in driving trial of the new feature. Even during the short window of the 24 hour Instagram Stories Festival in Cologne, the hype of the event and the halo communications drove usage during and after the festival to a statistically significant level - proving that a brand event can also be an effective usage driver. The pervasive nature of the campaign also helped to lift brand associations with Instagram as place for in-between moments to a statistically significant level, whilst competitor brand imagery weakened. This was especially true in cities where we were able to run communications across multiple channels. They were also able to protect brand associations as a place for inspiration and quality content, whilst loosening it’s collar.