Last month Instagram launched its long-form video hub under the name IGTV, offering a YouTube-like experience for vertical videos suited for mobile viewing. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO at Socialbakers looks at the implications for marketers.
Instagram has seen impressive growth since its acquisition by Facebook and it is rapidly becoming the most engaging platform for brand marketers. Innovation after innovation, from Stories to Carousel, means marketers have more content formats than ever to choose from on the platform. The recent launch of IGTV is opening up yet another avenue for marketers to explore, as they leverage the platform to grow and engage their audience with longer length content. It certainly seems Instagram can only win.
Instagram is a highly visual platform with strong levels of engagement and it has long been the platform of choice for both micro and macro influencers. With the rapid growth in importance of influencer marketing, as consumers look increasingly towards trusted third parties, IGTV will providing a platform for even the smallest influencer to reach and engage their audience with the content they like to watch. By offering them the chance to share original user-generated content via the IGTV app, Instagram is making itself even more sticky for marketers. With 1 billion users on Instagram, a ready-made audience for content creators, it’s likely that IGTV will be an appealing place for influencers and brands looking to grow and engage their communities at a deeper level.
For some time now video content and ‘live’ video content emerging as the most engaging content type.
Just under two years ago Instagram launched its Stories format and amazingly it has already surpassed 300 million daily active users. Instagram Stories have been a powerful channel for increasing brand awareness organically, but they are somewhat limiting in what marketers could do in terms of video. IGTV is the next innovative content format to allow marketers to engage more deeply with their audience. As customers opt in to the more in-depth, longer form viewing experience offered by IGTV, the changes increase that the brand or influencer’s message will be received and understood. It’s innovations like IGTV that is keeping Instagram one step ahead when it comes to value for marketers.
While the monetisation plan for IGTV is still unclear, longer length video content does present an opportunity not only for stronger brand engagement, but also for mid-roll ads. As Instagram is considering the possibility of introducing ads that will split the revenue between the platform and the content creator, there is great potential for influencer marketing and for brands who create highly engaging content. Here, as across all social media today, it will be key that quality and engagement remain the priority as Instagram works to make e-commerce more social for users.
Instagram launched IGTV as a standalone app which users need to download. While the advantage to IGTV being in a separate app is that users won’t get distracted as they engage with longer videos, the drawback may be getting users to download the app in the first place. Brands who are looking to leverage IGTV should start encouraging their communities to download the app as soon as possible so they can experiment with content and get direct feedback from their audience.
The last few years have seen Instagram go from strength to strength. The audience size has been growing steadily and engagement levels, especially for brands, celebrities and influencers, have skyrocketed, making it the most engaging platform for brand marketers in today’s social media ecosystem. With one billion monthly users spending almost an hour on Instagram every day, IGTV only stands to increase that number. The brands who will do well on IGTV are the ones who know what kind of content their audiences like and use that information to create relevant, timely and engaging content, retaining viewer attention for longer.
There’s no doubt that with an audience of 1 billion users Instagram has given marketers a new and powerful tool with IGTV. Whether they are able to take advantage of the platform is a question only they can answer.
By Yuval Ben-Itzhak
CEO