After Instagram announced that it would allow users to post 15-second videos, it didn’t take long for advertisers to hop aboard. Lululemon, Burberry, and Charity: Water all posted advert-instagrams as soon as the program went live. There is incredible potential for advertisers to use Instagram’s video service to post short, bite sized advertisements to followers. The 15-second time limit may even be ideal for advertisers.
In an interview with Mashable, Rachel Tipograph, director of global, digital, and social media for Gap, said, “The timing of 15 seconds is very interesting. They know advertisers have a historical comfort level with purchasing 15-second spots. I don’t think that number was random.”
Tipograph is right, it’s not likely Instagram picked 15 seconds at random since it’s a number advertisers are well versed in. Moreover, many advertisers already have a stock of 15 second spots, creating instant inventory usable on Instagram.
The connection between Instagram and its owner Facebook also leaves a lot of opportunity for companies to create these Instagram videos and cross-promote them on Facebook as well. Up to this point, most advertisers have been using micro-video service Vine. We may see a big shift to Instagram in the near future.
Game marketers are also beneficiaries of the 15-second length, creating a little more time to show gameplay or cool features. It will be interesting to see how the 15-second length is used creatively to get across key game selling points. Will mobile games make use of this channel first, or will we see console or PC games heading to Instagram more quickly?
Source: Mashable
