“Best Instagram Marketing Campaigns to Inspire You” written by Mike Marko.

How many sleepless nights have you endured trying to think up the best Instagram marketing campaigns?

I bet you’re running out of ideas by now. You’re probably tempted to just carbon-copy someone’s else campaign.

But copying won’t help. It could even cause more problems than it solves.

A better solution is to get your muse speaking to you again. You need inspiration, in other words.

Seeing what others do right in their best Instagram marketing campaigns can help. It’s not about flat-out copying them. It’s about getting strategic ideas from them and applying those to your campaigns.

To help you with that, I’ll share some of the best Instagram marketing campaigns ever made, along with ideas on how to emulate them.

Doing It Right: Best Instagram Marketing Campaigns

But first, you might be wondering: Why Instagram? How can it help your business grow?

More than 800 million active users visit Instagram according to the Sprout Social site. A big chunk of that is made up of the younger generation.

If your business is having a hard time connecting with younger people, Instagram is the best place to fix that. Take note, these 800 million are active users. That assures you that your audience engagement has a good chance of increasing.

Instagram can also help you establish your identity. You can build your business’s image just by setting the theme of your feed.

But how can you make the best Instagram marketing campaigns? How can you use the platform to grow your business?

For one thing, you can start by avoiding the usual mistakes. For another, you can take note of what other people do right in their best Instagram marketing campaigns.

This brings us back to the list of the best Instagram marketing campaigns I’ve put together here.

Strictly for Promotional Purposes

If you prefer straight-up promotion without a gimmick, follow National Geographic’s Instagram strategy.

Instagram is the best platform for companies that take pride in their staff’s photography skills. An account with feed goals attracts a lot of followers.

National Geographic provides the best example with its feed.

Maximizing Instagram as a Visual Medium

National Geographic hasn’t done a specific Instagram campaign yet, so some might ask why it’s listed in the best Instagram marketing campaigns. It’s because, simply using Instagram naturally, it has millions of followers.

It’s a case of organic follower growth. The NatGeo feed attracts attention because every image on it is taken by a professional photographer.

That means every image is flat-out gorgeous.

The brand is making the most of the platform’s focus on visuals. All of the best Instagram marketing campaigns do this. To do the same, try to post impressive or artistic photos related to your business.

Ask artistic members of your staff to help here. Photography enthusiasts can be of use too. You yourself can try to come up with images.

Don’t be afraid to do a little post-processing on photos if you know how. An easy way to do it is with Instagram’s filters, which can make photos more appealing. Some of the best Instagram marketing campaigns have used them.

The idea is to convert your product or service experience into a powerful image. Let your photos tell people how it feels to acquire your brand… just like Samsung did for their Galaxy S8 promotion, for instance.

Captured by Photos and Influencers

Samsung’s #UnboxYourPhone is one of the best Instagram marketing campaigns because of the way they captured the Galaxy S8 ownership experience.

Their campaign photos showed what it’s like to have Samsung technology. They expressed in visual terms how it feels to have the new Galaxy S8 in your hands.

And if photos aren’t enough to catch Instagram people’s attention, don’t hesitate to get a celebrity or an influencer. The best Instagram marketing campaigns typically use these to grab followers.

In fact, this was the marketing strategy used by Adidas for their #Original campaign. Like them, you can use influencers’ authority to establish your brand’s credibility.

Promote and Raise Awareness

Instagram marketing isn’t just about establishing your brand’s credibility, though. It’s also about showing your company values. This can improve the reach of your social responsibility campaigns.

Many of the best Instagram marketing campaigns are about raising awareness. The right use of political or social ideas can ignite a movement within the Instagram community.

The best Instagram marketing campaigns also have emotional impact on their audience. In Instagram marketing, you can use this to give your campaign lasting influence.

Compassion and Emotional Targeting

Targeting your audience’s emotion is the most effective way to connect with them. This strategy usually results in good engagement, which is a must for the best Instagram marketing campaigns.

Just remember that people tend to participate more if they feel their involvement can make a change. Obviously, you should aim for a “positive” change, or one that looks like it can benefit most parties.

Political campaigns can be hard to manage, though. One of the best Instagram marketing campaigns to deal with a political topic right is AirBnB’s.

AirBnB’s #WeAccept used the immigration issue to promote their brand’s values. Their focus was openness and acceptance: they presented photos that accept different ethnicities.

The campaign came out in the midst of the US immigration debate. It was about acceptance regardless of race and ethnicity.

#WeAccept tapped into a lot of emotions. Since most of them were positive, it was received well by a lot of Instagram users.

Messages that make people feel good are more likely to get traction than those that make people feel worse. That’s why the best Instagram marketing campaigns have such positive themes.

Invoke Universal Themes Like Self-Improvement

Self-improvement is another powerful theme. That’s because most of us are prey to insecurities and are constantly looking to overcome them.

So, campaigns that have to do with self-improvement and self-esteem resonate with a lot of people.

Orangetheory’s #TranformationTuesday and Hartley’s #10CalAngel campaigns are among the best Instagram marketing campaigns because of that. They inspired people to lose weight with the help of their brands. Since they tied weight loss to wellness, they were seen as motivating self-improvement.

Hartley also boosted its campaign with the help of 104 Instagram influencers. This helped them get high audience engagement — and eventually, more followers and sales.

Likewise, Orangetheory’s campaign encouraged customers’ engagement. This was by urging them to post brand testimonials via their achievements.

People posted themselves hitting new fitness records, reaching exercise goals, and so on. This testified to Orangetheory’s effectiveness — and the customers’ self-improvement.

As most people want to share (and maybe even brag about) their successes, Orangetheory’s call to action was effective. It got them a lot of audience engagement.

Audience Participation is a Plus

Audience engagement is clearly one of the cornerstones of the best Instagram marketing campaigns. Hartley’s and Orangetheory’s campaigns already showed two ways to encourage it. There are a lot of other techniques, though.

Let’s look at the ones used by Xbox and Adidas in their best Instagram marketing campaigns, for example.

Xbox #MakeItYours

Xbox’s #MakeItYours made it to the list of best Instagram marketing campaigns because of the way it encouraged engagement by championing individuality. Basically, it told people to design their own controller on Xbox Design Lab.

There’s a lot to admire here. First, the Design Lab’s images of users’ designs were sized and shaped specifically for Instagram.

This made the visual part of the campaign look its best. Again, on a visually-oriented platform like this, that’s practically half the battle. Most of the best Instagram marketing campaigns boast beautiful and Instagram-specific visuals.

Second, the “Make It Yours” theme tapped into positive feelings of self-worth and uniqueness. It even made customers feel like the brand cared — enough to let them have their own (personal!) controller design, for example.

Adidas #MyNeoShoot

Another great campaign was Adidas’s #MyNeoShoot. It received 71,000 mentions and added 41,000 new followers.

The campaign asked users to post Adidas-inspired photos. Six were then chosen to model in a professional photo shoot. But the audience engagement didn’t stop there.

After selecting the six models, Adidas asked consumers to participate again. This time, they were allowed to vote on elements of the photo shoot, from the models’ hairdos to their clothes.

This is a superb example of how the best Instagram marketing campaigns start and sustain audience engagement. Even the way Adidas kicked it off (with the help of influencers like Selena Gomez) was brilliant.

One way to use this for your best Instagram marketing campaigns is to give your audience more than one way to engage. A lot of the best Instagram marketing campaigns do this.

You can also assign each engagement method to a different stage of the campaign, like Adidas did. The best Instagram marketing campaigns are multi-stage plans, like theirs.

Clever and Effective Instagram Marketing

The best Instagram marketing campaigns often have a bit of cleverness to them. That’s because humor or the unexpected stimulate interest.

You don’t have to reach for new heights of wit to use this in your best Instagram marketing campaigns. Some of the best Instagram campaigns have relied on very simple jokes.

For example, they’ve used jokes that they proceeded to treat as serious statements.

The Candid Marketing Strategy

This is a good example of getting audience interest by turning humor on its head. Elon Musk’s Boring Company tickled a lot of people with a post that “a flamethrower is coming next”.

Most people thought it was a joke first. Then the laughter died down… and people realized the post was serious.

The Boring Company was going to sell flamethrowers.

Part of the reason this worked so well was that it looked like whimsy turning into cold, hard reality — which didn’t make it less whimsical.

In other words, the Boring Company’s actual sale of flamethrowers didn’t make the fact that they were selling them less hilarious.

So you might say the post went viral for the same reason the flamethrowers sold out. It made people feel like they were in on a joke being acted out in real life. Everybody wanted in on it!

Playing With Visuals

Another way of using people’s craving for “good ol’ fun” can be seen in Old Spice’s Dream Runner campaign. This is another of the more entertaining examples among the best Instagram marketing campaigns.

The brand challenged users to create the shape of their target prize through their running route. Participants ran, the mobile website mapped their path, and then the company sent them a prize shaped like that path.

It was a game — even more fun for consumers because prizes were involved. Old Spice had its fun too: one runner was actually sent a life-size pelvic skeleton.

This kind of visual play works great on Instagram because of the platform’s focus on images. It’s also one of the best Instagram marketing campaigns because it added fun to the equation.

For another great example, think of Sonic’s Creamery shakes campaign. It turned the Sonic shakes into (fun!) square ones.

To be exact, it turned the shakes into cubed beverages. Shakes were repackaged in clear glass cubes and ingredients arranged for maximum visual impact.

The campaign churned out square images of picture-perfect shakes that sold quickly on the platform. It was a lesson in how to tailor content perfectly to Instagram, where the square image reigns supreme.

That’s just another of the ways you can make the most of Instagram’s potential for the best Instagram marketing campaigns. For more, check out my complete Instagram guide How to Market Your Business with Instagram and Get Results.

Final Thoughts on Best Instagram Marketing Campaigns

As you can see, there’s a lot of inspiration to be had from the best Instagram marketing campaigns. You can get ideas for how to build your own brand’s identity.

One of the tricks is to let your followers play a role in your Instagram marketing strategy. Let their experience be the testimonials that affirm and spread word of your brand.

And if the usual tactics don’t work, try out fresh concepts. You can turn to humor or go against the expected to catch people’s attention.

Instagram may have the square layout but it doesn’t mean you have to think within the box. Its visual and creative focus actually gives you freedom to come up with the best Instagram marketing campaigns.

If you need help in social media marketing, feel free to contact me or check out our wide array of services. And if you have more questions about Instagram marketing, let me know in a comment below.

And always keep in mind… have fun!

Be sure to also check out my blog post, How to Market Your Business with Instagram And Get Results.

By the way, if you need help in getting traffic to your website then feel free to contact me and we can talk about the different consulting options we offer. Or use the link below to apply for your “Results in Advance” free consultation and let’s get started right away:

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Suggested Articles:

1. Instagram for Business: How to Advertise on Instagram

2. Instagram 101: Can You Advertise on Instagram?

3. Best Practices for Using Instagram Live Stories for Business

Author: Mike Marko

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www.IMConsultantServices.com

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Article: Best Instagram Marketing Campaigns to Inspire You

Also published on Medium.