In preparation for a series of digital marketing an visual content marketing programmes I am delivering over the next month for Irish food brands, I thought I would share some of the case studies we will be exploring.
If you are not already using Instagram for your business, you may not be aware that Instagram currently has more then 200 million users worldwide and they are starting to make available new tools to help brans understand the performance of their paid and organic content on Instagram.
Instagram recently announced that they will be making tools available to provide:
Account insights – to allow businesses to see how they’re increasing brand awareness on Instagram through impressions, reach, and engagement
Ad insights – to show the performance of paid campaigns with brand analytics (impressions, reach, and frequency) for each individual ad delivered to the target audience
Ad staging – to allow advertisers and their creative teams to preview, save, and collaborate on ad creative for upcoming campaigns.
These new tools will help brands monitor their posts and campaigns by providing information on reach, impressions, and engagement in rea l time and be able to better understand the best time of day to post a photo or video.
These tools will be available to all Instagram advertisers later in 2014.
Remember that Instagram advertising is not yet widely available.
Instagram have however published sme case studies of how food brands have benefited from sponsored content. While you may not have the budget to use Instagram ads, these case studies could give you ideas to help you manage your visual content marketing plan for Instagram.
And if you are looking for a free analytics tool to support you when marketing your food business on Instagram, you can use Iconosquare (formerly known as Statigram).
Marketing with Instagram – TacoBell case study
Tacobell used Instagram to build awareness of their new menu items among 18-44 year-olds.
In a case study published recently by Instagram they comment that TacoBell published sponsored photos depicting breakfast among friends, each image capturing the brand’s youthful, free-spirited ethos through natural staging and a retro, sun-bleached color palette. The results they achieved included:
– reaching 12.5 million 18-44 year-olds in the U.S. across a four-week period
– a 29-point incremental lift in ad recall for people who were repeatedly exposed to the campaign—nearly four times higher than the control group and nearly five times higher than Nielsen’s average for online advertising.
And by managing of the sponsored photos, Instagram ensured that users saw Taco Bell ads only twice on average throughout the month-long campaign
Download the TacoBell case study below. [wpdm_file id=17]
As an example of a post from TacoBell you will see how they have taken one of their products and made it relevant to Instagram fans using the hashtag #MyInstagramLogo.
Marketing with Instagram – Chobani case study
Chobani have an inspiring feed providing followers with ideas about how to use their products.
In a recent case study published by Instagram outlines that Chobani focused their advertising campaign on highlighting the versatility of their yogurt, showing how people use their product. This is something every food brand could do when using Instagram for marketing their business.
Chobani posted sponsored photos targeted to females age 18 – 49 in the U.S. over a four-week period. The series of lifestyle posts included a quick breakfast, a savory snack and a dessert, made with Chobani Greek Yogurt. They reached:
– 4 million 18-49 year-old females in the U.S. reached across a four-week period
– they had a 22-point incremental lift in ad recall for people who were repeatedly exposed to the campaign; nearly four times higher than Nielsen’s norms for online advertising
– Chobani found they got a 7-point incremental lift in shifting perceptions away from Chobani being only eaten at breakfast for people who were repeatedly exposed to the campaign versus the control group.
Download the Chobani case study below. [wpdm_file id=16]
As an example of a post from Chobani, see how they have positioned their product amongst real squash for their Autumn 2014 product launch, making their post relevant and showing one of the ingredients of the product.
Additional Resources To Help You Market Your Business On Instagram
If you are looking for more examples and tips of using Instagram for your business here are three resources to help you:
1. Check out my curation of articles and content on Pinterest and follow my Marketing With Instagram board
2. Book a Google Helpout with me to ask me your Instagram and other visual content marketing questions
3. Speak with me about my in-house Instagram training programmes.
And if you would like to follow me on Instagram you can find me here.


