10 ways to create the perfect branded Instagram video

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Using Instagram’s video feature, brands have 15 seconds to create compelling stories that will reach and engage some of the platform’s 300 million users.

Unlike traditional video ads, the platform is about taking scrollers on a journey rather than showcasing products and services in an overly promotional way. The platform’s culture is one that presumes there’s a personality behind every post – and here lies the challenge: brands must convey just as much personality as their followers.

For the most part, this means avoiding professionally lit, staged studio videos. A feed made up of overly glossed, airbrushed videos looks out of place – people don’t buy into it. They react better to more authentic content.

Obviously, the elements that make up a great Instagram video differ from brand to brand, but generally speaking, here are some things to consider:

1) Release exclusive content

Using 15 second clips of an already existing ad is a mistake – it’s stale and lazy. Rather, use Instagram to create exclusive and original platform-specific content.

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Take Bulmers Cider for example. This week, the brand released exclusive sneak previews of musicians involved with their #LiveColourful LIVE series. Here’s a clip of Lethal Bizzle, under which the brand encourages Instagrammers to visit the brand’s bio page for “more exclusive content”.

2) Create a micro-series

Your brand’s Instagram videos do not have to stand alone! Creating a series can be a great way to tell an ongoing story – but make sure the content makes sense in isolation too.

Releasing videos as part of a series creates user anticipation, and there will most likely be a stand-out video that will become a hit.

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GAP’s #SpringIsWeird 12 episode micro-film series is a good example of this. It garnered high engagement rates from users, and encouraged Instagrammers to follow the brand to keep up with the episodes.

3) Collaborate with influencers

Partnering with social media influencers (Instagram’s celebrities) is a good way to showcase your brand because these people have MILLIONS of followers, and all of those followers trust their opinions.

Instagram influencers exist within a niche content category, so if you are a makeup brand for example – pick the most influential beauty blogger.

4) Be funny

People follow accounts that make them laugh. If comedy works for your brand, then Instagram is a great platform to showcase this.

OldSpice is a good example – the brand’s humour has caught the attention of a younger audience, when traditionally the brand appealed to an older audience. It’s totally transformed how people think of the brand.

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5) Take people behind the scenes

Don’t directly advertise on Instagram – take people behind the scenes, showcasing what your product can do, or what your brand is about.

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Take Playboy, for example. Their Instagram account offers users ‘behind the scenes’ footage of photo shoots for upcoming issues.

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Topshop has a similar approach. The brand has utilised Instagram’s video feature to share ‘behind the scenes’ footage from catwalk shows with users.

6) Think visuals before audio

Sound doesn’t autoplay, so create a video that isn’t audio dependent. The video will autoplay, so get to the action right away (don’t open with a still scene). The simpler, the better. Take Dunkin Donuts, for example. This video is simple, but effective because it’s so visually appealing:

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7) Utilise Instagram’s landscape/portrait mode video feature

In August, Instagram updated its platform to support videos shot in portrait and landscape mode (previously, users could only post restrictive square videos).

Instagram emphasised the format’s “cinematic” potential after the feature was announced, which most likely aimed to encourage more brands to run video ads.

“Star Wars” was the very first user to adopt the landscape mode when it posted a new teaser clip:

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8) Celebrate user-generated content (and/or cats)

GoPro are the experts at this. They constantly utilise footage created by users of its products – and have consequently built up a solid audience of 6.3M followers. This clip of Didga the Australian skateboarding cat, posted on International Cat day, is just one example. It attracted 229K likes.

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9) Make your content indistinguishable from the content your fans make

Topshop is aimed at the teens and twenties demographic, who spend most of their day scrolling through Instagram and uploading carefully curated content to their followers. The brand has done a great job of mirroring its demographic – their videos are pretty indistinguishable from the types of content their fans are taking themselves.

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10) Capitalise on events or trending news

Sports brands do this best. Nike doesn’t produce a high amount of video content on Instagram, but when it does, the brand capitalises on huge events such as the cricket. This expertly crafted video did exceptionally well:

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