Instagram Adds Video Looping to Rival Vine

Facebook-owned Instagram has opened up its advertising capabilities to include auto-replay videos, a feature similar to Vine’s loop counts.

Video clips on Instagram will now automatically replay in users’ streams, a move sure to be welcomed by marketers looking to get as many views for their ads as possible.

The new feature comes in an update to the iOS app, and according to an Instagram representative, is available for Android as well.

With the addition of Instagram looping, advertisers may now be more likely to turn to the platform to push out shareable video content for their clients.

“Instagram is starting to open up its capacity to work with brands on paid advertising. Now as a media buyer knowing that their video is going to be played and looped makes [the platform a smarter choice],” says Jason Mitchell, co-founder of social media creative agency Movement Strategy.

This is also good news for Meagan Cignoli, director of short branded videos and founder of New York-based video production agency Visual Country. “We are so excited that Instagram has created a loop,” Cignoli notes. “[It’s] fantastic because of the short nature of the videos, people always want to watch it again to catch what they missed. They might not hit ‘play’ again, but with auto-looping they will often [stay] on the post, leading to more views.”

Since the auto-reply feature is similar to Vine’s looping functionality, industry participants predict that Vine advertisers may gradually migrate to Instagram.

“Instagram certainly crossed into Vine’s and big brother Twitter’s territory with this update,” says Hannah Suher, strategy, research, and analytics manager at Chicago-based social media agency SOCIALDEVIANT. “Instagram video to date has struggled to gain the level of originality and inspiration that Vine has enjoyed. I’ll be interested to see whether video content creators on Instagram embrace the looping feature and leverage it creatively. Meanwhile, Vine stars are sure to be tapped to produce branded content for Instagram.”

Instagram introduced video for both iPhone and Android in June of 2013. Last October, the photo- and video-sharing platform further rolled out 15-second auto-play video ads from a group of select brands, including Disney, Lancôme, and Banana Republic.

Image via Shutterstock.

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