November 25, 2015
Promotional image for #InstaKors
Fifty-nine percent of branded Instagram posts feature individuals, while 38 percent only include product, according to an infographic by Curalate.
The infographic’s figures identify the top trends among posts from the top 1 percent of Instagram photographs and includes figures on content positioning, aesthetics and how images differ across product categories. With a community of more than 400 million, Instagram is a viable mobile platform for marketers looking to drive business through a visual medium, especially during the holiday season.
An image says a thousand words
Curalate determined that across sectors, 77 percent of shared images are light in definition, compared to 20 percent that are dark. Brand images are more often shot indoors at 63 percent in comparison to outdoor photos, which only make up 26 percent of surveyed posts.
While individuals make up the majority of subjects shared via Instagram photos, one in every five images features a product “laydown,” meaning the item is staged for display. Also, one in every five images includes a text overlay.
In the fashion sector, 30 percent of images feature accessories such as footwear, jewelry or winter wear. Black or dark gray is the dominant color seen in the sector, with 25 percent of images using these shades to some degree.
Watches are often shared on Instagram and 100 percent of the time the timepiece shown has a black or dark face. This allows the Instagram user to better see the watch face’s details.
The cosmetics sector has found immense value in Instagram as a platform.
Beauty and fashion marketers continue to be enamored by the photo-sharing app’s organic reach, with 95 and 98 percent of brands in those respective sectors operating accounts, according to a July 2015 report by L2.
Instagram has presented marketers with a platform that is more engaging than Facebook or Twitter, with fashion labels growing their communities by 27 percent to 2 million followers and beauty brands increasing by 30 percent, or 600,000 individuals (see story).
On a post-by-post level, Curalate found that 74 percent of photos shared by the beauty sector were of products and 42 percent were cosmetic laydowns. Similar to in fashion, darker colors such as dark blues, greens and grey were used more prevalently.
Rouge Coco Classifieds, Shade Roussy N°426. #ILoveCoco #RougeCoco #Chanel A photo posted by CHANEL (@chanelofficial) on Sep 10, 2015 at 6:25am PDT
Home Decor followed suit, with 94 percent of images not including individuals to put emphasis on the interiors on display in the image. Instead of darker colors, home decor relied mostly on warm, fall-like colors in 45 percent of images, with 49 percent including wood as a common element.
Curalate’s data was collected in the seven week period between September and October 2015. Brands surveyed use the agency’s Like2Buy solution that enables brands to link to content outside of Instagram, as the app does not allow hyperlinking within image captions.
The full infographic can be found here.
Share your thoughts. Click here
