Dear Instagram users,
Your favorite digital medium has recently announced it will start showing advertisements in its new feed. Yes indeed, the company’s director of business operations, Emilie White, has confirmed that Instagram was preparing to introduce advertising videos and photos to its digital platform.
However, she insists on the fact that this marketing approach should not be too intrusive or disruptive. “Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine,” the company wrote in a post.
Instagram assures the photo-sharing service’s users that it will “start slow”. At first, ads will only be served from trusted brands on the platform, but could later be opened up to smaller companies.
After all, users should have clued in when they noticed that Instagram added a video feeds earlier this year, creating an opportunity to sell video advertising that fetches much higher rates than any online display ads would do. Indeed, with 150 millions active users, Instagram has definitely the potential to reach a large audience and might be highly solicited by companies. Moreover, considering that its parent company Facebook is one of the biggest modern ad-driven companie, the integration of advertising to Instagram was anything if not inevitable.
