Three campaigns spring to mind when we think of what one can do to emulate the success of top beverage brands on Instagram. 

PepsiCo’s Lipton Brisk brand took advantage of the South by Southwest festival. They created a hashtag for users to share their photos under and the winning photo would then appear on 4,000 cans to be distributed at the festival. Rather than appealing to the masses, they directly appealed to the right consumer. 

There can be no argument: Starbucks is a top beverage brand. Look at Instagram and see just how many #starbucks photos there are. That is free advertising. They change things up, too, though. They created a #5more tag, encouraging users to share how they would spend just 5 more minutes of summer.

Red Bull kicked it up a notch. Their followers were the very first to hear Coldplay at Red Bull’s Soundspace studio. They also ran a photo contest publicly challenging an Instagram user to a race to gain followers. The agreement was that the winner got to post a picture on the loser’s account. There is one thing that all of these campaigns had in common: engagement. Mike’s Hard Lemonade proved earlier this year that combining fun and an attempt at humour can go far. They introduced their new watermelon flavour on Instagram in May. The post featured a picture of the lemonade bottles in a basket, with a watermelon behind it and a cup of watermelon chunks next to it. The tagline was “The one in a melon taste is here”. It sounds cheesy, but it worked and was shared widely and racked up the comments, too.

Coca-Cola has it’s brand image down pat and uses Instagram to enhance just that. They highlight an image that is upbeat, spirited, invigorating and fun. This is consistent through print, media advertising and social media too. Their images on Instagram reflect the brand’s personality.

Where most brands are posting photos, Frooti, the highest selling fruit based drink in India stands apart by putting up creatively designed digital images. Each image is like a story and always re-enforces it’s main product. Califia Farms makes excellent quality natural beverages but what is atypical about their brand is the packaging. And, they share that on Instagram in good measure. Their posts talk about what’s inside but also highlight the uniquely rounded shape of its bottle. Now you can take advantage of Instagram’s newer Stories feature. Before stories, the average brand posted around 10 times a week, and they limited their posting to avoid losing followers.

In comparison, brands post around 26 times a week- so you can now increase your posting with Instagram stories and not worry about over posting. Those brands only snap around 2 days a week, so they are sharing in short, sharp bursts. Utilize Instagram stories to tell isolated stories, share events, or sketches about future products. When you’re telling a story, there has to be a purpose. Start with a hook, something that will capture attention and keep them watching, build anticipation, tell the story, and sign off letting users know when you’ll post new content. A combination of pictures and videos is ideal. Keep in mind the optimum posting times for beverage brands to post on the various social media platforms. For Instagram, those times are between 9 and 10 am EST, 12 and 1 am EST and 10 and 11 pm EST. The majority of the US population lives in the Central and Eastern Standard Time regions so you’re capturing the peak times following these times. You can schedule your posts in advance, but don’t repeat the same content. Get creative.

So, how can wineries leverage Instagram Stories? We talk about 5 different ways in which wineries can use this feature to grow their business.[..]Continue Reading