Instagram has announced an array of new updates designed to make it easier for brands to publish creative organic content on the social media platform, including the extension of the full-screen, multi-format Canvas ad feature to Stories.
A huge success for Instagram since launching last year, Stories reportedly reaches around 250 million people every day. The Facebook-owned site is rolling out quality-of-life updates and new features to allow brands to tap into its ephemeral, in-the-moment content more readily.
Before this week, it was not possible to create Sponsored Stories within the Instagram Stories mobile app, which meant that they were primarily reserved for professional commercials. This will now change, as brands can finally access Instagram’s ad and camera tools to create personal stories and engaging content, meaning that they can share them with an audience within a much shorter timeframe.
Advertisers will be able to leverage all of the features in regular Stories, including the vast range of camera effects and face filters. Facebook believes that the changes will boost user engagement because the ads will have a similar look to content posted on the platform by standard users. Brands can also opt to promote any of their Stories as ads.
“With the ability to utilise Facebook’s fast-loading full-screen Canvas format in Instagram Stories, marketers are able to use the creative versatility of Canvas to tell compelling brand and product stories,” Instagram revealed in an official blog post on Tuesday. “This seamless extension of the full-screen experience allows advertisers to capture the attention of customers with just a single ad.”
Instagram also showed off its new feature set with a video from mattress company Casper, which used the updated Stories to entertain and educate its audience about product benefits. Other brands are impressed as well; Sugarfina’s Creative and Social Media Manager, Angela Hanks, added: “This uploading tool has made it easier for us to create ads that feel native to the platform, and it allows us to more easily repurpose assets that we create for our organic content.”
