Stuart Weitzman puts the latest marketing tools to the test By Garett Sloane
- April 10, 2015, 2:19 PM EDT
- Technology
Instagram and Facebook are more entwined than ever, especially for advertisers, who now have a potentially powerful new marketing strategy—using video ads on one to drive sales on the other. Stuart Weitzman, the fashion brand, is one of the first marketers to buy video ads on Instagram, and then send product posts on Facebook to a custom audience of people who viewed the ad.
Advertisement
It's an aggressive tactic that incorporates some of the most advanced new ad products from the two social media platforms. Stuart Weitzman also is using cinemagraphs—a mix of still imagery and video that Facebook is encouraging marketers to embrace—for the creative.
"The campaign is about how to find that perfect mix of brand and direct response marketing," said Susan Duffy, CMO of Stuart Weitzman. "One of the exciting things we're doing is using the full marketing funnel."
Stuart Weitzman is going after 22- to 40-year-old women, and it's using sequential messaging to influence their buying decisions. One week, the women see the cinemagraphs on Instagram, and the next, they get a product ad on Facebook, thanks to custom targeting tools integrating the two platforms.
Facebook has no official stats on how many of its users also are on Instagram, but with more than 1.3 billion people on Facebook and more than 300 million Instagram users, there is plenty of room for overlap.
Last year, Mercedes was one of the first brands to run a campaign combining Instagram and Facebook. The Stuart Weitzman marketing is using similar targeting but with video, which can be very effective on any platform, according to industry experts.
Consumers are more likely to show interest in a product after seeing a video ad and then receiving a follow-up message, according to Justin Kistner, vp of marketing at social media ad firm Mixpo.
"What Stuart Weitzman is doing is a smart extension of the remarketing capability into Instagram," Kistner said. "It drives better results, because they are targeting an audience warmed from seeing the video ads."
Mixpo helps brands plan marketing campaigns and encourages the use of video to drive awareness and build audience for retargeting with more actionable ads, similar to Stuart Weitzman's approach. Brands have employed this tactic on Facebook since it developed more video and targeting tools.
Stuart Weitzman will specifically target Facebook users, as well, but with more refined, interest-based targeting than Instagram currently offers.
"In conjunction with the Instagram ads, we're running a reach and frequency campaign on Facebook to share the cinemagraphs with people who demonstrated brand affinity," Duffy said. The brand also will target a custom audience based on consumers who have visited its website.
Ann Street Studio's Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, who pioneered the technique, created the cinemagraphs for Stuart Weitzman.
Get the Technology Today newsletter:
