Instagram Launch First Beer Ads with Stella Artois

I know Instagram bang on about how they don't want to bow to common social platform standards like allowing embedded links or multi use profiles like Twitter (yadda yadda). To be honest I think considering their massive growth this year they should've been commercially driven earlier on. 

A recent post I did about the best brands on Instagram proves its a platform being used daily by global entities. Over on our sister site Lovin Dublin, we use Instagram a huge amount. Over 10,500 images have been shared on Instagram using Lovin Dublin's hashtag #LovinDublin. Marketing is all about images, it has been for years but Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest with the development of smartphones have allowed these platforms to help brands expand at rates that no one imagined.

Michael Kors was the first brand to test advertising on Instagram a year ago and now the popular Belgian beer Stella Artois are giving it a lash. Its hard obviously to promote alcohol brands through online advertising due to LDAs so they've had to use targeting advertising which is slightly trickier than Facebook (who carry a lot of user data).

Instead of using videos, Stella Artois have designed a series of photos that will be promoted amongst users themed around holidays/Christmas. They're grand, nothing special and certainly not sticky in my opinion but I'm never going to mind Instagram ads anyway, I follow over a thousand accounts and a big feed is an interesting one. But I will be sticking to the Bailey's this year.