Instagram bloopers by brands that will make you cringe

How complicated is it to run an Instagram campaign, eh? Turns out very! Unlike other social media platforms, a mere brief with a constructive hashtag isn’t enough. A campaign needs pictorial value added with context to make a campaign relevant for Instagram.

Since failure teaches a lot more than success; listed are a few Instagram backfires that offer a lesson or two.

#PaidMyDues

Designed to promote Audi’s A3 Sedan, #PaidMyDues invited followers to Instagram their real-life triumphs over adversity, with the most inspiring ones being re-imagined by artists in six hour live event. The recreated art was then auctioned for charity on eBay.

Images of unrelated artists however, failed to relate with Audi’s Instagram followers who were used to the cool car pictures.

The instant backlash testified the importance of contextual content on Instagram.

#DontJudgeChallenge

The anti body-shaming campaign took off on Instagram, with users drawing unibrows, acne or other such body elements that invite shaming and taking pictures with and then post rubbing them off.

While the concept was strong it implied ambiguous intend with Instagrammers getting confused about whether the campaign dignifies or mocks body flaws.

Tribal DDB Israel’s Officegram

Created for making internal office economics fun, Tribal DDB Israel created #tdilpeople and #tdilworks, which the employees used to get pictures from their personal feed on the agency’s official feed.

While the campaign was a great push for internal buzz, it led to a lot of unmaintained content on the agency’s official post.

Cross platform marketing gone wrong

Vans’ is known for cross promoting content for a wider reach. This however, backfired when the brand pushed a print ad on its Instagram feed.

While there examples constitute major brand bloopers, grievances of irrelevant and stereotypical content, typos and spamming have been frequent amongst Instagram users. To not fall prey to such fatal Instagram errors, be a part of our Instagram workshop.