#MadeOnReels: The new creator-integrated program by Meta for brands & advertisers

Meta has launched the #MadeOnReels program and is now open to inviting briefs from brands across verticals. Here is a download for brands to understand the program and its potential.

The launch of the #MadeOnReels program comes in after Meta globally announced the expansion of ads on Reels in a blogpost. India is one of the 52 eligible countries where creators can participate and be eligible for an invite from the platform if they meet several minimum requirements, and collaborate with brands for creation of branded Reels.

#MadeOnReels by Meta

The program is designed to support advertisers garner business results through entertaining storytelling. Meta has launched this program with an aim to enable brands to tap the potential of Reels by leveraging the creator ecosystem in India.

As a part of the program, Meta is inviting brands to share briefs with marketing objectives and would provide creative support, program support, and the alignment to work with three creators each on Reels campaigns around their specific marketing objectives. 

Niharika NM, Barkha Singh, RJ Karishma, Ayush Mehra, Viraj Ghelani, Ruhee Dosani, and Masoom Minawala are a part of the program and would be collaborating with brands. 

Arun Srinivas, Director & Head - Ads Business, Meta India, mentioned “Our goal at Meta is to help businesses build for the evolving consumer behaviour and create a strong ecosystem for the future of digital advertising in the country. #MadeOnReels does precisely that.”

The Potential Of Reels

Band custodians from various sectors outline the potential of Reels and share examples and brand metrics from their own campaigns and experiences, to give a look into the potential of Reels, and its impact on campaign and performance metrics.

Aseem Sharma, Director - Head Of Growth, Navi, elaborates on the potential of Reels by citing one of the brand's own campaigns. The campaign for the brand's investment category which is a mutual fund needed a performance boost and had to perform on those metrics, and usually influencer-integrated campaigns work well on the brand metrics, but this one generated 8% lower cost than the usual campaigns on the first-time acquisition.

"We 6% increase in brand favorability. These campaigns work well on performance because the relatability of the content is very high. So even though we are creating an ad, we are telling the user to start investing in a mutual fund, and it is being done in a way that is interesting to the user so the user would still want to see the same ad again, and again, which is essential for performance marketing, where you show roughly four impressions per user per month, Aseem adds.

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Ram Suresh Akella, Executive Director - Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India talked about the launch of a new SUV for which the target consumer was the younger audience, for which the brand teamed up with Meta. He further described the collaboration as turning out fruitful with 2.6 point lift in recall and a 2.9 point lift in campaign awareness, and creators creating content ranging from a soundtrack to the ones that involved the audience.

Soumitra Choubey, Associate Director - Brand Marketing, Meesho, shares a different approach to collaborating with creators. "We started collaborating with creators before we started marketing, and our primary acquisition channel back in the reseller era was through creators".

He further describes the initiation of Meesho Hauls, and the first 8-10 months were spent seeding content through creators. This template of showcasing products populated the hashtag #MeeshoHauls, and now there are over 65K videos. The brand was able to do it differently because now the creation part is reverse-engineered and now creators using this hashtag get more views.

The Creative Outlook

Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer & CEO, Leo Burnett, South Asia states, "Brands go through three phases in their life - First is brands tell people what to do, second is brand and people come together to do something, and the third is without the presence of the brand, people do something". 

This outlook gives an insight into the creative template of this format, and how it is important to encourage participation from consumers as a native part of the campaign. He further describes this brand-consumer relationship by explaining the engagement format of Reels, and the importance of brands and people coming together through such formats, as "if it doesn't happen, brands will die soon".

The Creator Outlook

Creators share their concerns and highlight important pointers that brands intending to collaborate with them need to be mindful of, as the success of the campaign is highly dependent on efficient collaboration.

Describing the process of brand collaborations, Niharika NM states, "I think it's difficult for creators not to be ourselves". Sometimes the brands give a brief so specific that it "itself is a script and does not leave much room for creative freedom", and the financial remuneration convinces her to almost do it, "but as painful as it is, some projects are passed on if the brand does not nudge. "Brands need to trust us, as we want the views and engagement too, and not just doing ti for the sake of money.

Viraj Ghelani carries the conversation forward by sharing more concerns such as brands knowing that 14th February is Valentine's Day, but coming on 12th February with a brief, and then the content not panning out as expected, but it's changing with time. He further explains that the creator brings in their own expertise, and if the timeline, script, and all the other factors are panned out by the brand, it does not leave a creative space, in a partnership. "We'll do a better job when the brands trust us".