As Instagram Rolls Out Ad Platform, Brands Are SeeingRecord Engagement

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Simply Measured, an industry leading social

media analytics and reporting platform, today announced that 71

percent of the world's largest brands have adopted Instagram, which now

rivals the brand adoption of Google+ and Pinterest. In the last year,

the number of brands active on Instagram has increased 55 percent. Top

brands are now collectively posting 70 percent more and engagement has

risen nearly 350 percent year over year. The full study is available to download

for free.

The Simply Measured study leveraged the company's new enterprise level Instagram

reports, which allow brands to measure full campaigns. Reports

include hashtag monitoring, multi-account monitoring, competitive

monitoring and a complete social media snapshot.

Simply Measured's study of Instagram found that more than half of

companies among the Interbrand 100 (a list of the world's top 100

brands) post at least once per week, and 28 percent post at least five

times per week. The investment these brands are making has significantly

increased the number of followers who actively engage with these

companies, and led to Instagram's launch of its new ad platform

featuring sponsored images tailored to users' interests.

As Instagram races to hit 200 million users, automotive, media and

luxury brands are dominating engagement. Together, these industries

account for almost 25 percent of top brands, however, they produce 59

percent of total brand posts and receive 83 percent of total likes and

comments. These companies, such as MTV, Mercedes Benz and Tiffany & Co.,

have successfully captured their audiences by utilizing visuals they've

created for Instagram likes other marketing campaigns, and promoting their content

across their other social channels and digital presence.

"Since launching two years ago, Instagram has captured the imagination

of consumers, and inspired brands to embrace visual dialogue in new and

creative ways," said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured. "With the

addition of hashtag tracking and other analytics tools, marketers can

now measure which campaigns are performing the best, and double-down

their efforts on deepening and expanding those relationships."

Key findings of the Instagram

study include:

71 percent of the Interbrand 100 use Instagram. This is up from

40 percent in October 2012. While Facebook and Twitter hold steady

with 98 percent coverage, Instagram is the fastest growing social

network among marketers worldwide.

As activity increases, so do followers. 57 percent of top brand

marketers are now averaging at least one post per week, up from only

38 percent in Q3 of 2012. As a result, more than one third of top

brands have 10,000 followers and 19 percent enjoy audiences that

exceed 100,000 followers.

Engagement is skyrocketing. Brand engagement has grown by a

staggering 350 percent year over year, due in part to a 70 percent

increase in brands posting to the visual network.

Automotive, media and luxury brands dominate. Mercedes-Benz,

BMW and Audi make up three of the top five most engaging brands. In

total, the top ten brands received 83 percent of all Instagram

engagement, while accounting for 33 percent of all posts.

Photos receive more comments and likes than videos. Like most

new features, video adoption has been slow to gain momentum,

accounting for only six percent of total posts. Meanwhile photos

continue to lead the way, driving 26 percent more engagement than

videos.

Hashags have become the norm. 83 percent of Instagram posts

include at least one hashtag, with 63 of the 65 active brands on

Instagram using the new feature. Of interest, top brands use hashtags

more sparingly than other brands.

Simply Measured's analytics

and reporting capabilities allow brands to track Instagram

engagement in-context with other social media campaigns, including: most

engaging photos, most engaging filters, most engaging locations,

cross-posting, keyword analysis and more.

To analyze any Instagram profile for free, visit:http://simplymeasured.com/freebies/instagram-analytics.

About Simply Measured

Simply Measured brings social

media analytics to life. The company's measurement and reporting

solution aggregates social media data and web analytics from more than a

dozen sources and presents it in a single dashboard that is easy to

access on the fly and share across a team. More than 40 unique reports

can be created in real-time and pushed to familiar tools such as Excel

or PowerPoint with the click of a button. Simply Measured is trusted by

more than 30 percent of the top 100 global brands and more than 80,000

users. Learn more at http://simplymeasured.com.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131029005603/en/Instagram-Rolls-Ad-Platform-Brands-Record-Engagement