After six months of trials and hot on the heels of a similar move by Tumblr, Instagram is injecting video ads into its feeds.
Activision, Banana Republic, the CW, Disney and Lancôme are the first to purchase digital space to put ads on Instagram, according to AdWeek. The advertising publication broke the news Instagram was expanding its ad offerings from static images to include moving pictures, 15-second autoplay spots.
"We're working with a number of brands on video ads, and that will continue to grow," said an Instagram spokesman. "Each ad is targeted at a specific audience, so the people who see the ads depends on who the advertisers are trying to reach."
The CW used its video ad space on Instagram to promote its new television show The Flash. The TV drama based on the DC Comics superhero debuted earlier in October.
"We created it from scratch and were sort of wondering where to put it when the Instagram opportunity popped up, and it was like kismet," said Caty Burgess, head of digital marketing at CW. "We wanted to take full advantage of the Instagram opportunity and do something [memorable]."
With Activision's latest entry into the Call of Duty franchise just days away, the video game publisher took advantage of Instagram's new advertising channel, said Jonathan Anastas, head of digital and social media.
"Our audience is becoming increasingly mobile-centric, and Instagram is a mobile-centric platform. So it's an important part of the marketing mix," said Anastas before adding: "One of the great advantages of working on the marketing team for Call of Duty is that gamers broadly -- and our target audience specifically -- just inhale content."
Tumblr rolled out its auto-playing video format two days before Instagram finally made the feature official. Just over a week before, Snapchat announced it, too, was rolling ads out into its app.
With it being Snapchat's first foray into serving up ads, the company behind the ephemeral messaging app said it wanted to avoid being overly intrusive and "creepy" in its deliver of sponsored content.
"Understandably, a lot of folks want to know why we're introducing advertisements to our service," said Snapchat. "The answer is probably unsurprising -- we need to make money. Advertising allows us to support our service while delivering neat content to Snapchatters. We promise that we'll use the money we make to continue to surprise the Snapchat community with more terrific products -- that's what we love to do!"
