The Top 5 Brands on Instagram

Instagram has become a critical social media platform for businesses in the last couple of years, and Nitrogram 50 track the best-performing brands in terms of exposure and interaction. This reveals some interesting results, but the top five have not simply arrived in their relative positions by chance. They all have an in-depth understanding of how to perfectly market their brands to Instagram users.

We decided to take a more detailed look at the top five – Nike, Starbucks, NBA, Adidas Originals and TopShop – to discover how they went about cementing their places as the best brands on Instagram.

5. TopShop

When it comes to Instagram, fashion in particular is a highly competitive sector, so TopShop’s place among the top five brands is all the more impressive. But their ranking isn’t merely a representation of the quality of their products; instead, it is a reflection of the way in which they choose to present them.

Many brands just use Instagram in the same way that they use Pinterest, by simply uploading images of their product line. Fashion companies that do this, however, are completely missing the point of the Instagram platform.

TopShop buck this trend and display an advanced understanding of the market in which they are trying to compete. Rather than just posting images of their clothing and accessories, TopShop engages with its fans’ interests by posting images of music concerts, food, and other things that their target demographic – female teenagers and young adults – have an interest in and can relate to.

They also promote interactivity incredibly well; when marketing their new prom dress range, they introduced a competition with their post for Instagram users to enter. As a result, one lucky winner won a custom-designed prom dress and, within an hour of uploading, the post in question received more than 24,000 Likes. This sort of interaction is one of the reasons why TopShop, despite having around a million fewer followers than Forever 21, still ranks above it on Instagram.

4. Adidas Originals

The Instagram profile of Adidas Originals reads: “Authentic, creative, individual. We celebrate our diversity and are united by our commonality as originals. We are Originals.”

And it is this individuality, diversity and commonality that have helped the account earn almost twice as many followers as their standard, corporate equivalent. Scrolling down their recent uploads, the majority of the images feature people wearing Adidas Originals, rather than just the clothes and shoes by themselves.

The pictures of musicians, sportspeople, journalists, photographers and designers allow users to connect and empathise with the brand more. It is given a personality and, crucially, a story for people to relate to. These kinds of images are invariably more popular than the promotional uploads, and place emphasis on location and activity, rather than simply focusing on the products.

Adidas have mastered the use of Instagram with their Originals account, to the extent that they have now rolled out a similar template for their standard account as well. In what used to be essentially a product catalogue, we now see people running, relaxing, reading, travelling and rock-climbing – engaging in any sort of activity that will also engage the user, which is what Instagram is all about.

3. NBA

The NBA is the most popular sports franchise on Instagram and their success is down to the quality of their posts. They provide first-rate, diverse uploads, focusing on everything from famous players with trophies and historic posts, to recent in-game images and gym training pictures.

One of the reasons the NBA account is so popular, as well as the high levels of interest in basketball, is their fantastic use of video content. The quality of these videos, which often highlight the best dunks and baskets of the previous week, mean that they are extremely appealing to users. As a platform, Instagram makes it incredibly easy to upload and then play videos and, particularly within the sports industry, these are much more valuable to fans than still images.

As with TopShop, the NBA’s success on Instagram comes from appreciating, and then tailoring their content towards, the interests of their target market.

2. Starbucks

Just missing out on the number one spot, Starbucks are another brand that have got their Instagram marketing down to a tee. They perfectly understand and appreciate their users’ mentality and tailor their posts to appeal to this.

Their output occasionally shifts to new flavours or varieties, but the vast majority of what they post portrays their brand in an emotive, personal context. The emphasis is not simply placed on the products; instead, Starbucks focus on the stories behind the coffee cups. They explore the places their readers love to visit, the friendships and relationships they have, their favourite times of year, and what their readers do with their cups.

This leads us on to another reason behind Starbucks’ success: their use of the “regram” technique. Regramming involves posting and crediting another user’s relevant image on your own Instagram feed, and this serves two purposes. Firstly, a brand’s content becomes even stronger and, more importantly, it also allows them to interact with their users and reveal more of a personal touch. Starbucks also take the time to study their followers’ uploads for trends and then actually reproduce the style and composition in their own posts, which ensures that the visual content they’re producing has the highest possible chance to succeed.

1. Nike

With by far the most followers of the brands featured here, and with almost as many posts on their hashtag as the rest of the top five combined, Nike is the clear champion when it comes to Instagram. Nitrogram’s Thibaut Davoult believes that Nike “really understand the psychology of Instagram” and that their “beautifully shot landscapes [and] people using the product in context [achieve] the kind of real-life-and-in-the-moment feeling that Instagram is all about.”

This emphasises the importance of really nailing down the demographic and developing an in-depth understanding of how the platform works. Nike have become experts on Instagram, but how did they get to this level?

As well as the quality of their strategically targeted content, one of Nike’s biggest strengths is the way in which they engage with their audience. They recently ran what was possibly the most successful ever Instagram campaigh, Nike PHOTOiD.

The premise was simple: Nike allowed users to design a colour scheme for their trainers and then upload them to Instagram with a background image of their choosing. It was easy, fun and promoted sharing across multiple social networks. This integration of different media allowed Nike to broaden their reach even further and the addition of various social media buttons encouraged users to share creations with their friends. Finally, Nike assembled a collection of the best submissions on their site, further encouraging competition and interaction within their audience.

With this campaign, and the great work they do on a regular basis with their visual content, it comes as no surprise that Nike tops the Nitrogram 50 rankings.

The Top 5 Brands on Instagram