After Instagram dropped its new Thirst Button—ahem—we mean private messaging feature, we imagine marketing groups from brands around the globe started brainstorming ways to use this feature to their advantage. It seems Gap were the first ones to strike.
The company used the hashtag #WIWT, an acronym for What I Wore Today, in an Instagram post that stated that the first 15 people to comment would be eligible for a contest. Once the 15 people responded (15 is the limit of people for someone to send a group a photo or video in IG Direct), they were all sent a message that asked for a picture of what they were wearing. The photo the group sent in would only be viewable to the other members and Gap—not the rest of the Instagram world. The company then selected their favorite outfit, and gave the winner a denim tablet case. Okay, it's not exactly the best prize ever, but overall, the contest shows the first of many ways that brands will utilize Instagram's latest feature—and expect copycats to follow soon.
Instagram Direct is being billed as the company's answer to Snapchat, but one of the biggest differences between IG Direct and Snapchat is that pictures don't self-delete. This way pictures can continually spur conversations, and make contests such as this a little easier to execute.
[via The Telegraph]
