Brief:

• Lay’s, the snack brand owned by PepsiCo, ran an eight-week ad campaign on Facebook’s Instagram featuring a series of four video ads that urged viewers to vote for a classic Lay’s chip flavor, like Flamin’ Hot, against a new one, like Fiery Roasted Habanero, according to a blog post on Instagram.
• Lay’s “Flavor Swap” campaign on Instagram boosted reach by 5%, had a 3% lower cost per impression, and lifted sales by 5% versus Facebook alone, according to data measured by Datalogix. Ad copy urged people to taste-test the flavors before voting for their favorite. Lay’s targeted the ads to people ages 18–49 and used Facebook’s platform to ensure that people viewed each flavor match-up in sequence.
• Meanwhile, U.S.-based businesses that use BigCommerce’s e-commerce platform now have access to Instagram’s shoppable posts, TechCrunch reported. Instagram in November began testing the feature that lets advertisers link posts to transactional features.

Insight:

Facebook highlighted the Lay’s campaign to demonstrate the effectiveness of its Instagram platform in reaching younger adults compared with advertising on Facebook alone. Ads on Instagram are still relatively new but the platform has proven to be popular with younger consumers. The campaign ran in February and March 2016 on Instagram and Facebook. Instagram’s audience has grown rapidly since then. Last month, Instagram surpassed 800 million users worldwide, up 100 million since April.

Instagram’s audience is younger than Facebook’s, according to an eMarketer study in August that tracked social media usage among people aged 12 to 17 and 18 to 24. The researcher cut its estimates of Facebook usage, but maintained or raised them for Instagram and Snapchat, with both expected to rise by double digits.

The study marked the second consecutive year of usage declines for Facebook, with some younger users not adopting the platform at all. EMarketer called that group the "Facebook nevers." Teens and tweens are turning to Instagram and Snapchat because both are more aligned with how those demographics communicate through visual content, eMarketer Senior Forecasting Analyst Oscar Orozco said in the report.