Dive Brief:

• A report on Digiday reveals that fashion retailer Rent the Runway is building a social presence for an upcoming sample sale on Instagram Stories in an effort to reach as many social users as possible. 
• Overall, the brand has a bigger focus on Instagram Stories these days, following similar moves by other fashion brands like Fossil and Everlane. Rent the Runway’s efforts on Instagram Stories also include influencer takeovers and other content.
• Since August, the brand has been hosting a virtual try-on and content Q&A on Snapchat Stories, with senior content strategist Alyssa Bronander telling Digiday that the platform works well for one-to-one messaging. 

Dive Insight:

Snapchat Stories and Instagram Stories, both still relatively recent offerings, have been going head-to-head trying to attract advertisers and content sponsors for months now, with the Rent the Runway news underscoring the growing understanding regarding the relative benefits of each.                

Snapchat Stories was first to market and the platform benefits from a passionate user base of younger consumers who frequent it more than other social media networks. This makes the platform feel intimate and therefore a good environment for content like Rent the Runway's virtual try-on, in which employees demonstrate how different dresses fit, and a Q&A with different members of the team.

Instagram Stories, on the other hand, has quickly grown, recently surpassing Snapchat for daily active users. The platform also benefits from its relationship with Facebook, enabling it to quickly build out marketer-friendly tools like analytics and landing page support. The size of the audience, as well as these tools, make Instagram Stories appealing to brands looking to build awareness and drive sales with as wide a group as possible.

Some brands may continue to work with both platforms if they find the audiences are different — which Rent the Runway tells Digiday is the case for its efforts. However, expect each to continue to try to gain a competitive advantage over the other. For example, Instagram is trying for a bigger role in shopping inspiration by recently enabling users to organize posts in folders. Snap's recent acquisition of Mobli's patent for geofilters could signal the company is eyeing an intellectual property ramp up as a way to strengthen its position now that it is flush with cash following a recent initial public stock offering.