Instagram Reels: The New Tiktok?

It’s no secret that TikTok has been the fastest growing social media platform of 2020.

Undoubtedly accelerated by the Coronavirus outbreak, Tiktok has seen an astronomical rise in users aged 16-24 making it seem like the perfect place to advertise to a younger demographic. 

However this meteoric success hasn’t come without it’s own set of problems, mainly its struggle to attract an older audience with purchasing power, which has led many potential advertisers to shy away from the platform; combining this with the global distrust of TikTok’s parent company leaves a massive gap in the social media space which other platforms had yet to take advantage of.

Until now…

Instagram’s recently announced their ‘Reels’ feature, which aims to take advantage of its already strong hold within the 18-24 year old demographic; hoping to secure a migration of new users in the event of TikTok’s ban.

The new feature is embedded within Instagram’s stories tool, adding more flexibility for users to create short videos with high shareability. This on its own is something for businesses to get excited about, giving them the opportunity to market themselves to a younger demographic in a new way but it should also be noted that Instagram also has a well established hold on the 30-49 demographic, who, as mentioned previously; hold a high purchasing power.

It will be a while before the full impact of Instagram’s ‘Reels’ is realised, however, it will have a far-reaching effect on the marketplace, with the current hardships that the pandemic has brought, being at the front of current trends could make a huge difference.

If you’d like to speak to an expert on social media advertising give us a call on +44 (0) 138 269 9595.