India is the first market globally where Reels consumer marketing campaign has been launched. ‘Do Your Thing’, Instagram advertising campaign, was launched on Sunday during the IPL. It will have multiple creatives appearing on TV and digital, and will continue through the rest of the year.
Reels came in to fill the gap left by the TikTok ban in late June. Instagram launched the Reels tab in India, in July, due to the interest and creativity. India was the fourth country where Reels was available, after Brazil, Germany and France. In August, Instagram launched Reels in over 50 countries, including the United States. Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s India managing director, said the launch of Reels has led to an explosive growth in consumption and creation of short video content on the platform. He highlighted that four out of five most shared songs from the music ticker globally are of Indian artists. “Two out of five songs shared the most globally on Reels are from Indian artists. Discovery through Reels has been driving very strong follower growth for creators in India,” Mohan said. “Even without any overt effort, we are seeing both new creators as well as public figures and celebrities leveraging Reels in the last couple of months.”
Mohan said Instagram growth has been pretty strong over the last few years, even before Reels. The new short video format has contributed to the continued momentum including explosive growth in consumption and creation of short form videos. “Given that Instagram as a platform, even before Reels, has been a natural home for partnerships between people, influencers and brands, we are seeing grater advertiser interest. In fact, we are seeing a lot of brands organically using Reels,” he explained. “It is all organic given the nature of Instagram, but we are learning in and making sure that we are programatically connecting the dots between influencers creators and brands as well.” Mohan revealed that their focus has also been on building features that fight bullying, and improve equity. He said there is a strong focus on fairness and mental health, and the idea of people feeling supported.
