Instagram Shows That Digital Ads Can Be As Beautiful As Print Ads

We told you early in September and then again earlier this month that Instagram was planning to bring ads into your photo and video feed.  Well, that plan is finally coming to fruition.  Instagram just released the first images of what its ads will look like and said they will start appearing in your feed as of next week.  The ads which can be seen below definitely are well done — something Instagram said would be the case.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, check them out for yourself.  An important note, all ads (both photo and video) will be labeled “Sponsored” and have a button to hide them.

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What’s interesting about these Instagram ads is that none of them (at least the ones being displayed here) appear to be designed to sell product.  In fact, the ads look to be designed with the purpose of branding in mind.  These ads are beautifully done — like magazine ads, or you know, the ads you find in Flipboard and have a main purpose of keeping the brand top-of-mind in a consumers head.  All of these ads appear to be very well executed as well, utilizing the photo and the description area nicely (including great use of hashtags).

Based on what I’m seeing so far, I think these ads will do very well for Instagram/Facebook as well as the brands who work with them.  This is high quality stuff and reflects well on the brands.  At this point there is no reason to think these ads will not be well received by the user base.

A few of my favorites: the Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ad because it’s so clever, the W Hotels ad because it makes you want to go to that place, and the General Electric ad is great because they make so many products (including a bunch of home appliances) and it makes me feel like if they can build a jet engine they can make a great refrigerator or washing machine — but that’s just me.

What do you think of these ads?  Drop us a line below.