Companies have a long history of reaching out to prolific bloggers to promote their products. Many brands have witnessed escalating success after carefully targeting those who have subsequently written glowing sponsored posts, or shared via social media.

But as Instagram continues to grow, we’re witnessing the rise of “celebrity Instagrammers”: those with a global following who captivate with fashion, lifestyle, food, and street photography. While we’re not seeing any decline in brands and their relationships with bloggers, it is evident that businesses are increasingly turning to prolific Instagram users for their ability to spread word of their products through image-rich content. The other draw of Instagram too, aside from its popularity, is the fact that its notable users are often experienced photographers, allowing for a brand’s products to be presented professionally.

Recognising these facts, it’s understandable that brands have found unique ways to capitalize on Instagrammers’ talents. Burberry, for instance, hired graphic designer and most followed UK Instagrammer, Mike Kus (@mikekus) to take over its account throughout London Fashion Week in 2012, capturing a stream of real-time images from on and off the catwalk. Similarly, Mercedes hired five prolific Instagram photographers to take over its account, who were asked to post “awe-inspiring” images for the company’s “Take the Wheel” campaign. The results proved just how successful this marketing strategy can be: Mercedes’s official Instagram account achieved a total engagement rate of more than double, and an improved look to its feed, whilst Kus leveraged both his and Burberry’s Instagram streams simultaneously, inviting a larger audience to view the label’s products.

Rather than having an Instagram user take over its account, some businesses prefer reaching out to top Instagrammers, offering free perks in exchange for a certain number of brand-related images. That’s how Puma strategized one of their most recent photographic campaigns, contacting a number of Instagrammers including notable stars, Brian DiFeo and Sam Horine, to photograph Volvo’s Ocean Race in Abu Dhabi on an all-expenses paid trip. We at The Practice think that this is a particularly good tactic for brands to employ, because they not only gain the skill of the photographers in question, but also ensure reach to a set of larger audiences.

Brands are also increasingly aware that hiring professional Instagram users to shoot their campaigns is an effective and inexpensive alternative to using a studio and photographer, particularly as today’s smart-phone cameras can produce high-resolution images. Often too, consumers enjoy seeing relatable or achievable photographs in lieu of highly stylized ones. However, brands can often be accused for taking advantage of top Instagrammers, offering them insultingly low fees in exchange for a highly-directed shoot that would ordinarily cost substantially more. It’s an all-too common but sad fact, and something that many brands luckily don’t practice when it comes to a cost-saving strategy. Instead, we’re seeing more and more brands adopting the free and less-exploitative crowdsourcing format, targeting ordinary Instagram users for their images. Lancome for instance, excelled in a recent campaign to promote their new DreamTone serum, imploring women to post make-up free images of themselves under the hash tag, #BareSelfie. Over 500 images were posted, which although seems modest, resulted in a 4% conversion rate for the product, and produced a highly talked-about visual campaign in the meantime.

While this theme shows no sign of abating, we’re now wondering how long it will be before we see an explosion in brands partnering with Instagrammers for their video campaigns too. Already, we’ve seen Armani prove themselves as one of the trend’s pioneers, using Instagram fashion bloggers including the notable Chiara Ferragni to create Insta-videos for the label’s new perfume, Si. The brand achieved an exceptionally high engagement rate, with over 40,000 likes solely attributed to Ferragni’s videos, showing that this strategy is likely to become one of the next big things when it comes to social media advertising.

Do you have any favourite Instagram users? Have you noticed a rise in Instagrammers posting sponsored images for brands? We’d love to hear your take on the trend, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and have your say on our Facebook page. Find us on Instagram too!