Two fabulous Instagram takeovers

If you follow me on social media (and, if you don’t, I’m on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook here), you may have noticed that last weekend, when The Game Fair was on, I promoted two Instagram takeovers, and I wanted to explain a bit about these and how they work. Firstly, because Harriet Edwards (aka A Girl About Country) did an amazing job for Mackenzie & George, and secondly because Sophie Callahan (of Sophie Callahan Photography) did an amazing job for Hiho Silver. Despite really dodgy Wifi…

What’s an Instagram takeover?

An Instagram takeover is, usually, where a brand ambassador takes over a company’s Instagram feed for the day. More recently, the Instagram Story is where most of the takeover content happens, with perhaps a scattering of posts appearing the main Instagram feed.

Why are Instagram takeovers good?

A few reasons… and reasons that I will go into in a whole heap more detail on in the future. However, Instagram takeovers can be…

• A great way to utilise your brand ambassadors
• A nice way to promote brand ambassadors, so they get exposure to the company’s following, to help grow their own
• A superb way to generate new, exclusive content taken by a different person in a different way
• A fun way to explore events when most of the company’s team is stand bound or not at the event at all!
• …and more…

So what did Hiho and Mackenzie & George do?

Mackenzie & George’s Instagram takeover involved the lovely Harriet Edwards, Now, Harriet is a brand ambassador for M&G (as well as Hiho and others) and has a really good, engaged following on Instagram. Harriet set off with a plan for the kind of content she wanted to capture on her Instagram takeover and, despite having Wifi nightmares, absolutely nailed it. She interviewed Melanie, joint owner and founder of Mackenzie & George about The Game Fair and her favourite pieces, and also spoke to members of the team too. In addition, we got to see the machine that personalises the company’s lovely leather products in action… and I love that kind of thing! The company extended this further by giving Harriet cards with discounts on and when people found her around the event and asked her, she gave them a card. She also gave Sophie Callahan who was taking over Hiho’s Instagram, a shout out… and that made me smile a lot.

Sophie did a great job for Hiho, taking pics from around the showground, despite the dodgy Wifi signal! She captured the stand, gundogs in action and also met up with Harriet on the Hiho stand (and posted a lovely picture to Instagram that I have borrowed for this blog!). Sophie also gave Harriet a shout out, which was really lovely.

Why did it work?

Both ladies really understand the brands that they’re representing and, more to the point, understand how to represent themselves too. They’re professional but fun and also understand the brand values of the companies that they’re working with… so much so that the companies involved are happy to give them free rein on the content. Because they trust them, because they have put the time in to building the relationship. And when you see a takeover like this, it makes good ambassadors worth their weight in gold. On to the next one!