Here's How to Capitalize with Instagrammable Packaging

Have you seen the words “Instagrammable packaging” floating around the internet? The phrase has caught fire over the last year, with the significant rise of micro-influencers being used in lieu of traditional media advertisements, like banner ads. In today’s social media heavy world, brands are using “Instagrammable packaging” aka highly-personalized, on-brand and beautifully wrapped PR packages to cater to viewers on social media and offer unique customer experiences around the unwrapping of a product. Some companies are sticking out among the hundreds of other lifestyle brands by creating hyper-branded unboxing experiences that online viewers are excited to watch. 

Pretty in Pink: Glossier Designing for Instagrammable packaging is the one of the ways that UK makeup brand, Glossier, has taken over Instagram feeds for the last year. They’ve got a simple formula for viral success: trendy product colors + witty brand voice + flawless Instagram aesthetic. Glossier’s product packaging is simple, yet colorful and fun, and the design encourages users to post about it online. They’ve amassed over a million followers, which shows that they know how to create a fully-branded experience for customers and brand enthusiasts.

Over the Top: Tarte Another brand committed to their packaging experience is Tarte— a longstanding beauty brand and favorite of influencers. Tarte treats their influencers–called “Tartelettes–like gold, often sending them on exotic trips for the launch of a new makeup line. They also take great care in creating an experience around packaging, with both the box and the inner packaging materials stamped with the color scheme of the line. The makeup packages themselves are high quality, usually with a fun color or animal print. It’s totally on brand and warrants a customer showing off their new palette online.  

Mobile as a Brand Extension Influencers, makeup fans, and social media users alike are already on their phones snapping fun pics of your Instagrammable packaging. So why not go ahead and create a fun mobile experience for them that they can access right from the packaging? Now that iOS 11 allows iPhone users to scan QR codes through the native camera, it’s the perfect opportunity to sneak a QR code onto the box that brings the buyer to a really engaging mobile experience with your brand. Here’s one idea—an online augmented reality experience for an influencer to live stream and share on social! The user scans it and can activate a fun swatch of your product. After filming a swatch, the user can upload right to social media and share with followers. The process is easy and fun for makeup fans and can cultivate a new segment of the buyer’s journey. 

Making product packaging an extension of the  customer journey by showcasing Instagram-worthy product designs and on-brand packaging creates a fun engagement moment for anyone to snap, post online, and give a rave review to followers. Customers see packaging as a means to measure the quality of the product, both during in aisle shopping and scrolling online. Developing an entire story behind opening a package from your brand makes the experience not only exciting, but memorable.