How Fox is using new Instagram ads for its Fall TV lineup

By Garett Sloane • September 10, 2015 • 2 min read •

Fox is going to Instagram to spread the word about its fall shows using a new kind of ad called Marquee. The network launched the campaign yesterday to promote its latest television programs, “Scream Queens,” “Grandfathered,” “Grinder” and “Minority Report.”

Instagram introduced these new 30-second Marquee video ads for brands to use especially for launches and premieres for new shows and movies. The ads can only be bought directly through Instagram, and they are not available through the recently launched ad platform. The ad platform lets brands buy on Instagram, placing orders through third-party technology partners.

The Marquee ads are 30 seconds long, twice the length of the typical Instagram video spot. In late August, Instagram released widescreen and vertical video capabilities. The new shapes were seen as a way to encourage more movie studios to post trailers to Instagram, because they could now be seen in cinematic landscape mode.

In fact, Disney was quick to post its new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” trailer in widescreen on Instagram as soon as it was available.

Fox declined to comment about its use of Marquee ads to boost awareness of its new programming.

Instagram also said its ads business would expand to more countries starting Sept. 30, and yesterday it showed off some results from recent campaigns.

The Facebook-owned company claimed that e-retailer Gilt Groupe saw and 85 percent lift in app installs from its Instagram campaign. Also, Made.com said Instagram’s Shop Now ads helped increase the value of orders on its site by 10 percent.

The ad tech partners plugged into Instagram recently shared the results they are seeing in terms of pricing: Highly targeted video ads can sell for 2 cents to 9 cents a view, according to one partner. That works out to $20 to $90 per 1,000 views. (The pricing depends on the quality of the ad and whether Instagram users are stopping to view with them.) One partner, Salesforce, said it is seeing $6.29 CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), and a click-through rate of 1.5 percent on Instagram ads, which is almost double what it is on Facebook.

Instagram is expected to hit $2.8 billion in ad sales by 2017, according to eMarketer.