Social media's fashion war: Instagram superior to Snapchat

By

Rebecca Taras

Published
Mar 30, 2017

For better or for worse, social media has forever changed the fashion industry in terms of brand awareness, penetration of new markets (such as the Millennials) and relevancy.

When it comes to which channel is leading the digital race in the fashion world, Instagram—which launched one year prior to Snapchat in 2010—takes the prize, being used for 92% of social interactions with brands.

While designers initially saw value behind Snapchat due to its ability provide outsiders with a look into their business and personal lives, it lost a bit of luster when Instagram launched its Stories feature. Like Snapchat, users have the option to share videos and photos on their accounts for a period of 24-hours—but Instagram still carries more cache in that it also provides a portal for storing timeless photos.  

Snapchat's growth decelerated by 82%, while Instagram was able to capitalize on its existing captive audience of 300 million users daily when it launched Stories. According to TechCrunch, by October of 2016 Instagram's Stories feature was garnering 100 million daily users—roughly three months after launching. 

From a demographic standpoint, 51% of Instagram users are above the age of 35 (in comparison to 14% for Snapchat), making the platform more appealing to fashion brands since an older audience is more likely to have a higher level of disposable income. And since most fashion brands already have Instagram accounts, the Instagram Stories feature is more appealing to companies with little or no resources to manage social media accounts—especially since mastering the Snapchat platform can be tricky. 

As if that wasn't enough reason to appeal to fashion brands, last week Instagram announced it was bringing back an existing retailer feature which grants brands permission to tag unpaid posts with product details that could potentially entice users to visit their e-commerce site. This is a smart move considering a report by Feed Fashion stating that 50% of Instagrammers follow businesses and use the platform as a place to discover the latest trends.

In an effort to capitalize on the relaunch of the feature, brands like Ted Baker are starting to launch cheeky yet shoppable video campaigns and posts to help drive more sales. Baker's 360-degree shoppable video campaign called "Meet The Bakers," featuring a fictional sitcom family, used Instagram to showcase their latest fashions. This creative use of consumer engagement is the new face of retail and brand advertising, and the trend shows no signs of slowing.