Instagram is second most popular App and has a penetration of 43% among smartphone owners in 18-34 years age group.
Instagram posts have higher rate of engagement than Facebook posts.

Instagram campaigns could increase awareness of your brand or business with the target audience.
Instagram Brand campaign could include a contest or paid advertising targeted at a specific audience or post announcing new product launch.Some brands effectively announce new products with Instagram posts. Ads are known to have created significant recall with a targeted reach.

Brands increase awareness and recall for brand messaging as evident from Instagram advertising campaign research indicating 32 pc increase in brand recall and 10 pc  incremental lift in awareness for brand messaging.

The contest can prove effective in building your brands following, email lists and increase conversions. The contest design can be determined based on the objective of your campaign.

There are several contest designs that have proven effective on Instagram. Some of the designs that are effective and can be used to create engagement are Raffles, Featuring Participating entries, and Rewards such as gift cards.

1. Build a contest inviting participation by submitting emails with a contest site and Instagram username. Choose a Hashtag that improves recall for the contest such as #Fantographer as seen for Beeafantographer for Applebees.Announce the contest on the brand’s Instagram with a link to the website.

2. Use Instagram to promote products with a fulfillment on a website as in the case of Oreo Mini. The post encourages audience to log in to a website to place a delivery order.

3. Instagram can be effective for launching a new range or arrival of new product.The product launch could be linked to a location and invite audience to post images with the product. The winning entry could be rewarded with free products or a Gift Card.

http://instagram.com/p/r6kbNgSndp/

4. Create ads targeted at Instagrammers to Promote brand with the right demographic. The brand advertising can bring likes and shares while creating awareness and recall.

5. Instagram community that has large followers can plan contests around showcasing the images featuring the winners.

6. Raffle contests are useful in generating participation with prize for the winning entry. Raffle contest encourages participation linked to a desired action such as submitting email address or liking a post.

7. Instagram posts boost engagement and with a contest design brands could create greater recall as seen for Dunkin Donuts Halloween campaign. The campaign was designed to reward audiences with a  gift card on successful completion of submitting spookily dressed coffee cup.

8.Creating Instagram contests that require Audience to participate by way of including themselves with the product can increase awareness for brands’ products. One example that created a stir with audience was CK promotion which invited Instagrammers to post images of themselves to be featured with the models.

9. Brands could consider including hashtags that are trending to get discovered.

10. Promote your brand campaign and contest on Social Media Channels to encourage sharing and greater reach.

Source: Instagram Business Blog and eConsultancy