Seeing an Instagram feed at the bottom of a company's website is nothing new. We've been seeing this web design trend for years, and it's used by companies from designer clothing brands to kitchenware to gardening tools. However, fashion retailer Old Navy uses the Instagram feed on its website a little differently. Instead of showcasing posts from its own Instagram account in order to encourage website visitors to follow, Old Navy uses the feed to share posts from real customers who use the branded hashtag #sayhi. This strategy has helped build the digital brand in multiple ways, from brand recognition to increased sales. In this post, we'll discuss how the Old Navy #sayhi marketing campaign uses curated content to build the brand's image and make more sales.
How Old Navy Uses the Instagram Integration on its Website
Old Navy's #sayhi (e.g., Say Hi) Instagram feed is found toward the bottom of the brand's homepage. A subheader explains, "Use #sayhi on Instagram @oldnavy to share your funnest, funniest, fashioniest Old Navy moments." As the name and subhead suggest, this feed contains exclusively user-generated content that has been curated from the Instagram hashtag #sayhi (and is tagged @oldnavy). User-generated content is invaluable for brands not only in that it provides media to fill up the page without any creative effort on the brand's part.
It also provides some social proof that other consumers love the brand and its products. By sharing the #sayhi feed on its homepage, potential buyers can see that both influencers and regular people and families enjoy Old Navy's clothes and products enough to share the love.
An integrated also injects a bit of lifestyle into the typical retail website formula. There's a marked difference between product photography for a web page, even when the clothing is being worn by a model, and the types of lifestyle shots that Old Navy fans are uploading with the hashtag. Evidence shows that lifestyle photography, which encompasses photos of products that are not solely based on the product, but also on the context it's portrayed in, does help brands sell more, especially on Instagram. Whether you're viewing Old Navy's hashtag feed on the app or the brand's website, seeing the clothes in a real-life setting helps reinforce the fact that its products are right for you.
Finally, Old Navy took the curated social feed one step further and created a dedicated page on its website that features the entire #sayhi galley along with shoppable links to the products shown in the images. A shopper only needs to click the post that inspires them, and inside, they can find a link to purchase the item right there on Old Navy's website. Because of the lack of linking opportunities on Instagram's platform, companies have long struggled with directing viewers from their posts to where they can buy. While Old Navy's approach to ecommerce is a set removed from Instagram, the shoppable links make it as easy as possible to find the item a customer is looking for on the website.
By including the #sayhi feed on its website, Old Navy is able to use user-generated content to develop the brand's identity while also increasing sales.
