Instalove, Europe’s first Instagram only series, is one of the first ever content series that was specifically written for and distributed through Instagram. Using the only authority youngsters listen to: influencers. A true media-innovation that combines the power of social with a strong and relevant influencer integration.

By creating an entertainment series that was specifically written and produced for Instagram, starring massively popular youth influencers in lead roles, Instaloves cultural impact was considerable.

The series broke down the still existing barriers between communication agencies and entertainment companies to create an outstanding series that got nominated for the prestigious Rose D’or.

When it comes to smoking, even better than to quit, is not to pick up the habit in the first place. Kom op tegen Kanker, the Flemish institute for cancer prevention wanted to raise awareness amongst youngsters (13y-17y) about the negative consequences of smoking and prevent them from starting to smoke. However, every time they tried to, youngsters didn’t listen or – even worse – rebelled against it. But how do you get such an ‘uncool’ message across to a target group audience that - let’s be honest - doesn’t listen to anyone…

Objective: increase negative attitude towards smoking with youngsters aged 13 to 17 years old,

KPI’s:

-Reach & awareness: Get our message to as much youngsters as possible before they start to smoke.

-Appreciation: make our message heard and accepted by them

-Behavioral change: Change their attitude towards smoking and increase the intention to never pick up smoking

We developed an Instagram-only series in which massively popular Flemish influencers acted out a dating game. The most important rule in the game: when you date a smoker, you lose points. Throughout the series, the influencers expressed their disgust for smoking as being a toxic, uncool, passé habit. However, they did it in a way that didn’t raise questions among the target audience watching.

For 6 weeks, we told the story of 4 friends, all lacking luck in love, who decide to create a game where they can get points when fixing dates.

Bonus points were given when dating older people, twins, famous people.

Minus point were given when dating smokers.

More than 26 popular influencers were casted to play the lead and guest roles in the series.

By making smoking part of the game, our message could be discretely integrated into the series, without coming across as patronizing.

Young people don’t like to be told what to do, certainly not by big organisations that don’t personally speak to them. So 'Kom op tegen Kanker' was not the best bearer of this message. It had to be brought in a subtle, almost hidden way. In order to get through to this complex audience, we had to let those do the talking, that youngsters do listen and look up to: influencers.

They're also a very hard to reach target: their media consumption is fragmented and non-linear. Research showed Instagram was by far the most popular platforms among the target audience, as 9 out of 10 have an account. Also, they love watching series as shown by the ‘Netflix craze’ of the past years. We thought it would be interesting to develop a format combining their love for series and their fast-paced Instagram format, offering a new way of consuming

When creating a series that is Instagram-first, this means following the rules of the platform. So, each scene was specifically written to be no more than 15 seconds, the maximum length of an IG story, shot from a selfie perspective through our custom-made camera equipment. In total, over 650 scenes were shot, providing over 1 hour of content.

The series ran for 6 weeks and was first promoted through the casted actors, who were all social media influencers with a large following amongst the target audience. We reinforced the launch with targeted weekly trailers, combined with smart youth media partnerships who integrated in the series in their youth shows.

The series was distributed throughout the day using Instagram stories. After each day, the stories were gathered in Instagram highlights, so youngsters could catch up anytime. At the end of each week, a shortened compilation episode was broadcasted through Instagram TV.

Our Instagram page reached +27.000 followers with an engagement rate +70%. +18.000 people watched the show, every day, for the next 6 weeks. Reaching +7 million viewers in total.

With +23% of all Belgian youngsters who saw the show on Instagram, a spontaneous awareness of almost 20 % and an astonishing 46% aided awareness, Instalove clearly was the talk of town.

When asked how the series changed their stance about smoking, over 1/3th of all respondents confirmed they have a more negative stance around smoking.

- 93% said Instalove stimulated them to never pick up smoking

- 60% said Instalove made it easier for them to say no to smoking

- 42% said the series convinced them to ask their peers to stop smoking.

But the most encouraging result was that, after years of stagnation, the percentage of smokers aged 13 to 17 dropped from 15,7% to 14%.