Meta is narrowing in on Reels as the future of its advertising business, Meta executives announced at the Interactive Advertising Bureau NewFront's conference yesterday.
Reels are becoming increasingly popular on both Facebook and Instagram. Users are currently sharing content in the short-form video of Reels more than two billion times a day, double the amount compared to six months ago.
The short-form video format also ties into what Meta predicts is trending in the marketing industry in 2023.
“Video is the future of our platform,” stated Alvin Bowles, Meta’s VP of business ecosystem partnerships.
Surprisingly, Meta did not present any new advertising strategies or innovations at the conference. Instead, the company focused solely on the advertising potential of Reels and what can be done to make the format financially lucrative.
One such step is Meta’s development of Reels to feature multiple product links in one video and allow users to pause and preview links during the Reel without having to leave the video. While this feature is already available on Facebook, it is scheduled to become available on Instagram in the near future.
Meta also unveiled a series of new advertising products to potential media buyers at the conference, including those which utilize AR for the Reels format.
A demonstration of the advertising test product was presented in collaboration with Sephora, presenting an AR experience using an in-camera filter. The AR tech selects a perfume from Sephora’s existing collection based on a user’s “aura vibe” and then redirects users to Sephora for the possibility of purchasing.
This is just one of the possible ways that Meta plans to make Reels a top advertising format in its business.
