35 Brands That Are Killing It On Instagram

Instagram is definitely a social media channel that has it all: the visual appeal of Pinterest, the humongous traffic reach similar to that of Facebook, cluster-like exposure of LinkedIn, the hashtag prowess of Twitter, and more. A rather powerful platform, Instagram brands have taken their advertising and promotion game to a whole new level by making a striking statement, thanks to various Instagram features. 

There’s so much that Instagram has to offer as a full-fledged social media platform; the stories, the IGTV, the new REELS feature, various filters, and so much more. With marketing mantras ranging from helping the community to devising creative offerings such as on-demand graphic design modules, the Instagram brands have worked immensely to connect with the consumers and encourage them to engage at all times. Here are the top 35 Instagram brands, that we think, really put out an ‘A’ game with their innovative concepts for Instagram engagement.

1. Sephora

Apart from virtual beauty consultations and Reserve-Online-Pickup-In-Store feature, Sephora has started to remodel not only its Instagram but also the stores. The brand was the first-ever of the beauty retailer Instagram brands to form a partnership with the new Instagram Checkout. Sephora has also collaborated with Klara to ensure that there is an availability of different types of payment modes.

2. Etsy

Etsy seems to have progressed its journey on Instagram immensely. The e-commerce brand has continued to work on its search tool and recommendation feature. Maintaining a consistent color scheme and content type throughout the feed has also helped them keep their audience engaged. 

3. Buzzfeed

An Online entertainment brand – Buzzfeed along with its experienced bloggers, and news brand have adopted the development of these types of content pieces – relatable content, with a dash of sarcasm, to please the customers, and counter-programming (write-ups that can help the consumers forget about the reality). Their comic content with a super-relatable approach is an audience favorite. It has also recently launched the Shop BuzzFeed, which is an online swag store.

4. Halo Top Creamery

Everybody loves a good ice-cream, and Halo Top Creamery knows it. Their bio reads, “There’s nothing wrong with putting yourself first. And definitely nothing wrong with ice cream as a close second. #StopShouldingYourself”. They managed to maintain the aesthetic of a great food brand to keep their audience hooked to their delicious posts, vibrant colors, and the ‘mood for food’ feel.

5. Lululemon

Lululemon took advantage of the grass-root community marketing approach that it has taken over the years. The brand has about 2000 international brand ambassadors that wear Lulu gears while teaching classes. This brand has also launched Community Carries On, which displays free workouts and practices. It also released similar content on IGTV and YouTube. The brand also introduced the Move & Stay Connected Challenge” with Strava (a fitness app).

6. Shopify

The eCommerce brand, Shopify, has extended its services to small and medium-sized businesses. Their Instagram is worthy because they shared meaningful content for their audience around themes such as ‘Best of 2020’. With the pandemic hitting the most to these companies, the brand has launched the app “Shopify Shop”. It assists the merchants to gain customers by browsing the products in the app directly. Now, the customers do not have to download separate apps for separate purchases. 

7. Brit + Co

Over the past few years, Britandco has gained popularity for being a digital brand catering to the needs of women. It offers DIY content along with educational classes. Their Instagram is quirky, colorful, and tempting to engage with. Recently, the brand has partnered with Office Depot for launching ‘Selfmade’. It is an online start-up school with a duration of 10 weeks for women.

8. Ikea

DIY has always been a favorite area of interest for Instagram audiences. And this is where DIY furniture also comes in. The furniture retail brand has launched the “Click and Collect” program to help consumers experience safe and contactless shopping. Apart from that, Ikea has also introduced virtual consultations for furniture furnishings. 

9. Wendy’s

We all know Wendy’s social media game is savage. With over 1 million followers, the fast-food brand is keen to develop drive-thrus. They’re currently busy developing prototypes that can revamp locations to integrate this new system effortlessly. Wendy’s Instagram is humorous yet relatable and relevant as they continue to place their products in unusual ways. User-generated content is also their top strategy along with entertaining creative food layouts in the feed. 

10. Matt Adlard

Matt Adlard, a self-taught baker and Instagram influencer, currently has over 681k followers. His account picked up amidst the lockdown in early 2020 when people saw him aesthetically baking recipes that are to die for. With the massive amount of time in hand, numerous people have opted to watch the amazing journey of Mathew Adlard, previously known as Topless Baker, while he creates desserts. He connects with his followers by letting his audience know him on a personal level.

11. Alo Yoga

With an impressive presence in the yoga clothing industry, Alo yoga has opted for different strategies to keep the consumers hooked. The brand keeps posting different types of workout videos to assist the customers in exercising while carrying on their daily lifestyle. Alo Yoga has also ventured into the skincare field with its new line.

12. National Geographic Travel

The travel page on Instagram has quite an ardent following. With their highly visual content, intriguing photographs, and incredible videos, National Geographic Travel has found ways ‘larger than life’ to keep the audience engaged and to compete with other Instagram brands.

Their Instagram Stories are an ode to conservation efforts. A great example is their Swipe Up CTA which lands the visitor to a plastic use reduction pledge that they can share with their friends. They have also launched NatGeo@Home, which offers free educational content. Their USP is definitely the ability to partner with environmentalist influencers and promoting their content – always reaching out to a new set of audience.

13. Travel + Leisure

With the virus putting temporary restrictions on travels, travel brands such as Travel + Leisure can give you the dose you need. The brand has been posting superb-quality content along with beautiful write-ups. It is to ensure that you get immersed in the story that the picture wants to convey. People have been swooning over their content and planning the next year’s travel based on what they see.

14. Starface

As ‘skincare’ continues to be popular on social media, the intriguing acne-patch skincare brand, Starface seems to have thrived well on the platform. They have launched limited-edition stickers of Hello Kitty. Moreover, the brand has also given a makeover to the reusable storage box. Their ‘Yellow’ feed has a fresh skincare brand vibe and their meme content is on point.

15. Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co., one of the luxury jeweler giants, has been its usual-active on social media compared to others. Yet, with a whopping 11.8 million followers, the brand has continued to woo its target audience in mostly traditional mannerism, sending gifts during important events, and adding the touch of personalization to bond with clients.

16. Lush Cosmetics

Lush Cosmetics, a British-based cosmetic brand, has over 4.2 million followers on Instagram and has adopted several approaches similar to other Instagram brands to keep the customers interested. The most intriguing strategy was the development of a soap that disintegrates after using it for 30 seconds. It was a conscious effort of the brand to prevent the spreading of the deadly Covid-19. Lush collaborated with Deliveroo and offered it to customers with their meal orders in UAE. Again, their brand placement is unique and gels well with the trendy target audience. 

Here at Lush, our community drives our social media strategy. We are inspired by the conversations, content and trends our Lushies come up with on a daily basis. We elevate these forms of user generated content to continue to deepen our relationships with our community. With all that has happened this year we are excited to continue to use our platforms to bring our Lush family together.

17. WeWork

The real-estate brand, WeWork is currently working with the aim to minimize the cost of the services without hampering the safety and the health protocols of the workspaces. Providing a peep into gorgeous setups, they are certainly inspiring people to reimagine their workspaces.

18. GoPro

In a stroke of ingenious marketing strategy, the tech giant GoPro introduced the #HomePro challenge in spring of 2020. It is to connect with users that feel trapped at home and to expand the consumer base. The brand announced that the winners would get the Max or Hero8 Black cameras, along with a subscription of five years to GoPro Plus.

19. Barkbox

Love for dogs is universal. And people have certainly enjoyed watching a lot of Instagram dog videos. Barkbox, offering dog products and related services, has navigated the social media game with impressive marketing strategies. The most notable one is their flexibility in subscriptions. Curating cute dog pictures with their humans is certainly the highlight of their Instagram feed.

20. Converse

To compete with other Instagram brands in the sneaker manufacturing industry, Converse has maintained digital marketing via posts on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. The brand also launched an interesting crowdsourced campaign called – #CreateAtHome.

21. Nike

With 127 million followers, Nike has helped many customers by pushing them with new products and encouraging them to stay fit. Their light and comfortable products were suitable for working out inside the home. They focused on eCommerce to facilitate their customer and always kept them updated through online marketing strategy.

22. Shake Shack

Compared to other Instagram brands, Shake shack keeps adopting many unique opportunities to grab customer attention. To maintain hygiene, they have bought a new design for their store. They are serving many digital customers with safety and precautions; talking and promoting it all via Instagram. Their feed is all about using the trending material to create unique content. 

23. Mindbodygreen

The digital health and wellness brand Mindbodygreen has join other Instagram brands to help their audience maintain their health physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Using the right mix of warm and calm colors in their posts, they have rightly used engaging content such as quotes and infographics to benefit their audience with a great wealth of information. By sticking to one color palette and filter, they have managed to retain their audience’s fancy.

24. Under Armour Women

Under Armour women has helped many by offering a new and unique collection. They also as a brand awareness move inspired many people by uploading YouTube fitness videos. They also showed a body-weight workout session with no equipment, which was a great choice because people were looking for ways to stay healthy and active, while at home, with a lack of exercising equipment.

25. Kate Spade New York

The international luxury clothing and accessories brand Kate Spade New York has over 2.7 million followers on Instagram. With their feminine energy aesthetic, their feed has been able to engage an audience that loves a consistent color palette and a personal touch. Their professional outfit shots are killers and the behind-the-scenes posts are great to engage with. Their Instagram Stories successfully convey the brand value and luxury that comes with it.

26. Hubspot

With over 354k followers on Instagram, Hubspot is an Instagram brand helping businesses build remarkable customer experiences with a CRM platform that’s designed for scale and helping businesses grow better. Hubspot uses creatives to boldly talk about the most recent industry trends in the digital marketing world. With a visual representation, they are impressing marketing enthusiasts to the core. Now with the use of an automation platform, you can easily connect your Instagram with Hubspot, which helps you to publish Instagram posts automatically based on triggers.

27. Kylie Skin By Kylie Jenner

Maintaining a pink aesthetic throughout the feed, Kylie Skin is home to over 4.7 million skincare enthusiasts. By launching products that their target segment wants, the brand has seen high engagement rates through using Instagram stories, polls, and user-generated content. 

28. Netflix

As one of the biggest names in Instagram brands, Netflix has become one of the well-known media sources to entertain people and keep them mentally positive and engaged. They also held Netflix StreamFest in India, where they offered their viewers to watch Netflix for free for two days. Their feed is a sweet tease of what’s about to come and their IG stories are entertaining as well. 

29. Huda Beauty

With famous makeup tutorials and their range of widely-loved makeup products, Huda Beauty has been nailing their Instagram brand for a long time. The Founder of Huda Beauty, Huda Kattan, decided to contribute $1,000 to multiple freelance makeup artists. The company also donated to 100 artists to support them while they could not work during the pandemic. A small offering from Huda Beauty for the homeless and jobless shows the concerned owner’s contribution towards mending the financial impact on people. The page has 48.1 million followers who absolutely love the content and the product range. 

30. Studio DIY

DIY has always been a popular and excellent entertainment source. Studio DIY has been giving its audience many ideas and inspiration relating to home décor, costumes for an in-house family party, and a lot more fun things. These ideas cheer up everyone’s mood and the page has over 407k followers that engage well with the content on the feed.

31. Vans

With over 17.7 million followers, Vans showcases a lifestyle of adventure and shares compelling content that helps them build brand awareness. They don’t sell their shoes via their feed but they use video storytelling to create a connection with potential customers. Recently, Vans joined hands with many retailers, including Hedley and Bennett, for the supply of canvas and shoelaces. They also launched and promoted various varieties of face shields and masks to protect health care providers. 

32. Recess

Takearecess has a comprehensive and incredible variety of sparkling water that helps to maintain peace of mind. The product has benefited people for a long time, but the enthusiasm it has brought in a pandemic is remarkable. With over 77.2k followers, the brand has helped people feel excellent and balanced by the use of Instagram stories and vibrant feed posts. 

33. Teva

Teva is an Instagram brand with over 540k Instagram followers that adore and engage with their user-generated content on IG stories. Their feed comprises people flaunting their 100% iconic straps that are now made of recycled plastic. 

34. Gymshark

You may call it yet another active-lifestyle Instagram promotion page, but Gymshark’s 5 million followers have a different story to tell. Gymshark has been successfully contemplating their consumer behavior, and focus on health areas and topics of mental health, nutrition ideas, and ‘how to work out without equipment’ content recently. With their chosen color palette, Gymshark has a loyal follower-base. 

35. Wix

The past few years have seen many people start their own websites, podcasts, and other online businesses. This is where the Instagram brand Wix comes in. By using quirky imagery, the brand made sure it was capturing attention and showcasing what they had to offer. High on visual creativity, their Instagram is a feast to the eyes. 

Let us know your favorite Instagram brand and why you love it! We would love to hear and share the love with our audience.