Five Smart Ways Brands are Using Vine

What’s the difference between Instagram and Vine? With Instagram, you get to look at food. With Vine, you get to look at food for six seconds. Badum-tish!

While Vine had a lot of critics lamenting its novelty aspect (and naughty side), savvy brands have been quick to get on board with the fun new feature, using Vine in a variety of engaging ways.

Product placement

Dove has come up with a smart way of promoting its colourful range of shower gels with this Vine offering. The product looks attractive and the clip has a humorous twist, plus they made a bit of a deal out it being their first Vine post, so people were more likely to give it a watch.

Satisfy curiosity

The six-second medium affords brands the opportunity to give fans a richer ‘sneak peek’ experience, so this Virginia Beach cafe (boasting just 171 followers – initiative!) helped its fans understand exactly how their morning coffee comes into being.

Share the fun

Confused.com has married the internet’s love of animal videos with an appealing brand-centriccompetition; its fans are encouraged to upload their own Vine creations to win £250.

Fortify your reputation

BuzzFeed is already a very likeable brand, but their amusing Vine video showing staff piling out of the office for lunch says ‘Hey fans, we’re just like you!’ = instant brand loyalty points.

Sex appeal

Marketers have long since exhausted the old ‘put a pretty girl on it’ ad trick, but the opportunity to do so in a six-second video clip is brand new. Don’t worry, Desigual is on it.