Instagram. A picture platform that transformed the social media stratosphere and changed the way the world interacts, shops, learns, and earns a living.
It also spawned a packaging phenomenon called unboxing, and now branded packaging has an new purpose in the consumer goods industry.
There are thousands of Instagram influencers — a combination of models, aspiring models, actors, singers, hair stylists, baby clothes enthusiasts, food bloggers, and fitness gurus — whose presence on social media has garnered global followers in the 100s of thousands and sometimes millions.
Savvy companies quickly caught on to their insta-popularity, and now use it to their advantage by sending these influencers products that they will “unbox” (unopen) on video for all their followers to see. This is what is now referred to as Influencer Marketing. Their mega following on Instagram and other social media sites directly correlates with huge boosts in sales, making unboxing a phenomenon of its time.
For the Instagram consumer, the packaging is equally important as the actual product.
Millennial consumers have widely moved away from traditional media and spend much of their time on Instagram searching for growing trends. As such, branded, unique packaging is growing more and more popular for consumer marketing.
What makes the unboxing experience worthwhile for companies? It’s all about the package branding both inside and outside the box. Brightly dyed boxes, standout fonts and logos, seamless outer packaging, beautifully padded and wrapped inner contents, fun messaging, and a product that oozes “cool” make for some of the better unboxing experiences.
