This summer Mercedes hired 5 Instagrammers with the mobile-centric agency Tinker Street to shoot their own road trip in the new CLA class - the person with the most likes at the end of the trip won a 3 year lease on the car.
It’s a direction many brands and agencies are experimenting with and it begs the question: are the photographers being paid for their images or for access to their followers?
At $2.85 CPM that comes to media buy of $256,500, or a minimun fee of $50,000 per photographer (on top of the normal creative fees and expenses). Except that engagment on Instagram is normally 18 times higher than other mobile services. On the upper end, that's $900,000 per photographer. Even wihtout knowing the exact number, it's easy to speculate that by hiring Instagrammers, Mercedes got the deal of a lifetime in advertising.
Knowing when to go into advertising and knowing the basics of how selling your photos could damage or improve, your reputation. Is a must.