Three brands slaying Instagram right now

Represent Clo. 

Represent are all about aesthetics. If you’re into boxing or men’s streetwear/fashion in the U.K. you will feel at home on their Instagram page.  

Their grid is home to a blend of lifestyle content. It features young guys wearing their oversized tees sat on the hoot of a vintage Rover parked in the dessert alongside others in varsity jackets sat in the bleacher’s or against a scrummage machine. The content just looks cool, you know? 

Represent Clo. also mix in sports to their grid, including partnerships with brands like Everlast. While Everlast may not be the first name you think of in men’s fashion, they are a brand with a strong heritage and legacy within their specific audience. 

Represent Clo. has also nailed influencer marketing. Their influencers are not your typical creators, instead they partner with genuine stars. These include American singer and actor Jamie Foxx and professional boxer Conor Benn.  

The biggest star of all is a genuine household name and star of the Premiere League, Erling Haaland. Haaland has many brand partnerships, ranging from being an athlete for KSI and Logan Paul's Prime to Clash of Clans, a game played by millions (including myself) every day.  

Partnering with a global phenomena like Haaland offers huge global reach and relevancy to a young male audience, even if not immediately, but in the future when they have disposable income beyond the price of a bottle of Prime. 
Key takeaway: Your social media profile should feel like a bar. People might walk past in the street and pop in for a drink, but they’ll only turn into regulars if the staff are friendly, the music is a vibe and the chairs are comfy. Invest in your aesthetic to make your social media profile feel like a cool community for your target audience.  

The Ordinary 

The Ordinary have made a real disruption in the beauty and skincare industry with a focus on minimalism and simplicity. They take complicated information and make it simple. Their aim to make skincare accessible and effective, with transparency and information at the heart of their social media strategy.  

I myself have recently started dabbling in skincare. I recently bought a L'Oreal med pack which came with vitamin C, an eye roller, and a moisturizer. Suddenly, I had these three things and now information on how to use them all together. I watched so many videos on TikTok, but I got so much conflicting information I ended up just going with what my girlfriend suggested instead. 

While researching for this blog, I saw the below story which explains how to use their 3 products in combination with each other. Not only are they selling straightforward products, but they also provide their community with value by explaining how to use them too.  

Key takeaway: The lesson here is that you don’t always have to follow what the crowd is doing. If you can add value to your community in a simple way, then do it. 

Surreal 

What I love about the high protein cereal disruptors is that when you read their content you get a genuine sense that you’re speaking to a mate. Their conversational tone of voice and the way the way they put just enough text on each slide of a carousels is really engaging. 

Surreal don’t post streams of product shots for product launches. Instead, they highlight real stories about how in-demand their cereals are. For example, after a sell-out launch they made a spoof post about someone selling a box of their chocolate hazelnut flavour for £1000 on eBay (it was them). 

The big takeaway here is the importance of tone of voice and how you speak to your audience. If you get someone else to read your content and it feels like a genuine conversation that you would have in real life, then it will be much more relatable and authentic. Social media is just communication with your customers in a different format. So, if you can speak their language, perfect. 

In summary: 

1. From Represent Clo. learn to think about the aesthetic of your brand and how you’re portraying it online. Sell it as part of a lifestyle and consider working with creators who can best represent that lifestyle.  

2. From The Ordinary, keep it simple.  

3. From Surreal, think about how you communicate with your customers. Do your conversations feel real and authentic? If not, it might be time for a change.