Consumers share over two billion Reels daily: Arun Srinivas

Meta has rolled out a program #MadeOnReels, which aims to partner brands with the right content creators to help them garner audience retention for their marketing campaigns. 

The intent is to help brands capture audience retention on Instagram by partnering with authentic content creators and to cash in on the growing consumption patterns of reels. 

Campaign India spoke with Arun Srinivas, director and head of Meta India, to understand the intent behind this program, and how they aim to provide metrics to brands and learnings from campaigns created through the #MadeOnReels initiative. 

What was the intent behind launching the #MadeOnReels program, and how do you plan to leverage it to meet the brand's marketing objectives?

We have noticed that Reels is witnessing a significant consumer presence in India. Over three years, Reels has taken off and a lot of content is being churned out by creators. 

India's consumption patterns have also gravitated towards Reels. They are watching, sharing, discovering brands and ideas through Reels. It has become a part of the consumer's daily life. 

Globally and in India, consumers share over two billion Reels daily. So we are seeing that it's not only the discoverability trend that’s scaling, but consumers are sharing and engaging with the Reels they watch as well. The ecosystem of Reels has evolved in more ways than one. 

This is why we felt it was a pivotal point to launch #MadeOnReels. There has also been a lot of brand interest for Reels, but they weren’t getting the right handshake with creators. 

So we wanted to help them partner with creators based on their niche and use cases. The other factor was to bring the measurability aspect to the fore so that metrics like recall, brand message and persuasion, can be tracked. 

How can brands benefit from participating in the #MadeOnReels program, and what kind of return on investment can they expect from their campaigns?

Consumers are present on Reels, and if brands find an interesting way to tell a story, their marketing metrics will also increase. 

For us as a platform, our advertisers must see value in this avenue of marketing. 

What is the threshold for participation?

At the onset, we want to do this with over 30 brands. But we are also trying to look for diverse use cases across industries as well as brands that are looking to partner with small-town creators and reach out to a cohort market. 

There is no criteria for joining the #MadeOnReels program. It depends on the brand’s marketing criteria and the duration of its branded activity.

What are the key takeaways from brands that have used the program, and how will you apply these learnings to improve the #MadeOnReels program moving forward?

The branded activity on the #MadeOnReels program should be core and central to their overall marketing strategy. For instance, when Nexa was launching the new Fronx, they partnered with creators and gave them the freedom to curate a song. This strategy gets audience retention. 

The challenge arises when brands have already developed a campaign and are using Reels as the last approach to make their communication exciting. It won’t work because edits of the main campaign are just used in a short format, and it also doesn’t have the voice of the audience.

Being true to the audience and the brand’s core values is the sweet spot to garner impact on #MadeOnReels.

What is your vision for the future of the #MadeOnReels program? 

The ideal world would be one where this program becomes core to the marketing and creative development process. I wish brands start thinking about Reels in the early stages of the campaign. 

The success yardstick for brands is the volume size they can attain through Reels because there is a massive pool of audience that they can leverage from. 

We hope that there is more adoption of Reels where brands can naturally find a way to add this element to their marketing mix and start working with creators would be a success story for this program.