Jun 21, 2022 - Economy

How-to videos dominate Instagram Reels

Hope King

a man in a room with abstract art holding a selfie stick and cell phone — An AR filter exhibit at Meta's Cannes Lions tent. Hope King/Axios

Cannes, France — Puppies and other animals aren’t pulling in the same kind of attention as tutorial videos on Reels, Instagram’s answer to TikTok.

Why it matters: Big platforms including YouTube, Snap, Instagram and Facebook have all been trying to tap the engagement pipe created by TikTok's format.

So it’s no wonder that brands, creators and the average user are all curious to learn how to make their own potentially-viral videos.

Other popular types of Reels content at the moment include comedy, augmented reality filters and other special effects, and short clips about cultural moments such as Pride, according to Grace Kao, head of business marketing for Instagram. She spoke to Axios on the sidelines of the Cannes Lions advertising festival.

The big picture: People already spend more than 20% of their time on Instagram watching Reels, Meta (the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp) announced earlier this year.

The company is reportedly set to push Facebook’s feed toward the format.
Meanwhile, Meta is investing $1 billion into creators, paying some people up to $35,000 a month for Reels that reach a certain number of views.

The bottom line: “We definitely want people to be able to break on Instagram,” said Kao.

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How-to videos dominate Instagram Reels

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