Instagram has a lot going for it right now: 3 million active advertisers, an opportunity to capitalize on commerce, impression growth, a love affair with DTC brands, the continued breakneck growth of Stories … and the fact that a lot of people still don’t necessarily associate it with Facebook.
The Facebook connection has been both a boon to Instagram – the two share resources and a powerful advertising system – and, to observers at least, somewhat of a bane.
It raised eyebrows when Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger abruptly left the company in September 2018, and reports focused on clashes between the Instagram and Facebook leadership teams.
But there is a lot less drama in the day-to-day operations at Instagram, said Jim Squires, Instagram’s head of business who joined shortly after Facebook’s acquisition, following a four-year stint as a director of product marketing at the big blue app.
“The teams work so closely,” Squires said. “It’s so collaborative that you don’t see that [friction] internally.”
Squires would rather focus on the future, and the opportunities are vast, he said. Shopping and Stories are his two top priorities this year, and he’s equally bullish on both.
“For the business, that is definitely where we’re focused,” he said.
AdExchanger caught up with Squires before he heads to Cannes to talk monetization, commerce, Stories and Facebook’s plans for an interoperable, so-called privacy-focused, future.
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