Diversity in Photography
When we did our brand refresh a few years ago, we teamed up with Arturo Torres and LOLA Creative for a photoshoot. The shoot was executed flawlessly, highlighting our shoppers, customers, and their interactions. Our photography would go on to be quite effective, with one focus driving our success; Our now viral Instacart Grocery Bag that played on the Experimental Jetset’s Beatle’s iconic t-shirt.
While the bags were successful as a tool for word-of-mouth growth in their own right, we found that utilizing them in our marketing collateral didn’t allow specific campaigns to flourish. Furthermore, the curiosity factor of the bags was great for potential shoppers yet didn’t resonate for repeat shoppers who needed to reaffirm what our actual services were. As we began to increase our market share, it became important to create sustainable marketing initiatives, which includes photography that is representative of the diversity of our shoppers and customers.
The first thing we had to do was shift the focus back on to people, which meant revising our USP on our bags and t-shirts (shout out to Babylon Burning) to “Same day grocery delivery.” The second was providing the correct environment to shoot in. Again, we enlisted the help of Arturo and Katie from LOLA Creative who helped shoot, organize, style and allow me to cast and direct the shoot. Third, and most importantly, were the people. We have the privilege of having actual Instacart customers share and depict their stories in front of the camera, lending their authenticity to the shoot.
I enlisted Arturo’s help again, along with Katie helping direct, organize and allow me to cast the shoot. This was such a key part to the finished product this time around. We had a bit more to work with so we could cast additional models. Typically the mothers in our Instacart shoots are actual customers which is a huge plus. I wanted to portray that Instacart can be used by anyone.
We wanted to get a little more usage from this shoot, and still get every part of the Instacart process. This looks a little like:
- Shoppers in-store, scanning products with devices and working with different products
- Shoppers delivering the groceries to different homes and customers
- Customers ordering on devices with their family
- Customers enjoying the result of the Instacart experience
Being resourceful we used one store location (Mollie Stones!) as well as one home location that had a few different looks (shoutout to my big bro Max). This allowed us to spend less time transporting lighting/crew/cast and focus on the shots. We casted a few different families and shoppers, making sure we represented different cultures within our limitations of timing/casting.
As you can imagine, not everyone can show up on your specific shoot date, the casting database isn’t infinite, and not everyone lives in our region. We were resourceful and fortunately for us, most of our Moms were already Instacart customers :-).
Malika Yasmin is probably one of the coolest Moms that I’ve ever met. Apart from having a beautiful family that enjoys eating healthy, she documents her whole experience from ordering to meal prepping and making elaborate meals to on-the-go snacks.
I’m really proud of this shoot. Very blessed to have been able to rope in people that I really care about, Shabazz (our resident DJ and my cuz), Grady Brannan (legendary photographer and good friend) and so many others. Thank you everyone for helping us create something we are really proud of. With what’s happening right now, let’s continue to make sure we are representing how the world around us actually is.
