Instagram relents for Star Wars

Today the news came out that Instagram would be supporting vertical and horizontal photos and videos.

Instagram has firmly held its ground on its square formatting for many years, so why would they suddenly reverse course? Could it be that Disney and the Star Wars marketing team had some influence on this decision and the timing of its launch?

Other theories might be that they have been facing more competition and have been pressured into adding these long awaited “features”, or perhaps they truly have taken a fresh look at the data and are trying to better fit their user’s needs and want to minimize outside apps being necessary for their service.

My theory arose after the release of the new teaser for Star Wars - The Force Awakens, first debuting on Instagram. Many brands and marketers are using Instagram as a top-tier channel for their products and exclusive announcements, even NASA! So it certainly makes sense to me that Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, have added this new “feature” as a direct enhancement on their monetization model.