Creative Flat Lays For Instagram & Beyond
The need for content has never been greater and finding new ways to engage your customer and display your product uniquely can be a constant challenge. With all the promotions and sales on your marketing calendar how do you keep your content fresh and inspiring?
Large campaign shoots and product photography are a standard and necessary part of your content marketing strategy but for most brands that isn’t enough. Creative flat lays for instagram, emails, or even landing pages on your site are a great way to show your products in new and interesting ways without blowing your budget on additional model shoots.
Simple but powerful
A flat lay setup can often be simple but may focus on a group of products that you’re promoting, a new color way, or a focus on a special feature. It’s a perfect way to bring your product to life and supplement your regular marketing content. Occasionally you may want to add some props but elaborate sets or expensive props are not necessary for these types of shoots–instead focus on lighting and backgrounds, styling and layering products, and overall composition of the photo.
Let’s look at 3 brands that do it well.
Cast Study #1 - Lighting & backgrounds that make a statement
Flat lays for instagram, email, and other digital marketing needs to stand out and stop you in your tracks–powerful lighting or a unique background can do just that.
Hudson Jeans uses a dark background with a dramatic light in this flat lay setup to keep their content consistent with their brand identity and emphasize the luxury of the brand and the high quality craftsmanship. The highlights and deep shadows on the product from the lighting bring out the texture and evoke a feeling from the customer. A simple white background and flat lighting wouldn’t have the same effect and would feel generic. When a customer scrolls through instagram or email this brand-centric content looks different than others and will engage and draw the customer in deeper.
Case Study #2 - Inspire cross-selling with full looks
When designing a collection with products that are meant to be worn together it’s important to show customers how to wear those looks. Seeing a full look together helps a customer envision how they will wear it and encourages cross-selling throughout your site. Although full looks are typically photographed on-model, it doesn’t always have to be that way–you can easily and beautifully style looks together in a flat lay setup, which keeps your budget lower and keeps a focus on your product, without distraction of a model.
Janie and Jack’s collections have apparel and accessories that are meant to be worn together. Styling these looks together as a flat lay helps inspire customers to put purchase outfits for special occasions and helps them see how to layer and accessorize. A white background and a softer light helps keep the focus solely on the look and allows for multi-channel usage.
Case Study #3 - Strong compositions make strong images
Sometimes it’s as simple as the arrangement of a group of products that make a photo stand out. Flat lay setups with unique angles and well thought out layering and placement engage the customer and keep your image from being glazed over.
Dakine uses a 45° degree camera angle to give the customer an unfamiliar perspective and groups products together to promote specific categories or styles. These flat lays for instagram, email, and on-site landing pages display the variety of styles or colors they offer in an unexpected way that grabs the customer’s attention. Be thoughtful about negative space, cropping, and the order in which items are placed.
Flat lays brought to life
Flat lays, especially with soft goods, are very style-intensive. Don’t underestimate the need for an experienced stylist to bring the product to life. Whether your focus is on cross-selling, powerful brand-centric imagery, or composition that draws in your customer, a stylist is necessary for every successful flat lay setup.
As you ramp up your content production, remember that creative flat lay images can be as powerful as your other marketing content and can be used throughout most of your marketing channels. Ask yourself how they can supplement your current content and be used to direct and inform your customer on who you are as a brand and your promotions and offerings.
Looking for some help with your flat lays? We’d love to partner with you. You can contact us at info@hyperblackstudios.com
