Instagram account takeovers is not by any means a new concept. It’s been around for years. Here’s how it works: A brand hand over their account details to a subject matter expert or a celebrity and the guest-Instagrammer will then share red carpet- backstage- and other photos or video clips that’ll injects new energy and variation into the Instagram content feed. It is influencer marketing at its core and a partnership where both parties get visibility and reach out to new audiences and potential followers/customers. Win win.
But, this particular Instagram takeover between world renowned drum kit cymbal brand Sabian and drummer Glen Sobel seems to develop into quite the hard-hitting somethin’-somethin’.
Glen Sobel is the drummer of the Alice Cooper band (for which I also had the great pleasure of writing a press release for a while back). Glen is currently touring the world with the legendary front man and when he’s not performing for thousands of fans; he is also a keen instagrammer. His drum kit is in part built with cymbals from Sabian and Sabian kindly let Glen takeover their Instagram account for a few days.
Here’s how a classic brand and a world class drummer are rockin’ the Instagram takeover:
When I am writing this, Glen’s takeover-week has just started and he has posted a handful of concert and behind the scenes video clips. The amazing thing is that within 23 hours, he has drummed up (oh yes, I did!) close to 45,000 video clip views and about 7,000 likes on his two photo posts.
For Sabian, these close-up concert and backstage video clips are like nitroglycerine for the brand’s coolness factor and by doing an Instagram takeover, Sabian give their cymbal-lovin’ followers access to incredibly rare content.
As if this wasn’t enough; in one of the video clips, Glen is giving the viewers ‘a quick tour of the cymbal setup’. From left to right, Glen is passionately name dropping his entire cymbal spec and endorses cymbals like this:
…the 15 inch HHX Power Hats. These are killer and perfect for this gig!
Needless to say; this clip alone is near-guaranteed to generate massive interest and sales from Sabian’s 169K drum-lovin’ followers:
Ett filmklipp publicerat av SABIAN Cymbals (@sabiancymbals_official)
The best part is that this takeover and the product endorsements do not feel forced at all. There’s no zooming in way too close on the Sabian logo (like every single time the good guys roll up to crime scenes in any given US TV crime drama and the camera zooms in on the black SUV’s logo) and the Sabian name is actually never mentioned in the tour of the cymbal set up.
As a viewer I am thoroughly entertained - it feels like truly genuine content and for a non-drummer and non-musican like myself; Sabian is now top of mind as an overall cool brand and something closely associated with rock ‘n’ roll. I may not go out and order a 15″ HHX Power Hat (simply because I wouldn’t know what to do with it), but I would definitely consider ordering Sabian merchandise. So, you can just imagine the impact this takeover will have with drummers and drum techs around the world.
Well done, Sabian and Sobel. Well done.