Monari on using Instagram Reels as a fashion brand

By now, we’ve all heard about Reels - the short, fun, and often addictive (!) videos are all over Instagram. They’re an excellent way to educate potential customers about your brand and introduce your products in an approachable way. Monari, a leading German women’s wear brand, uses Reels to drive awareness and enable a seamless shopping experience. Read on to discover how the retailer creates Reels with Live in less than five minutes. What else? We share five handy tips to help you create powerful Reels as a fashion brand.

Live is our all-in-one content creation powerhouse for high-quality model videography, making it the perfect Reel creation tool for your studio!

How to shoot Reels as a fashion brand

The German fashion label Monari uses the popular video format to showcase their collection to their Instagram audience. Clearly successful, the brand’s Reels are met with thousands of views and lots of content interactions of their dedicated followers: “The feedback is great. Our followers love our Reels.” 

“Recording a Reel takes less than five minutes.”

The thought process behind the Reel creation starts at Monari’s e-commerce shoots: “We come up with our Reels once the model is dressed. Also, the season in which one would wear the outfit is relevant.”, says one of the Monari team members. When working with a new model, the crew gives clear instructions on recording Reels: From video duration, over camera positioning, and perfect posing. “We shoot with Live because it’s easy and gives high-quality results. Recording a Reel takes less than five minutes.” 

Taking advantage of social commerce with shoppable Reels 

Monari’s Reels not only optimally showcase key items of their latest collections but also make them shoppable. By tagging products directly from their Instagram Shop, Monari enables easy shopping for their audience. The brand cleverly uses Instagram’s social commerce features: By tagging relevant products in their Reels, they provide a seamless shopping experience for their customers. Shoppers can have a closer look at linked products, view them in Monari’s webshop, and purchase. Shooting high-quality visual content with Profoto equipment facilitates a seamless and consistent customer experience across channels. 

What to keep in mind to create successful Reels as a fashion brand 

Thankfully, shooting captivating Reels that interest your audience is no rocket science. We collected five handy tips for fashion brands to produce engaging Reels:

1. Jump on trends 
   It’s no secret that the Instagram algorithm pushes Reels that use trending audio significantly. Scroll through your Reels feed and save some audios that you think might work for your content. Then experiment with different audios, video length, and timing your recording correctly. Finding the right sound or song for your videos might be tricky at first, but it will pay off for sure. 
   
   
2. Start strong
   When creating a Reel, make sure to make it a “thumb stopper.” Ever heard of the “Three-second rule”? While watching their way through their Reels feed, Instagram users are flooded with engaging content in short-video format. Ensure that your Reel captivates the viewer within the first three seconds of watching - starting with the optimal thumbnail. Use one of the key items of your collection or showcase an extraordinary way of styling a garment to start your Reel strong. 
   
   
3. Share helpful content
   Build your Reels around topics that bring value to your audience. As a fashion brand, your Reel ideas may range anywhere from behind-the-scenes footage over care instructions and styling advice. Tagging relevant products in your Reels enables your audience to quickly learn more about items that catch their attention and purchase them seamlessly. Live offers all the capabilities needed to put your products in the spotlight while being as easy to use as a smartphone. With Live, recording different ways of styling your garments was never easier. Show different color combinations, add accessories, and play around with props or backdrops - Live is here to showcase your products in the best possible way.
   
   
4. Great lighting is key
   Make sure that you use proper lighting in your Reels. This helps customers to perceive your brand and product optimally and manages expectations. There’s nothing worse than ordering a piece of clothing that turns out to look completely different once it arrives at your doorstep. With Live, you capture garments with high-quality LED lighting. Show colors that are true to life and wow your audience with eye-opening photo and video content at the same time!
   
   
5. Use text wisely 
   When using text in your Reels, make sure to place it where it will be visible for the viewer. Building your Reels directly on Instagram can be of great help in doing so. Your caption should support your video content optimally, so make sure to make it meaningful, captivating and include a clear CTA for your audience to act upon. 

Reels content lives from creative ideas and captivating video. Using Live, you can easily shoot smooth transitions by saving your camera angle and settings. You can choose between different file formats and aspect ratios to shoot content perfectly suited for Instagram Reels. Once you’ve recorded the perfect video, you can easily export it, or even AirDrop it directly to your phone.