Brands Briefing: Brands revisit their social playbooks as Google indexes more Instagram content

It’s not a completely foreign move; Google Search has already been showing results from TikTok, Reddit and other social media for months, and some Instagram results have already surfaced in select markets. However, it is a change that raises the bar for how brands show up online. Similarly to how some brands are retooling their websites to better pop up in ChatGPT results, some retail executives say they’re adjusting how they think about social media captions, posts and hashtags to maximize their chances of surfacing in Google Search. And, as the consumer landscape becomes crowded with dozens of upstarts in each category, ensuring that the right educational content shows up in Google Search could be key to converting new customers.

“If Instagram content is now searchable on Google, that changes the game,” Carol Chan, director of brand marketing at the bra brand Huug, told Modern Retail. “It’s not just about grabbing attention in three seconds anymore. It’s about building value that lasts beyond the scroll. … Brands now have to think about whether their content is actually useful, relevant and worth showing up in search.”

Hint Water, for instance, is planning to change how it posts on Instagram, knowing “all assets we create will be seen as discoverable, long lived and public facing,” CEO Michael Pengue told Modern Retail. He mentioned the brand wants its captions to have “descriptive, searchable language and keywords, and not just rely on general phrases or emojis.” Captions will also function as “micro-landing pages,” with product names, product benefits and calls to action, he said.

Hint still plans to post pictures of its brightly-colored bottles and cans, but posts will go beyond “our social calendar,” Pengue said. “In-feed posts are no longer for one-off trends,” he explained. Going forward, the brand will focus on “evergreen content that’s educational,” Pengue said.

Viv For Your V, a non-toxic period-care products brand, already uses its social media accounts to spread awareness about its leak-free pads and menstrual cups, and hopes Google Search will take advantage of that. “A lot of our videos [on Instagram] are talking to the camera and answering questions, and these could be the questions that people are Googling,” Kelly Donohue, marketing and design director at Viv For Your V, said.

The brand is now interested in using Google Search insights to “learn who our customer is and what they want from our brand going forward,” founder Katie Diasti said. “We’re going to be able to get so much feedback from search data that isn’t just from the [Instagram] comments section and from customer support emails,” she said. “And because we’re a startup, we can then react quickly to what they want.”

Springrose, an adaptive intimates brand, will continue crafting descriptors for photos on Instagram, also known as custom alt text, to make sure they are optimized for search queries, founder Nicole Cuervo said. And Lactalis Heritage Dairy, a dairy corporation that owns Kraft Natural Cheese and Breakstone’s cottage cheese, is thinking about making its Instagram captions “more engaging,” possibly with the help of AI tools, said Megan Patterson, head of digital marketing at Lactalis Heritage Dairy.

Still, Patterson said, her company is wary of jumping onto every new trend or tech tool. “I’m going to give it six to eight months to really see how and if I need to make any shifts,” she said. Currently, most of her company’s Instagram content reflects recipes or meal-prep tips.

The shift comes as younger shoppers are increasingly turning to social media apps like Instagram, instead of traditional search engines, to answer questions. A 2024 Forbes Advisor and Talker Research survey of 2,000 Americans found that 46% of Gen-Z respondents said they prefer social media over traditional search engines, per eMarketer. Gen Z is also 25% less likely to use Google for searches, compared to Gen X.

Indexing Instagram content on Google thus reflects how young people “actually explore and engage with brands today,” Huug’s Chan said. “It makes total sense, and it’s where the future of search is heading.” –Julia Waldow

CharCharms hits Target, backed by social video

CharCharms, the water bottle accessory brand, is gearing up for its biggest season yet with a new back-to-school collection launching at Target, tapping into teens’ and tweens’ obsession with customization. 

CharCharms debuted at Target in September, and founder Charlotte Trecartin tells Modern Retail she was already developing this year’s back-to-school collection at the time, knowing that it would be prime time for sales. It includes charms, straw toppers, bottle boots and other accessories like pouches, with a new packaging look to help it stand out in the back-to-school displays alongside bottles like Owalas and Stanleys. 

“All of us remember as kids going to Target and shopping with our parents and getting everything we needed on the list,” she said. “But there’s also so much beyond that list that students are buying, whether it’s their backpacks or lunchboxes, and especially now water bottles.” 

The 4-year-old company, which hit $6.5 million in revenue last year, is pushing the collection hard on social media. Trecartin said it primarily uses organic content developed in-house, posting two to three videos a day on TikTok where it has around 100,000 followers. It also posts regularly on its accounts on Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. 

On the paid side, Trecartin said CharCharms may experiment with Cameo for Business, which allows brands to tap celebrities to make influencer-style ads. She said the most important quality of the videos is that they feel authentic, engaging and not out of place on Gen-Z or Gen-Alpha feeds and For You Pages.

“To find someone that can have that voice and be ‘funny’ or original or entertaining, that’s tough. It takes a lot of scrolling on TikTok to learn that,” she said. –Melissa Daniels

Job openings to watch: David Protein builds out its operations

David Protein is on a hiring spree, coming on the heels of its $75 million Series A funding round. The company currently has about 19 job openings, ranging from creative to supply chain roles. The company is recruiting for R&D roles, including two food scientists, showing it’s pushing heavily in new product development. Most prominently, the startup is hiring for a director of R&D at Epogee, the EPG supplier David Protein acquired in May under controversial circumstances. The company is also looking for a laboratory technician role “to support product development and food science initiatives across our portfolio.”

These recruitments come at a time when David is signaling that it’s venturing outside of lab-made protein. Earlier this month, the protein bar startup unveiled its latest limited-time product, a frozen cod fillet. Since launching its line of low-calorie protein bars in 2024, David Protein has drawn attention for both its maniacal focus on macros and its founders’ track records in the CPG space. The company is currently being sued by Epogee’s other brand clients, with claims that David is monopolizing the cutting-edge protein source. –Gabriela Barkho

What we’re reading

• Ty Haney is back at Outdoor Voices, and made the media rounds on Monday. 
• Private equity firm TSG Consumer has snapped up Phlur for an undisclosed amount. Phlur is a fragrance brand that’s a joint venture between influencer Chriselle Lim and investor Ben Bennett.
• This week in AI news: Google is adding AI-generated store reviews to its Chrome browser.

What we’ve covered

• What a ChatGPT checkout system could mean for retail, according to brands like Joe & Bella, Viv For Your V and more. 
• Kizik filed a lawsuit against Skechers for allegedly copying its hands-free slip-on shoes.
• The latest edition of Modern Retail’s monthly executive focus group dove into how Lalo, Boll & Branch and Caraway are planning for the holidays and interpreting consumer signals from the first quarter. Dive into what executives from these three brands talked about here and here.