Gap has launched a micro-series on Insta­gram, a planned 12-part series of 15-sec­ond videos that make use of new fea­tures intro­duced to the plat­form last week – a change that enabled con­tin­u­ous­ly loop­ing (‘Vine-esque’) videos as users browse the site. The micro-series seeks to max­i­mize the sto­ry­telling and engage­ment poten­tial of audi­ences on Insta­gram, and serves as an ear­ly exam­ple of a brand seiz­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reach con­sumers via the odd­ly mes­mer­iz­ing new for­mat.

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At the end of last year, the num­ber of month­ly users on Insta­gram reached 300 mil­lion, sur­pass­ing the report­ed 284 mil­lion on Twit­ter, and affirm­ing the plat­for­m’s place as a cru­cial plat­form for brands to be present, vis­i­ble, and per­sua­sive to con­sumers.

The plat­form has quick­ly become a pri­or­i­ty for sev­er­al con­sumer-fac­ing brands. Mar­keters are find­ing new and inno­v­a­tive ways to reach and engage users using the net­work. Last week’s roll­out of auto-loop ads is already been seized by brands, most notably by Gap, which has cre­at­ed a micro-series that hopes to max­i­mize the mar­ket­ing poten­tial of the medi­um.

The ads, fea­tur­ing Jen­ny Slate and Paul Dano, detail a bud­ding romance encap­su­lat­ed into blink-and-you’ll-miss-it snap­shots that for­mu­late clever self-enclosed loops. The videos are a brave endeav­or by a brand to pro­duce tru­ly dig­i­tal con­tent – every­one knows how pop­u­lar and hyp­no­tiz­ing Vines and GIFs can be, and the videos rep­re­sent a for­mat that encap­su­lates the speed, inven­tive­ness, and inge­nu­ity of the Inter­net.

Get ready for a strange spring with @jennyslate and Paul Dano, in the weird­est love sto­ry ever Insta­grammed. #SpringIsWeird Fol­low the 12-episode film series and shop the spring looks you see at the link in our pro­file.

A video post­ed by GAP (@gap) on Feb 4, 2015 at 10:42am PST

Gap pro­duced its con­tent with dig­i­tal dis­tri­b­u­tion explic­it­ly in mind, as Gap explained:

“The films build on Gap’s recent his­to­ry of part­ner­ing with acclaimed direc­tors to tell sto­ries that will relate to cus­tomers’ lives. After cre­at­ing more tra­di­tion­al, broad­cast com­mer­cials with David Finch­er and Sofia Cop­po­la last year, the brand has part­nered this sea­son with ‘mav­er­ick’ direc­tors The Daniels to cre­ate a pur­pose-built sto­ry for Insta­gram. …the Micro-Series tracks the bur­geon­ing romance between the love struck duo of Slate and Dano, as they nav­i­gate chance encoun­ters, first dates and moody Spring weath­er in the hope of find­ing their per­fect fit. As they grap­ple with what is real and what is dig­i­tal ‘con­tent,’ they begin to sus­pect that their lives may not be theirs alone. View­ers will need to stay tuned as each short film is released over the sea­son to see the sto­ry unfold.”

Gap is hop­ing that the affin­i­ty users have with the micro-video for­mat will appeal to con­sumer demands for quick and enter­tain­ing con­tent.

“The nature of the videos is that you get some­thing dif­fer­ent every time you play them,” said Tri­cia Nichols, Gap’s glob­al leader of con­sumer engage­ment, media strat­e­gy, and brand part­ner­ships. “The sto­ry twists and turns, and there are lit­tle East­er eggs. So it’s the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for video loops.”

In addi­tion to Insta­gram, #springisweird will also be dis­trib­uted on dat­ing web­sites and apps. A com­pan­ion social media pro­mo­tion called #APer­fect­Fit will offer view­ers rewards and incen­tives for try­ing on the new form-fit­ting Res­o­lu­tion Den­im jeans fea­tured in the Micro-Series.

In Times Square tonight? Come say hi to me at @Gap! #Gap­Broad­way­Con­test #APer­fect­Fit pic.twitter.com/UebZHdK3mo — Nao­mi Nevitt (@NaomiNevitt) Feb­ru­ary 5, 2015

Other Brands Loving The Loops

Gap isn’t the only brand that has moved quick­ly to grasp video oppor­tu­ni­ties on Insta­gram. GoPro released this stun­ning video of skis hit­ting snow in slow motion:

Unlock new cam­era pos­si­bil­i­ties like 720p at 240 FPS with the lat­est GoPro soft­ware update. Head to gopro.com/update. Video fea­tur­ing @AbeKislevitz and @codycir. Music by @insightful. A video post­ed by gopro (@gopro) on Feb 4, 2015 at 11:40am PST

Mean­while, the NBA has found a fan­tas­tic way to show key high­lights of sweet plays:

@hassanwhiteside, mak­ing @miamiheat his­to­ry night­ly! A video post­ed by NBA (@nba) on Feb 4, 2015 at 8:12am PST

Finding Value On Instagram

Con­nect­ing with engaged con­sumers where and when they are, using cut­ting-edge for­mats, is a pos­i­tive move for brands such as Gap and GoPro. Retail brand Nord­strom has already learned to inte­grate Insta­gram with its over­all strat­e­gy to pro­vide con­sumers with what it calls a “seam­less shop­ping expe­ri­ence.”

It was last year that Insta­gram announced they would roll out video adver­tise­ments. Ear­ly adopters includ­ed Dis­ney, Activi­sion, Lan­come, and Banana Repub­lic.

Con­sid­er­ing some pop­u­lar apps began demand­ing huge adver­tis­ing rev­enues, such as Snapchat’s $750,000 ask­ing price for just one day of dig­i­tal adver­tis­ing space, Insta­gram’s auto-loop ads pro­vide brands with a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve con­tent to con­sumers on the plat­form organ­i­cal­ly, in a pop­u­lar, mod­ern for­mat.