15 Creative Brands To Follow On Instagram For Art and Inspiration

If you want to build your social media brand on Instagram, you need to be updating your Instagram feed daily with visually stunning imagery and inspiring words.

And if you’re like most people, you’re probably not climbing a mountain, diving with sharks, or jumping out of an airplane most days — so you’re going to have to improvise some epic content.

To find great photos to share that align with your brand’s core values, you will want to take advantage of stock photo websites. Then, you will probably need to add overlays of inspiring words, oneliners and catch phrases on at least some of your photos and this takes some practice for most people to get good at.

If you want to learn to engage people’s attention and produce content that emotionally resonates with your audience, then it’s best to learn from other creative brands that are already doing what you want to do.

Brands Getting Social On Instagram:

I’m not going to focus too much on the big brands because we all know they have massive teams of social media ninjas to inspire their audiences. And you’re probably just one person trying to figure out how to do-it-yourself.

But there are a few big brands that are absolutely crushing it at empowerment marketing, which means making your audience and their aspirations an integral part of your brand stories.

People turn to Instagram for inspiration and social connection, so the best brands on this social medium are those that speak to shared values, greater possibilities and personal growth.

Here is what some of the most iconic brands are doing on Instagram to empower their audiences:

1. GoPro

When you’re hurling down on a mountain on skis or a bike, GoPro is probably the camera you will be capturing your adventure on. So naturally GoPro does a great job of sharing photos of people taking epic leaps of faith and risking everything to get into a flow state.

Got a question for filmmaker + mountaineer @jimmy_chin? Hit the link in our bio and fire away. Jimmy will be answering questions live from #GoPro HQ about his latest project, @merufilm.

A photo posted by gopro (@gopro) on Nov 19, 2015 at 2:20pm PST

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2. Under Armour

The ultimate underdog brand, Under Armour has been eating into Nike’s marketshare with their mastery of empowerment marketing. Instead of “Just Do It”, their motto is “I Will”, which speaks to the brand’s core mission to make “all athletes better through passion, design, and the relentless pursuit of innovation.”

Excellence runs in the family. M-V-P. #ProtectThisHouse #IWILL A photo posted by Under Armour (@underarmour) on Nov 20, 2015 at 5:33pm PST

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3. Lululemon

Yoga-themed apparel brand Lululemon inspires their largely female audience of “spiritualized” fitness enthusiasts with lots of photos of funky yoga studios, festivals, surfing, mountains and healthy-looking woman living the fitness dream in their designer tights.

Celebrating thinkers, dreamers and mavericks. | @TED takes Vancouver by storm and our ambassadors are there to mix in some sweat. At #TED2015? Join our ambassadors for a session this week. #TEDsweatlife

A photo posted by lululemon (@lululemon) on Mar 18, 2015 at 5:49pm PDT

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4. Lonely Planet

The iconic travel guidebooks for intrepid backpackers is one of the best Instagram accounts for inspiring your next trip abroad. Their sporadic use of eye-catching satellite photos is especially impressive.

‘Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia that is the largest religious monument in the world (first it was Hindu, then Buddhist). Constructed in the 12th century, the 820,000 square meter site features a moat and forest that harmoniously surround a massive temple at its center.’ – Ben, @dailyoverview This is the last epic, aerial capture from @dailyoverview for this weekend’s #lpInstaTakeover. To peruse their prints for sale, see the link in the bio of their account. Or, to learn more about Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples check out the video we recently shot there, via the link in our bio. #lptop500 A photo posted by Lonely Planet (@lonelyplanet) on Nov 22, 2015 at 10:00am PST

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5. Oreo

Oreo’s Instagram account is a good example of how you can promote a simple product in all kinds of different creative ways. They do a great job of inspiring people to consume their product and they make eating sugary cookies seem extra fun by showing off how you can get all arts and crafty with your bag of Oreos.

All work and all play #Oreo

A photo posted by OREO (@oreo) on Oct 20, 2015 at 9:48am PDT

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Other iconic creative brands that really stand out on Instagram are Starbucks, Red Bull, AirBNB, UBER, Nike, Google and National Geographic.

Other More Realistically-Sized Creative Brands:

It’s not just the big boys that can play on Instagram and build massive audiences. There are lots of examples of smaller brands and solopreneurs who have built massive audiences.

They achieve this through the power of a strong mission, clever customer engagement, shoutouts schemes with other influencers and highly creative photos that strike a chord with people.

Here are some of the emerging creative brands that really shine on Instagram:

1. The Outbound Collective

This beautifully designed “guide to everything outdoors” is giving traditional media’s adventure magazines a run for their money. They use Instagram effectively to share their best adventure content and they have a consistent “Explorer” brand that appears regularly on their images.

Take in stunning views of the Valley of Ten Peaks in #Alberta. @colin.ayers @travelalberta #theoutbound. Press the link in our bio for details on this adventure A photo posted by The Outbound Collective (@theoutbound) on Nov 15, 2015 at 9:19am PST

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2. Foundr Magazine

This entrepreneurship magazine is a true outlier on Instagram. Foundr’s twenty-something founder Nathan Chan has built a massive audience that is bigger than most well-established magazines by regularly producing great content and growth hacking his way to the top (he is crushing Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine‘s audiences).