Instagram Close Friends w/ lil Yachty

How do you advertise a new product to a bunch of teens? By not doing any advertising.

When Instagram wanted to make Close Friends famous without “marketing” it, we teamed up with Lil Yachty to quietly add all 11 million of his followers to his green circle — turning a simple product demo into a cultural event that sent the platform reeling and skyrocketed Close Friends awareness and use.
Performance
300M organic impressions
Made Close Friends & Yachty top trending topics on X and TikTok
Grew product conversation by 191%
Increased Google searches for Close Friends by 300% during launch week

Team
My role: Head of Social, Creative Director
CD/Partner: Dan Viens
Showrunner: Dom Tunon
Creative Team: Miles Rockafeler, Becky Brinkerhoff, Juju Merten, Cody Dummer
Head of Creative Strategy: Lanae Spruce
Creative Strategy Director: Janelle Wallace
Executive Creative Directors: John “JP” Petty III
Account Team: Vanessa Dowty, Kieran Yancy