In this hyper-digital world of augmented and artificial reality, many of us look to create memories we can hold onto. We’re physical beings, and touch creates a vivid sense of recall. Fujifilm is looking to fulfill this basic human need with Instax, a line of instant analog cameras. Here’s how it works: aim the camera, snap a pic, and wait for the printout. The photo develops as, in the words of Outkast, you “shake it like a Polaroid picture.” For those of us that grew up in the 80’s, the experience of holding a photograph is pure nostalgic gold.

To get more Instax cameras into their customer’s hands, Fujifilm is looking to increase brand awareness through paid ads on their social media channels — a smart, if not ironic, approach. Because TikTok helps connect our physical and digital worlds, it’s the perfect app for Fujifilm to reach a young and engaged audience. Their paid media approach appears to be working, but by monitoring and measuring the metrics of a specific ad, we’ll be able to analyze the campaign’s effectiveness and identify ways to optimize their Return on Investment. (Blanchard, 2011, pg. 197)

Campaign Objectives

Through a series of short 6-second videos on TikTok, Fujifilm is attempting to generate awareness of their latest camera, the Instax Mini 12. In the TikTOk Creative Center, we can gain additional insights about their campaign objectives. For example, the U.S. ad is set to prioritize “Reach”, and they have a “High” budget — representing ad spend over $50 per day — reinforcing the notion that they are looking to reach a wide audience. They’ve also published the same creative ad with the objective set to “Traffic,” which indicates they're running an A/B test. This will allow Fujifilm to observe which ad has higher engagement through likes, comments, and Click Through Rate (CTR), perhaps against a lookalike audience in a different geographical location.

Creative & Targeting

The ad we’re analyzing features a group of young friends posing on a purple couch for a group selfie. As the picture prints out, the couch starts to grow and move beneath them, paying off the large headline, “fill your world with joy.” The music is upbeat and the visual is unexpected in a quirky way, creating an emotional connection that works with the intended audience of Zoomers and Millennials. I love the fact that the background is 80’s-style wood paneling. It’s a nice retro touch that helps create a nostalgic vibe, potentially expanding the ad's appeal to an older audience.

Results

Fujifilm’s Instax Mini 12 ad is engaging TikTok followers. Though we have no way to tell how long the ad has been running, it has received 9K likes, 37 comments, and 62 shares at the time of review. The Click Through Rate (CTR) is in the top 26% of the industry average. Unfortunately, we can’t see the actual Click Through Rate, but the available metrics indicate that the campaign is succeeding when compared to ads within the same industry on TikTok.

Even better, both the total number of clicks and retention rate (which TikTok lists as “remain”) is within the top 1% of the industry average. If this was a Facebook ad, we'd be able to track the "hook rate," or the percentage of people that watch the first :03 seconds of the ad. (Denney, 2025) The TikTok equivalent, "remain", shows that 8% of the audience viewed the ad through the first second, and only 4% stuck around for 2 seconds.

This metric makes me wonder if the top 1% ranking for "remain" is accurate, or if this metric is extremely low on TikTok. Either way, there's an opportunity to increase the length of time that the audience views the ad.

Ways to Optimize

The Instax Mini 12 ad accomplishes quite a bit in :06 seconds, but there's easily room for improvement. I would be curious to see if a :15 second spot would be more successful. This would enable Fujifilm to communicate more features, and tell a better brand story. I would suggest performing an A/B test with both video lengths. By tracking the results, the Fujifilm marketing team can allocate a larger budget to the more successful ad, and pause the less engaging ad. This will help reduce the Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and enhance the Return on Investment (ROI).

Another improvement might be to incorporate a short voiceover of the body copy, “Say cheese! The Instax Mini 12 is here to fill your world with joy!” The voiceover, along with a caption, could help increase the rate of retention, and would establish a brand tone of voice for those that have sound turned off.

Last, while the ad’s content is fun and engaging, it would benefit from a clear Call to Action (CTA). Right now, it simply ends with an animated visual of multiple Intax Mini 12 cameras floating above the Instax logo. A simple CTA such as “Learn More” would help direct users to Fujifilm's landing page, supporting the campaign's objective to bolster brand awareness.

References

Blanchard, O. (2011). Social Media ROI. Pearson Education Inc.

Denney, D. (2025, January 16). How to Analyze Facebook Ads Data the Right Way (The 2025 Guide). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCsty8R0UaA 

Polischuk, S. (2025, January 10). How To Analyze Facebook Ads Performance Like A Pro. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqYslgQdhV0 

Thony, S. L. (2024). The Marketing Campaign Playbook. STK MKT Entertainment. 

Yakob, F. (2022). Paid attention: Innovative Advertising for a Digital World. Kogan Page Inc.