Commercial and social? Best of both worlds when content is king

Whilst signing up for the commercial “art for the people – by the people” service Instacanv.as earlier today – I had one of those very rare  “I’m joining something overtly commercial and social – and it’s fine” moments.

It’s  a “you order – we’ll print” service that’s fuelled by a limitless supply of original and carefully crafted images by piggy backing the creative output of iPhone photo sharing community Instagram.  The business model promises a share of revenue from art sold to it’s subscribers.

As well as delivering a simple but smart use of Instagram images,  CEO @mattmuns and his team have pitched their organic registration campaign just right, though it feels pretty  pushy.

Users who subscribe to the service,  are encouraged to get their social network friends, including those on Instagram, to “vote”  to have their gallery opened.   The process must be generating thousands of leads for the LA based start-up, as friends and fans “vote”with their email addresses.   Once you have “voted” (aka registered) they promise to send you an email when your friend’s gallery is open – and in doing so, presumably take the opportunity to up-sell  their service.   Easy sharing of your “vote” on Twitter and Facebook completes the loop.  Like all great social ideas and campaigns – it’s simple, it taps the sharing instinct, adds value for subscribers and is potentially very commercial.

“Igers”  (Instagram addicts) have sent me many requests to “vote”, most of which I have responded to & the network effect must be huge.   I never begrudged one “vote” and have pondered the possibility of ordering something myself.

“A reasonably “high ticket” physical product that leverages the limitless output of a smart tech creative community they didn’t have to fund the development of themselves?”…  surely it’s one sort of investors wet dream.

When social and creative combine with a simple well-considered commercial offering, that’s fuelled by an equally well-judged viral execution –  a big return on investment should measurably follow.

Congratulations to all involved – it’s a great idea well delivered.  From my point of view,  I can’t see how Instagram would fail to invest some of their recently earned Facebook IPO bounty to acquire the service in time.

Oh! and you can vote for me here:   http://instacanv.as/quozza/