Instagram Feature to Bring Brand-Creator Sponsorship Deals On-Platform, Plus Launch Plan

Brands pay Instagram influencers to publish sponsored posts on their profiles, and influencers also earn a meaningful income from their followers. Yet the arrangements behind all of this happen outside Instagram. Third-party firms such as Ifluenz, Scrunch and Pulpkey help businesses run these influencer deals. Instagram wants a new feature that brings this activity, and the revenue it generates, onto its own platform. Answer in two parts. ### Clarifying Questions - What counts as success for Instagram: a fee on each deal, more ad spend from brands promoting sponsored posts, or keeping brand budgets and influencers on Instagram rather than elsewhere? - Influencers also earn from their followers off Instagram. Is that fan-to-influencer income, such as paid shoutouts or subscriptions, in scope, or only deals with brands? - Should the third-party firms be treated as competitors to replace or as partners that can plug into the feature? - Which influencer sizes and which countries should the first version serve? ### Part 1 — Feature design for brands and influencers Design a feature, or a small set of features, that makes the experience smoother end to end for brands and influencers alike, reasoning from each side's point of view. Explain how you would solve the problem, lay out the user flow (a step list or a simple diagram is enough), and describe the key screens your wireframes or prototype would show. ```hint Walk the deal end to end List each step a sponsorship deal goes through today, from a brand looking for the right influencer to both sides judging whether it worked. Mark where each side loses time, money or trust, and where Instagram knows something an outside firm cannot. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The needs and pain points of brands and of influencers across the deal lifecycle, with a stated focus. - A concrete feature set with an end-to-end user flow for each side. - Key screens described clearly enough to sketch, showing where terms, approval, payment, disclosure and results appear. - A first-version cut, with the trade-offs behind it. ### Part 2 — Launch plan Assume engineering has built the feature. Explain how you would launch it and what your go-to-market strategy would be. ```hint Solve the cold start A marketplace is empty for brands without influencers and empty for influencers without brands. Decide which side you seed first and with whom, and think through how the existing third-party firms and their clients will react. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Launch phases, pilot countries and participants, and how both sides are seeded. - Positioning, incentives and channels for brands, agencies and influencers, including the role of the third-party firms. - Launch metrics, guardrails and the criteria for expanding. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Why moving deals onto Instagram is better for brands, influencers and followers, and how Instagram earns from it. - Trust and compliance across both parts: sponsorship disclosure to followers, fake-follower and fraud checks, payment protection and disputes. - The effect on followers' experience, such as more sponsored posts, and how to keep it in check. - Metrics that tie the feature to the goal, such as the share of sponsorship activity running through Instagram, with guardrails. ### Follow-up Questions - Should Instagram charge a commission on each deal? How would you set it, and how would a fee change influencers' willingness to move deals onto the platform? - A third-party firm answers your launch by making its tools free for influencers. How do you respond? - How would you keep followers' feeds from filling up with sponsored posts once deals become easy to strike?