You’re invited to a call with Instagram
You’re invited to a call with InstagramA conversation with Instagram's VP of Product about the future of entertainment on the platform.
When I worked at Condé Nast, we’d have regular meetings with Instagram reps about platform changes. I have no doubt that this direct access helped make me a better social manager. A big goal of mine for this newsletter has been to replicate that experience for readers. It’s why, over the past few years, I’ve set up calls with the platform that thousands of you have joined. I’m particularly excited about this next one.
On October 28th, I’ll be hosting a call with Tessa Lyons, VP of Product at Instagram, about the future of entertainment on the platform. It’s a topic I’ve been following closely—from serialized content to horizontal videos. Tessa will give us a first look at new features, discuss algorithm mechanics, and share tactical advice for posting right now. Plus, she’ll be answering questions from you! Join us October 28th at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET by submitting your RSVP here. Please leave your question for Tessa in the “Questions & Comments” section. People Inc. sees social-first entertainment as a “meaningful next chapter for the media business”There might not be a more perfect case study for “entertainment on Instagram” than InStyle’s show The Intern. The success of the series, which has garnered tens of millions of views, has reverberated in the halls of its parent company People Inc. It makes sense. Between “The Intern” and “The Boss”, the company has sold 27 sponsored episodes to date. While I have previously dug into the creative side of The Intern with showrunner Jonathan Borge, I was curious to hear more about the business impact. Below I spoke with Leah Wyar, President of Beauty, Style and Entertainment at People Inc., about how social shows are changing the world of media.
Rachel Karten: I come from the organic social side of publishing. I’d imagine the success of The Intern has been exciting for the sales side of the business. What have you heard from advertisers? Leah Wyar: While microseries had been popping up on social prior to The Intern, the show was something totally unique to the publishing industry: a group of respected editors who could legitimately star in a funny, entertaining series, while also inviting partners (like Fossil, e.l.f. Cosmetics, and Native) to co-create something special. Traditionally advertisers have been told how they’ll be featured; what’s the fun in that? This creates a collaborative opportunity for brands to show up in a totally new way and has become a standout example of what’s possible in a new world: native integrations that break through and resonate. After partnering with InStyle on The Intern, e.l.f. signed on to a new social series at Byrdie before we even had a proof of concept. Brands are telling us, including at the C-suite level, that they want to show up in culture in more surprising and relevant ways. Our franchises give them that opportunity while delivering against their business objectives, and that’s a significant opportunity for us. Rachel: How many sponsored episodes of The Intern have there been now? Leah: Across The Intern and The Boss, we’ve produced 27 sponsored episodes to date, with partners spanning fashion, beauty, and entertainment categories. Rachel: The Crocs sponsorship was particularly fun to watch. What did that collaboration look like? Leah: Crocs understood the tone of The Intern and gave our team the creative freedom to make the integration feel completely true to the series. That shared sense of humor and willingness to lean into the unexpected is what made it work. For this sponsored episode, we teamed up with model and fashion expert Wisdom Kaye. He was the perfect fit to cause chaos in the InStyle office by fighting against a fake “heels only” rule and tossing Crocs around the office like confetti. The audience response was overwhelmingly positive, with comments like, “I now need to buy a pair of Crocs.” That’s the power of a great integration: we don’t need to hide the partnership. When a brand is woven into a genuinely entertaining story, audiences engage with it, and, in this case, wanted the product.
Rachel: Are celebrities and influencers pitching themselves to be on it? Leah: Yes! It’s one of the clearest signals that these franchises are breaking through. One of The Intern’s biggest stars to date, Madelyn Cline, actually DM’d InStyle to say she was a fan and wanted to work with us. She became our most successful intern yet with over 16M views across three episodes. We’re seeing that same recognition across the broader slate. PEOPLE’s Next Red Carpet Reporter is our first reality TV-style social series, where viewers followed eight staffers through challenges before Carly Breit emerged as our actual red carpet Emmy’s reporter. When Carly hit the red carpet, she was recognized from the social series. The Top Chef judges said they had watched the competition play out on social and Getty photographers knew who she was. That’s when you know a social-first franchise has moved beyond the feed and into culture. Rachel: Other People Inc. publications have launched (and are launching) a slate of new shows. Byrdie’s is live now, with e.l.f. Cosmetics sponsoring a handful of episodes. What has the success of The Intern meant to the organization at large? Leah: The Intern, and InStyle, really started it all at People Inc. It showed us that our brands can build repeatable, social-first entertainment franchises that audiences actively seek out and advertisers want to support. Now across the company there are almost 50 original series. Byrdie’s The Next Big Thing, was especially fun because it’s an Intern crossover: a chaotic exploration of what it means to live in the viral age (Think The Studio meets Bravo). The team is tasked by “leadership” to get out of InStyle’s shadow and find their big moment. There are lots of fun cameos and references that fans of The Intern recognize and appreciate (like Kevin Huynh!). The opportunity, though, isn’t to replicate The Intern across the portfolio. It’s to take what we’ve learned and use it to build original franchises that are unmistakably right for each brand and its audience. That’s where we see the real scale. Some of our biggest are PEOPLE’s The People Interview, Pop Take and Wag World, plus Travel + Leisure’s Travel Unfiltered. And now we can invite partners in from the ground floor as we build what’s next. Rachel: What can other publishers learn from the success you’ve had with “The Intern”? Leah: The biggest lesson is that social-first entertainment needs to be built for social from the start, not adapted from a traditional editorial idea. That means moving quickly, listening closely to the audience and giving creative teams the freedom to experiment and follow what’s working. The other lesson is that advertisers can be part of the entertainment without compromising it. When the creative idea is strong and the partnership is genuinely additive, audiences don’t just tolerate the integration, they engage with it. Rachel: How has a series like this has impacted the business? Leah: It has created a new model for how our editorial, social, creative and sales teams work together, and we’re seeing the business impact across the board. These franchises deepen audience engagement, create scalable opportunities for advertisers, and give our brands new ways to shape culture. They also attract and grow talent, whether internally with our editorial team or externally with fast-rising creators such as Micky Gordon, Julia Mervis, and Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill of A Twink and A Redhead. We see social-first entertainment as a meaningful next chapter for the media business, and People Inc. is in a unique position to lead it. What I’m scrollingNPR posted a 16-minute video on Instagram and it has 1.5M views. I previously reported that Instagram is testing the ability for Reels over three minutes to be recommended to non-followers. A comment with over 2,000 likes reads “See, my attention span is fine!” Dunkin’ brought back Spidey D. It’s impressive that what started as a social-first bit has turned into a tentpole event for the brand. Congrats to Cornelia Creative, the agency that first pitched it back in 2024. Tuesday’s newsletter was a big guide to recycling content responsibly. I wrote about why you need to keep a “content cheat sheet”, the three types of remixes to try, and the video length I’d be recutting right now. Chili’s does it again. Snooki in Florence, Kentucky? Genius. The restaurant’s campaigns have just been so consistently good. Jack Hailey, Senior Manager, Campaigns & Influencer at Chili’s, started as a host at his local restaurant. He told me, “I credit a ton of my success in social to being in-restaurant so long. There’s no better way to understand a brand than actually serving its guests day in and day out.”
My TikTok feed is filled with Saie’s new eyeshadow with influencer Hannah Chody. I’ve previously talked about that brands should power people’s dreams. Hannah had an entire social series dedicated to finding a dupe of her favorite discontinued eyeshadow. Saie stepped in and helped Hannah make it herself. It’s the difference between brand as partner and brand as hero. The result is a product people want to root for. It doesn’t hurt that the eyeshadow looks beautiful! Politics needs more sketch comedy. I’ve been really enjoying the short skits director and writer Lola Blanc has been making for DSA LA. This “horror” starring Hannah Pilkes has 40K likes and 500K views. I love how Refy projected their campaign video in a museum and made that the post. It reminds me of how Ray Bull projected their newest music video in the back of a fridge. This creator wants to end doomscrolling. The Publish Press spoke with Logan Twyman, former social video lead at Riot Games and the creator behind the Dr. Doom, a “masked vigilante” showing up at college campuses to stop doomscrolling. Social listening tool Meltwater tapped Kim Cattrall to star in their latest campaign. Someone commented “Samantha Jones would 100% use Meltwater!! I love this.” Columbus Library has weighed in on the Kelly Clarkson bird drama. Check out the Link in Bio Job Board
The Link in Bio Job Board features all of the best social media roles in one place, updated daily. Right now there are roles from places like Stripe, Audible, Blizzard, and more. If you work for a brand that’s hiring within social media, this job board is for you too. Post your job listings to get in front of talented social media marketers. Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoy free interviews like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get weekly strategy newsletters and quarterly trend reports, along with access to the Discord community. I want to note that this newsletter is an educational resource and can likely be expensed through your company. I have even written a handy template for you to use when asking! If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you for making Link in Bio possible! Interested in partnering with Link in Bio? Email rachelkartengroup@caa.com for more details. You’re currently a free subscriber to Link in Bio. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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