When preparing its 2012 Annual Report, The Calgary Zoo traded its traditional printed annual report for Instagram as a sustainability meets storytelling initiative. Proclaiming the 2012 Annual Report “The Year of the Penguins,” 55 photos and captions serve as the report pages and content. Packed full of the stats, financial figures and even a welcome note from their President & Chief Executive Officer, the Instagram posts tell the Calgary Zoo’s story in a unique, highly visual way.

As noted in one of the images, “the early bird gets the shot,” and with their Instagram Annual Report, the Calgary Zoo did just that. This was the first business on Instagram to publish its annual report in this way and companies and brands should be inspired by their creative approach. Instead of relying on capturing attention in Instagram’s busy photo stream, the account is a destination with each photo telling a story and caption bringing the story to life.

Inspired by the Calgary Zoo, companies and brand should be asking themselves – how can we use Instagram for visual storytelling in a new, yet effective way?

Now, you might be wondering how did the Zoo communicate financial information on Instagram? Well, they didn’t completely. Excerpts appear in two posts and full financial reporting was provided on the zoo’s website or could be requested by phone.

For a summary of this initiative, here’s the campaign case study video from Brian Allen, the Creative Director on the project.

This highly creative initiative was covered in news outlets around the world and earned the team on the project a 2014 Bronze Cannes Lions award, among others.

The Law of Opportunity In Brand Storytelling

We were so inspired by this campaign that we covered it in our book, The Laws of Brand Storytelling under “The Law of Opportunity.” In this law, we discuss two types of storytelling opportunities:

There are two types of storytelling opportunities:

1. Those that already exist and need to be unearthed
2. Those that pop up unexpectedly and need to be addressed in real-time

Let’s start with the number one. We’ve already established that a brand is a product of the multiple small gestures it delivers every day, during every customer interaction. Look at the customer journey and all of the consumer touch points and you’ll be able to unearth a ton of marketing ideas that could all comprise a consistent and timely brand story.

For the second, sometimes you are gifted with the golden opportunities not of your own making. These are real-time marketing opportunities. And you have to take advantage of those, as they don’t come along often.

The Calgary Zoo’s Annual Report on Instagram illustrates an example of number one. It’s a powerful example of how companies already have incredible stories to tell. These stories may either need to be unearthed or already exist and need to be re-imagined in a creative way, like the world’s first annual report on Instagram.

For help building your strategic brand storytelling framework and for more storytelling inspiration across B2B and B2C companies, please consider checking out The Laws of Brand Storytelling!

Jessica Gioglio is the co-author of The Laws of Brand Storytelling and The Power of Visual Storytelling. Professionally, Jessica has led innovative marketing and public relations programs for Dunkin’, TripAdvisor, Sprinklr, and more. Today, Jessica is a keynote speaker and founder of With Savvy Media & Marketing, a strategic branding, storytelling, and content strategy consultancy.