Instagram turns 15 years old with a message for shy creators: If you’re unsure, post it “anyway”

YouTube isn’t the only platform to reach a significant anniversary in 2025. As Google’s video hub goes all out for its 20th birthday, Instagram is turning 15. To celebrate, the Meta-owned app is rolling out its “Anyway” ad campaign, which encourages creators to be bold and share their work.

According to Adweek, “Anyway” is Instagram’s “biggest campaign yet.” The app teamed up with Uncommon Creative Studio to show off the work of artists like  Tyler, The Creator, Rosalía, Nadia Lee Cohen, and Cole Bennett, all of whom have found success on Instagram since the app’s 2010 launch.

The “Anyway” campaign is a celebration of risk-takers and a nudge in the arm for budding creators who may be too shy to share their work with the masses. In the ads, which are airing during the NBA Finals, Instagram promises that creators can achieve great things if they are brave enough to post. Once they do, “everyone else will follow.”

The timing of the campaign isn’t just linked to Instagram’s 15th birthday. In recent years, as terms like “creator economy” have come into vogue, Meta has made concerted overtures to the influencer class through initiatives like Creator Week, which kicked off in 2021.

Those developments have become more numerous in the past few months as TikTok has faced a ban attempt in the United States. Meta clearly sees TikTok’s (potential) loss as Instagram’s (potential) gain, which is why it’s dangling cash in front of creators’ faces

and adopting features that have proven popular on the ByteDance-owned app.

“Anyway” is yet another recruitment effort. If a user is strong enough to overcome their fear of public sharing, they become another creator for Instagram’s growing tally.

To sweeten the deal even further, Instagram is rolling out new features to accompany the launch of “Anyway.” Emboldened by the success of Trial Reels, Instagram is introducing another form of low-key sharing. For users who upload “quietly,” posts will show up on profiles before they get pushed out to followers’ feeds.

“We are investing in creativity more this year than ever before, just as Instagram turns 15,” Instagram Head Adam Mosseri wrote in a blog post. “From launching Edits for video creatives, to introducing new work with some of the most creative people on the planet, to new creator programs and features like Trials, we want to make it easier for anyone to take a creative chance.”

One of those new creator programs is Drafts, an initiative designed to support up-and-coming creators by equipping them with “financial support, connections, co-ideation and collaboration opportunities.” Those who enroll in Drafts aren’t guaranteed to become as famous as Tyler, the Creator, but as Instagram would be quick to remind them, they should probably take the leap anyway.