Will Polaroid go the way of Kodak?

In today’s socially connected world, a lot of companies are struggling to stay afloat with social media. Some have the wrong ideas and some are somewhat keeping pace. Polaroid, for instance, is making moves, but are they the right moves? There’s a wealth of opportunities that Polaroid can take advantage of right now that could reflect well upon their company and its consumers.

For the past 75 years, Polaroid‘s longtime brand message has been associated with the instantaneous sharing of memories. Ever since the days of yore when people would gather around and wait for their photos to print straight from their cameras, Polaroid has been there. They’d wave their Polaroids around, hold them under lights and cherish them instantaneously. Sometimes, they’d even be used as gifts to behold monumental moments in a person’s history.

But it’s a new age. With Facebook, Instagram and other social networks in the loop, sharing photos has become as simple as taking the photos themselves. Sure, Polaroid is keeping people engaged online and through Share Life, but there’s so much more room for potential. Polaroid should own the world of photo-based social platforms the way it owned a game-changing category of photography back in the day. Sure. Flickr is great for professional photographers and all, but there’s a larger market for your everyday selfie-taking, Instagramming photographer.

With that said, we’ve noticed that Polaroid is ready to roll out their new Instagramming Socialmatic camera sometime next year. It uploads photos to Instagram and prints them out simultaneously. Genius! We love how it prints the QR code to your Instagram accounts too. But why not push Socialmatic as it’s own viable social network rather than relying on Instagram? Why not make it sort of like a bigger and better version of Share Life? Combining all of the aspects of Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Facebook and hell, even Youtube together, Polaroid could have a sort of one-stop social shop for social sharing. The word “Socialmatic” even screams “automatically social”.

Apps for iPhone, Android or even Facebook could be developed with exclusive Socialmatic photo filters. Tons of storage space for high-quality photos could be devised. Simple commenting and sharing could be implemented. Strategized photo contests will take place regularly to keep people engaged. Customized photo galleries akin to Pinterest boards could be installed. And maybe there’s even a randomizer similar to StumbleUpon that randomly showcases content according to interests.

I think one of the most useful technologies that could be developed is some sort of customizable postcard app through Socialmatic. You take your photos, add a phrase and voila…you have instant, quality digital postcards to send to anyone you want throughout the world. This will certainly be an easier, cheaper alternative to mailing out cards around the holidays.

Polaroid represents instant gratification and overall happiness, traits adored by members of social media throughout the world. In fact, it’s kind of obvious Polaroid can still make a big impact on our society when you take The Impossible Project into account. Even at a smaller level — these guys are still successfully producing film for traditional Polaroid cameras, saving analog instant photography. Why? Because people are still enthralled by Polaroid… as they

should be.

We hope this helps in some way show Polaroid the wonderful world of opportunities that are developing. When we think of the rollout potential at the big box level as well as the ability to promote the brand… this could could make Polaroid a house-hold name with a whole new audience. It makes our heart start-a-racing.