Welcome to the Jungle Snapchat.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel plans to reinvigorate Snapchat in 2018 with new features to entice Influencers and brands back to the channel.
After a turbulent Q3 earnings report, with Snap’s share price plummeting by 18% and user growth slowed to 2.9%, Spiegel has acknowledged that Snapchat needs Influencers to keep viewers coming back.
Until now, Snapchat has avoided making their platform suitable for Content Creators. Social Media Influencers who loved using the platform to communicate with friends felt frustrated with its lack of analytics on viewers.
Influencers moved over to Instagram completely and saw they got better engagement on this channel. The stats reflect this. Where Instagram Stories now has 300 million daily users, Snapchat’s entire app has 178 million.
Instagram simply lends itself more easily to brands and influencers looking to monetise from the channel with quality content.
“We have historically neglected the creator community on Snapchat,” says Spiegel on the Q3 earnings call. “In 2018, we are going to build more distribution and monetization opportunities for these creators . . . Developing this ecosystem will allow artists to transition more easily from communicating with friends to creating Stories for a broader audience, monetizing their Stories, and potentially using our professional tools to create premium content.”
A key indicator of just how much Influencers are shaping the advertising industry is Snapchat’s decision to move away from just being a place for businesses to advertise via “personal, one-to-one Snaps sent directly to friends.”
It proudly calls itself a “close friend network” rather than a broadcast network but the trouble was that this simply isn’t scalable for brands wanting to engage a large audience through the incredible content we see influencers creating on Instagram.
Now Snap will try to factor in the power of Influencer’s product recommendations to an audience of loyal, relevant followers in the mode of Instagram or YouTube Influencers.
How can brands advertise on Snapchat?
Snapchat announced that it is introducing two new advertising formats in an attempt to make the platform more user-friendly for influencers and brands looking to advertise in their channel.
The Advertising Formats:
Promoted Stories:
Brands can create longer-form ads made up of 3-10 photos and videos which is live on Stories and boosted out to everyone on Snapchat in a selected country.
The Promoted Stories option is pretty unique because it guarantees exposure with all of its users on any given day.
Despite Snapchat’s losses it has still remained strong with a daily audience of 178 million. Millions of Snapchatters cannot be reached on other social platforms on any given day which you
However, reaching such a wide audience might also mean that your brand ad spend gets wasted on people who are fed ads which they don’t relate to.
Facebook and Instagram’s targeted audience sponsored posts in Stories, on someone’s feed, etc. is more effective at ensuring that the right people are fed your content.
Case Study:
Vamp client ASOS tested Promoted Stories last week on Black Friday, according to TechCrunch. ASOS showcased “night-out worthy looks” as well as a 20% off sale. HBO also ran a Promoted Stories campaign encouraging users to avoid the malls and stay home watching Game of Thrones instead.
Augmented Reality Trial ads:
Brands can give users the opportunity to interact with a virtual product overlaid on the real world through the lens of a smartphone camera.
Case Study:
BMW recently collaborated with Snapchat’s augmented reality technology to allow customers to view a 3D model of their new X2 car.
Should my brand advertise on Snapchat?
Yes. But only if it is right for the objectives you want to achieve.
Despite Snapchat’s losses it has still remained strong with a daily active audience of 178 million. Millions of Snapchatters cannot be reached on other social platforms on any given day which opens up another avenue of opportunity for your brand.
Besides Promoted Stories and Augmented Reality Trial ads, you can also get an Influencer to do a Snapchat takeover of your Snapchat channel to provide fresh, engaging content in your brand’s stories. Vamp client ASOS did this with a few of our influencers along the theme of A Day in the life of…
Snapcodes can be used in many different locations, from in-store, out of home, to TV commercials, live events and on your social feeds to inspire your customers to take action and unlock something new.
Case Study
Recently Vamp’s client Schwarzkopf used Vamp Influencer Content to create a special SnapCode to allow customers to reveal their Rose Gold Snapchat filter. Perhaps rather tellingly, they advertised this to their followers on Instagram.
Want to find out which social media platform is right for your brand’s influencer marketing campaign?
Say hello@visualamplifiers.com and we’ll give you free honest advice about whether Snapchat is right for your brand’s Influencer marketing strategy.
