Snapchat for Fun and Profit
Well, that was unexpected. At this week's Data Marketing conference I was all ready to learn about chatbots, artificial intelligence, and data. Instead, I got...fun, empathy and understanding??? I think we should've sent Mitchell to this gig.
Joe Strolz, Canada Country Manager for Snapchat, spent about 20 minutes outlining how fun leads to greater audience and employee engagement, and ultimately better products. He talked about how brands like Bud Light, Pepsi, and Warner Brothers are using Snapchat's ads, and new selfie, surface, and world lenses (simple forms of augmented reality overlays) to drive awareness and engagement.
Long gone are the days of debating 30 vs. 60 second ad spots. Strolz mentioned that 2/3 of ad awareness lift is achieved in the first two seconds of a Snap Ad. Don't blink, or you'll miss it.
Many of Snapchat's most viral ideas were created - you guessed it - just for fun. And then have taken off as consumers used them in unexpected ways. Why is Snap so darn engaging? Joe fills us in:
“We’ve now crossed 7,000 years of playtime with the puppy dog lens. That’s bananas. It’s a puppy dog lens.”
I'm with Joe on that one. Mitchell probably disagrees. Either way, Snap's on a roll. In Canada, they've grown 300 percent this year to six million active daily users - each of whom spend about 30 minutes per day applying filters, lenses, and 3D Bitmojis to their videos. One-third of users apply a lens, which is a simple augmented reality overlay on photos, every day. 60% of Snap's daily active users are creating content on the platform every day, whether that's applying a lens, using a geo-filter, or taking a snap. Snap's audience is a creation audience, and the act of creating is an act of engaging with a brand.
We think the broader story is about the power of mobile, video, and fun to drive engagement, with customers and employees. If you doubt the fun part, just remember the last time someone livened up a presentation about data accuracy with some comedy about...the US presidential election.
We rest our case.
By making it simple and fun to create, Snapchat makes it easy for consumers to engage with brands and fly the brand colours with a little humour. Worldwide, 178 million daily active Snapchat users and 800 million daily active Instagrammers are using their cameras as their primary means of visual communication. In terms of Instagram vs. Snap as a marketing platform, it depends on your user demographic. Instagram is very popular with the all-important 18-34 demographic. 59% of internet users aged 18-29 use Instagram and 33% of internet users aged 30-49 use Instagram. On the other hand, if you are targeting a teen demographic, Snapchat is a "must try" platform, with usage rates among teens of about 80% in the US and Canada. 39% of US teens say that Snap is their favourite social platform, compared to about 24% who say the same about Instagram.
Most popular social networks of teens in the US. Source: Statista 2017.
We encourage our clients with a large teenage demographic to experiment now with Snapchat, to determine how their brand can join the conversation and create fun interactions.
Want a weekly dash of digital marketing and innovation insights? Subscribe to our blog.