What Happened
On Monday, Snap Inc. announced its acquisition of Placed, a mobile location analytics startup that delivers location-driven consumer insights. Placed gathers its data from a panel of mobile users who opted in to allow the startup to track their whereabouts in return for small cash payments. By acquiring Placed, Snap Inc. can benefit from its data to gain audience insights and measure the offline effectiveness of its ads.
In related news, the Venice, CA-based company also bought a drone manufacturer, Ctrl Me Robotics, last month, hinting at the possibility of developing a selfie-drone for Snapchatters.
What Brands Need To Do
Back in April, Snapchat launched a “Snap to Store” attribution service, which lets brands see if their ad campaigns on Snapchat is successful at driving people to visit their brick-and-mortar stores. Buying Placed will undoubtedly buff up Snapchat’s offline attribution and help the popular messaging app better make its case to retail advertisers. If your brand is thinking about advertising on Snapchat, this acquisition should come as welcome news. Placed is remaining independent and will continue serving its existing client base and all data is separate from Snapchat.
Disclosure: The Lab’s parent company Interpublic invested a minority stake in Placed in 2014.
Source: AdWeek