Tag: snapchat

Snapchat Goes All In On Self-Serve Ad Platform And Tools

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat is going all in on self-serve ad platform and tools to make it easier for brands advertisers to create video ads and launch their campaigns with three new initiatives. To start with, the company announced the Ad Manager platform last month, and the self-serve ad platform officially became available for marketers big or small on Monday.

Snapchat also launched Snap Publisher, a browser-based creation and testing tool that makes it easier for advertisers to create vertical video ads and create Snap ads for different objectives. It is integrated with Ad Manager, so once advertisers are done optimizing their ads for Snapchat, they can simply buy through the self-serve platform with one click.

In addition, Snapchat launched a new Certified Partners program to highlight its ad tech partners, which currently include SocialCode, Adaptly, Unified, and Hyfn. Snapchat’s Ads API is open to a wide range of ad tech companies, but the ones in the Certified Partners program received some extra training as to building tools for optimizing Snap ads.

What Brands Need To Do
Amid a slowed-down user growth and the mounting pressure from Facebook’s relentless copying, Snapchat is trying to make a strong case for itself to brand advertisers as a viable mobile ad channel by expanding the accessibility and accountability of its ad products.

Beyond the three initiatives launched on Monday, Snap also acquired mobile location intelligence company Placed last week to improve the offline attribution of its app, allowing advertisers to see if their Snap ads resulted in store visits. As Snapchat continues to step up its ad game and make its app more advertiser-friendly, we expect to see more brands getting on board to try out Snapchat’s unique ad products.

 

 

Source: TechCrunch

Snap Buys Placed To Improve Offline Ad Attribution

Posted on by Lab Team

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

Dunkin’ Donuts Tries Out Branded Selfie Lenses On Snapchat & Kik

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In honor of the National Donut Day, Dunkin’ Donuts became the latest brand to experiment with sponsored selfie lenses, a novel, camera-based ad unit that has been gaining traction among brands seeking to reach younger consumers on messaging platform. To celebrate the unofficial holiday, the Boston-based brand is running its first sponsored selfie lens on Snapchat, which will turn a user’s face into a donut. Along with the lens, the brand is also placing sponsored Geofilters in various locations around the country and will be running Snap Ads to promote a frozen coffee drink.

Meanwhile on Kik, Dunkin’ Donut will be the first brand to try out the branded video sticker, which, similarly to the selfie lenses, overlays a sticker on a user’s face during video calls (although it does not integrate the facial features as the lenses do). The brand created three different donut-themed video stickers that Kik users can have fun goofing up their video chats with.

What Brands Need To Do
With the proliferation of face-altering lens feature across messaging and social platforms, mainstream consumers are increasingly getting accustomed to these camera-powered AR features as a result. This is what is laying the groundwork for mobile-powered augmented reality to take off, which will allow brands to infiltrate their target audience’s photos and videos via sponsored Lens or branded AR objects.

Besides, this is a good time to think about ways for augmented reality to drive new opportunities for your brand. AR can, for example, be a great way for customers to envision your products in their lives and to launch digital experiences from signage or product packaging. What we can do now through a smartphone is just the beginning. As Microsoft’s HoloLens, Magic Leap, and the rumored Apple glasses roll out over the next few years, a lot more will become possible.

 

Source: AdWeek

Snapchat Debuts Sponsored World Lenses And Readies Branded Stickers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On the heels of a less-than-optimal earnings report, Snap Inc. is releasing two new AR camera ad products as it aims to drum up more ad revenues. The popular messaging app introduced a new World Lens feature in February to let users embellish their surroundings with cute animations, now brands can sponsor those World Lenses in the same way they did with the face-altering Selfie Lenses. The sponsored lenses can now be targeted to specific audiences with a guaranteed number of impressions. Netflix and Warner Bros. are among the first advertisers to try out the AR-powered ad unit.

In addition, Snap is also making it easier for brand advertisers to customize Sponsored Geofilters down to specific locations, such as a school or a movie theater. Warner Bros. is promoting the film Everything, Everything with a branded geofilter, in addition to the sponsored World Lens, targeting high schoolers by featuring the name of their school. Moreover, the company is also reportedly ready to unleash branded stickers such as ones that feature Hello Kitty.

What Brands Need To Do
While slowed installs of Snapchat have worried some brand advertisers of the platforms’ growth potential, recent studies and surveys commissioned by TechCrunch concluded that U.S. Millennial and Gen Z users are staying loyal to Snapchat and in no hurry to jump ship to Instagram. As Snapchat continues to lead the charge in exploring AR camera effects and monetization, brands should consider taking advantage of the new camera-based ad products it offers to reach younger users active on its platform.

 

Sources: Marketing Land & AdWeek & Mashable

 

Pepsi Puts Snapcodes On Bottles To Engage Fans With Filters, Games & Sweepstakes

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pepsi is adding a bit of interactive fun to its packaging by printing Snapcodes on the bottles of its coke products. For a limited time this summer, customers can use the Snapchat app to scan the codes and unlock exclusive selfie lenses, geofilters, as well as a Pepsi-themed mini-game. By playing the mobile game, they can also enter a sweepstakes to win weekly prizes such as gaming consoles or a trip to Lollapalooza.

What Brands Need To Do
Snapchat first introduced the Snapcodes in 2015 to let users add each other without having to type out usernames. Soon, brands like Sprite, FOX network, and Universal Pictures started featuring customized Snapcodes in their billboard ads and packaging to drive mobile users to check out more branded content on Snapchat. This Pepsi campaign is the latest example of how CPG brands can use Snapcodes to spice up their packaging. More brands should consider experimenting with new technologies such as augmented reality or Facebook’s updated Messenger codes to add an interactive digital experience to their products to further engage with customers.

 

Source: PR Newswire
Header image courtesy of Pepsi

Brawny Uses Snap Spectacles To Capture Kids’ POV For Mother’s Day Ad

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Paper towel brand Brawny found a unique usage of Snap Spectacles for this year’s Mother’s Day campaign. The company worked with ad agency Cutwater to create a 60-second commercial titled “Once a Mother, Always a Giant” that uses footage shot by putting the camera-embedded camera on kids to capture their point of view. The result is a heartwarming montage of mothers looking like “giants” from the kids’ perspective.

What Brands Need To Do
This is not the first time a brand has used Snap Spectacles to generate unique video content for marketing purposes. Both Marriott and Hyatt have been leveraging Spectacles to create authentic video content from their properties around the world. While Snap’s first quarterly report as a public company released on Wednesday doesn’t exactly paint a rosy perspective for the company, CEO Evan Spiegel says he’s not bothered with Facebook’s aggressive imitation of Snapchat features while re-stressing the company’s camera-first strategy. Regardless of which company will prevail in the race to make the camera the first mass platform for augmented reality, brands need to start exploring using new tools to spice up their campaigns.

 

Source: Marketing Dive

Image courtesy of Brawny’s YouTube

Snapchat Announces Self-Serve Ad Manager & Pushes For Original Video Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snap Inc. announced on Thursday that it will be launching a new self-service platform called Snapchat Ad Manager, allowing brand advertisers to buy any of Snap’s ad formats, including videos, and target them to certain groups of users. Previously, brands can only buy ads on Snapchat through Snap’s sales team or third-party ad tools that often charge a fee. This platform, set to roll out in June, will be free for anyone interested to advertise on Snapchat.

In addition, Snap is also ramping up its original video content. The company has reportedly expanded its content deals with media partners including NBCUniversal, ESPN, ABC, Turner, and NFL to develop more original video content, typically 3-to-5-minute-long mini-episodes, for Snapchat Stories.

What Brands Need To Do
It is not hard to see that these two moves share the same goal – getting more ad dollars by making its platform more advertiser-friendly. The new self-serve platform makes Snap Ads much more accessible for smaller brands looking to experiment with Snapchat and reach mobile audiences. The play for more original video content can also cultivate a valuable channel for Snapchat to serve more video ads in. Although Snapchat is facing mounting pressure from Facebook’s relentlessly copying and stifling user growth, its loyal user base should keep it afloat for a while as the competition in the mobile messaging space continue to heat up. Brands looking to reach young-skewing mobile users on Snapchat should take advantage of the new platform and try out Snapchat’s unique ad formats.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal & The Next Web

 

Snapchat Launches World Lenses As It Pushes Deeper Into Augmented Reality

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has started rolling out new “world lenses,” a twist on its popular face-altering selfie lenses that you can now use to add some pizzazz to your surroundings. Starting today, tapping the camera screen while using the rear-facing camera will bring up the new lenses, which let you add 3-dimensional, animated objects to your snaps. At launch, the lineup includes a crying cloud, a smiling rainbow, blossoming flowers, and a colorful “OMG” sign. Snap says the lineup will change daily, presumably to encourage usage. Snap first started testing these new lenses in November.

What Brands Need To Do
This update comes at a time when Snap is facing mounting challenges from its major rival Facebook, whose aggressive tactics of cloning Snapchat’s camera-oriented features have seemingly started to take effects. The timing is even more deliberate considering today is the first day of Facebook’s annual developer event F8, where the social network is expected to double down on camera-powered mobile AR features similar to the “world lenses.”

As Facebook and Snap continue to duke it out over adding AR features to their apps, more and more mainstream consumers are starting to get accustomed to using these camera-powered AR features as a result. This is what is laying the groundwork for mobile-powered augmented reality to take off, which will allow brands to infiltrate their target audience’s photos and videos via sponsored Lens or branded AR objects.

Besides, this is a good time to think about ways for augmented reality to drive new opportunities for your brand. AR can, for example, be a great way for customers to envision your products in their lives and to launch digital experiences from signage or product packaging. What we can do now through a smartphone is just the beginning. As Microsoft’s HoloLens, Magic Leap, and the rumored Apple glasses roll out over the next few years, lots more will be possible.

 

Source: The Verge
Header image courtesy of Snap’s YouTube video

Snapchat Rolls Out “Snap To Store” Tools For Tracking Offline Attribution

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has launched a new location-based ad measurement product that lets brands see if their ad campaigns on Snapchat is successful at driving people to visit their stores in the real world. The way this new measurement product works is by comparing the visits of people who saw a Snapchat ad, which includes things like a Snap that their friends took with a branded Geofilter, to visits of those who didn’t see one but went anyway during a week’s timeframe, therefore determining if there is a lift in foot traffic. Snap has been testing its Snap to Store product since last year with a handful of marketers, including Paramount Pictures and 7-Eleven.

What Brands Need To Do
This ad measurement product comes at a time when Snapchat is starting feel the mounting pressure from Instagram, which just announced that its Snapchat clone feature Instagram Stories have amassed over 200 million daily active users, surpassing the last count of 161 million that Snapchat announced alongside its IPO in February. As Snapchat tries to hold onto its lead in monetizing its messaging platform by updating their ad products and creating original content, brands should be aware of all the options they have and properly utilize the measurement tools available to more effectively measure their campaign performances.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Marriott Hands Influencers Snapchat Spectacles To Create Authentic Branded Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Marriott is the latest brand to leverage Snapchat’s video-recording Spectacles sunglasses to produce branded content for social campaigns. The hotel chain gave four social influencers a pair of Spectacles, who will use it to create 10-second vertical video clips for its Rewards loyalty program that will run as ads on Snapchat. The influencers will take over the brand’s Snapchat account about once a month to share their one-week stays at Marriott properties in Berlin, New York, Dubai, and Seoul, leveraging their social stardom to attract some followers for the brand. The campaign is scheduled to run from now through June.

What Brands Need To Do
Snapchat only started selling Spectacles last November, and despite its limited availability, it has been quickly adopted by brand marketers to create authentic, off-the-cuff short videos that are perfect for online and social campaigns. Previously, Hyatt also handed out some Spectacles to some of its employees to share their daily activities at Hyatt properties around the world. This Marriott campaign takes it one step further by mixing in social influencers and paid ads to attract a wider audience on Snapchat.

Perhaps more intriguingly, Snapchat has been testing some AR-enabled filters that may be activated by Spectacles, which would allow brands to add digital activations to their physical marketing materials such as billboards and posters. As Snap continues to bring augmented reality technology to the mass market with its camera-centric products, brands will need to start to think about how AR may add value to their products, services, and marketing efforts.

 

Source: AdWeek