Don’t let the friendly, fiendish ghost icon on the yellow background be a fleeting thought in your mind. What started as a simple messaging service for photo- and video-messaging back and forth between friends has now turned into an advertising and marketing platform for global brands and worldwide events. Unlike other social media services, Snapchat messages typically disappear one to ten seconds after they’re received (unless content is saved as a screenshot).
Jeremy Goldman, founder and CEO of digital consulting firm Firebrand Group, is constantly asked by marketers why they should care about the platform Snapchat. Launched just four years ago, Snapchat’s potential worth was estimated around $19 million in 2015. Determined to showcase the app’s marketing power, Goldman collected some key information about the video-messaging mogul:
- Demographics of users: Snapchat has more than 100 million active daily users and counting and there are nearly two billion video views every single day by app users. The majority of users are under the age of 25 and approximately seven out of ten users are women.
- Why the younger audience likes it: Lack of a digital footprint is an attractive part of Snapchat’s popularity with the younger generation. Knowing that you can send a message that virtually gets erased after viewed rather than stored on a timeline, just one click away, is part of its draw for users—especially because you can send messages without the worry of a boss or colleague viewing the content—you can choose who to share it with.
- Optimized advertising: Because Snapchat is viewed in full-screen, ads are create in vertical format and created for full-screen viewing and are created specifically for mobile users (not integrated as a responsive function like on other platforms).
While the trend has shown that it is most likely easier for large brands to market using the Snapchat platform, it could still be beneficial for other companies/events as well. The stats are there, according to the Snapchat website, which showcases why advertising on their platform draws a specific demographic and is optimized for mobile and vertical viewing. The example given was that Furious 7, the biggest April movie opening of all time, used Snapchat as an advertising platform. An impressive 93% of users exposed to the ad liked it or loved it—and there was a 3X likelihood that a Snapchatter who watched the ad saw the movie (as opposed to non-Snapchatters in the same demographic).
To read more, visit: http://www.inc.com/jeremy-goldman/why-should-marketers-care-about-snapchat.html?cid=em01011week29day13a.
Thanks for reading and until next time… stay WISE!
Image credit: https://www.snapchat.com/ads