Brands Snapping onto Snapchat

Yup, along with politicians, brands are finding their way onto Snapchat. Campaigns intended for a targeted millennial audience are gaining traction on this emerging social media platform. Snapchat is a mobile app which you can then use to “chat” with friends through photos, videos and captions. It’s like texting with pictures or videos.

One of the most unique things about Snapchat is the “self-destructing” feature for photos shortly after photos have been viewed. When you chat with a friend by sending them a photo, the photo is instantly deleted seconds after it’s been opened by the recipient. This self destructing feature really lends itself self for limited run incentives.

Examples of early adopter brands include Taco Bell, Acura and Rebecca Minkoff. Some brands are asking well-know snappers to take-over their accounts to create and share content that way. Acura’s campaign elements included the first 100 users to add Acura_Insider got a six-second clip of the car speeding around a racetrack. Taco Bell reached out to millennials by sending them a limited time burrito snap. The Taco Bell creative for the snap was spot on.

As for our work, I’d really like to experiment with the idea of an artist creating a limited run or a series of limited run snaps for a campaign. It would be ideal if the creation of snaps took place in real time. It would be great to witness the audience growing as the visual performance unfolded. Replications of the art would also add another element to the creative and campaign results. In terms of measuring campaign results, SproutSocial offfers some insights.