What is it?

Snapchat is a social media platform that allows people to share one-time-only photos and videos to their friends. Once it has been seen, it is gone forever. Snapchat includes features such as Stories that allow the user to share a photo or video for 24 hours to all their friends. It can be replayed as many times as they want in that time period. You can also draw on the photos (much like old school paint), use text, emojis and even special movie effects that make you throw up rainbows or shoot lasers from your eyes.

The Rules

How it works

  • Take a snap
  • Draw and write/add emojis/filters/effects
  • Choose duration
  • Select friends or my story
  • Send

Screenshots

Snapchat does not prohibit the use of screenshots so that terrible selfie you took can technically be saved. On the bright side, Snapchat notifies you when someone has taken a screenshot of your picture.

Instant replay

In the later editions of Snapchat, you can replay a normal snapchat as long it is immediately after viewing it. Stories can be replayed as many times as the user wants if it is within the 24 hours of it being posted.

Skip

Sometimes you get bombarded with boring videos that seem to last forever. If you don’t want to watch the full length of a video, simply double tap the screen to move on.

Chat

There is a form of ‘chat’ system. The moment you come off the chat screen, you will no longer be able to see the previous messages sent.

The User

You have to be at least 13 years old to subscribe. The main user group are under 34s with 71% of users being under 25s. Average time spent daily on Snapchat totals to 20 minutes per day for 18-29s with the next user group surprisingly being 45-60 year olds spending 13.6 minutes. There is also high engagement with teenagers.

There are over 200million users and 65% of them contribute content daily. That’s a lot of user generated content to tap into. Over 400million Snapchat stories are created every 24hours and 1 billion of them are viewed in the same time period. Snapchatters are a highly engaged audience that love to get involved. The fleet nature of the app allows a continuous sense of novelty so creativity is very important.

Apparently, 58% of college students are more likely to purchase a product if they’ve been sent a Snapchat coupon. That’s an incredible amount of potential buyers.

Campaign Ideas

Snapchat campaigns have to be quick and engaging as the users can only see them for a maximum of 10 seconds. Below are 5 Snapchat campaigns successfully executed by various brands. Let yourself be inspired.

Heineken – Snapwho? Campaign

Heineken left clues for their followers to secret gigs during the Coachella Music Festival. The game was simple. They sent a cropped snap and the user had to respond with the right band or artist to get early confirmation to see an act at the Heineken House – their sponsored stage.

The result: They provided exclusive content for their followers and engaged them in an entertaining game that brought them to Heineken’s sponsored stage.

Sphero – Star Wars Influencer Campaign

Toy company Sphero had unleashed a BB-8 Star Wars droid and wanted to promote the toy. They reached out to big influencers within their niche and this is what they came up with. Geoohsnap BB-8 Adventure.

The result: The toy sold out in a matter of hours and the campaign had 10 million views a day. Moreover, it spilt onto other social media sites reaching half a million engagements.

Big influencers know their audience well and will produce spot on content.

 (RED) – Donate with a Snap

During World AIDS day, (RED) collaborated with Snapchat to create special video and photo filters. They reached out to celebrities to start using them to spread awareness to their followers. Consequently, every time a user used a (RED) filter, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $3 to (RED). They promised to go up to $3 million dollars.

The result: Us millenials want to ‘do good’. This campaign was an easy way to let us contribute to a good cause as well as spread awareness without having to spend a penny.

WWF – #LastSelfie Campaign

Many of us get frustrated at animal/environment activists with their manic flyers and pollution chat, but WWF managed to create a campaign that directly reached the user to make us stop in our tracks. WWF took advantage of the use of the selfie and Snapchats transient nature by posting beautiful faces of critically endangered animals.

The result: Users had to take a screen capture and share it across social media. It took 3 days to reach their monthly target and half of all active Twitter users were engaged in the conversation. That is what I call spreading awareness with sharp and heart wrenching creativity.

Audi – Superbowl

The Superbowl is one of the biggest headaches for marketers. Whilst half of us get excited about the games and the other half are clinging onto our seats for the half-time show, the advertisements play a huge role in the fun. So how do you stand out? Audi partnered up with The Onion to create funny and unique content for their users that teased the game.

The result: Audi had the most online conversation than any other car manufacturer. Their sense of humour caused 30% of all Superbowl related online conversation all due to their Snapchat campaign. Their followers over various social media platforms increased dramatically and this campaign sparked one of the fastest increases of users ever.

Infographic

To round it all up, here are the highlights of this month’s Social Media Toolbox.


Social Media Toolbox: Snapchat – An infographic by the team at Social Media Toolbox: Snapchat

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