TECHnalysis Research Blog Extra

June 17, 2016
Snapchat Opens Up New Options for Marketers

By Bob O'Donnell

Like many messaging platforms, Snapchat has managed to capture impressive numbers of users to its popular platform, but questions about monetization have dogged it for some time. The company tackled many of these concerns head-on this week with several announcements related to new advertising programs, as well as a new API to allow the purchase of full advertising campaigns. In and of themselves, these developments are modestly interesting and somewhat expected from a platform that everyone knew would eventually move to inserting various types of ads. But where Snapchat continues to stand out is in the types of advertising it is offering—and they’re apparent effectiveness. Leveraging the fun, flashy style of the service itself, Snapchat has pioneered things like brand-sponsored Lens’, which overlay graphics of brands like Taco Bell or Gatorade onto your smartphone’s photos and videos. The end result are things like taco faces and other types of silly, crazy yet very engaging “snaps” that the decidedly younger demographic of Snapchat users are viewing as eagerly as the results from their friends and others.

Up until now, most of these clever types of campaigns required custom work and hence were limited in their ability to scale. With the variety of announcements Snapchat made this week, the idea is to bring these new advertising models to a much wider audience. The opportunity becomes doubly attractive to advertisers because of the millennial-heavy demographic of most Snapchat users. This gives advertisers access to an enormous number of exactly the people they want to talk to using advertising models and ideas that are significantly more effective than traditional ones. For many marketers, it’s a match made in heaven. As a result, Snapchat’s business prospects are starting to look as compelling as its user growth story, making it a formidable competitor in the growing world of messaging.

Here's a link to the original column: https://techpinions.com/unpacked-for-friday-june-17th-2016/46317 (Subscription required)