Snapchat should be high priority for long term strategy

The UK demographic of Snapchat has not been disclosed, which makes it a hard-sell. We can only assume that a trend in the US will also be a trend in the UK and it is worth noting Snapchat’s current market position:

• 60% 13-34 year-old smartphone users in the US are active 
• They view more than 2 billion videos a day (“half the number of videos people watch on Facebook, which is seven years older and has 10 times as many members”)

If you want to reach this audience you should be doing something here and build community. Discoverability is important for those unable to access Snapchat commercially and due to limited search functionality (usernames and contacts) you should take full advantage of downloadable Snapcodes and place them on relevant touchpoints and materials.

Ad content is very much like broadcast and employs the vertical video format - apparently more likely to be watched than horizontal / widescreen video on YouTube or Facebook, as this is typically how we use our phones; we are too lazy to rotate. The introduction of moving images and GIFs to the Facebook News Feed shows how prominently this format is evolving (see top right). Bud Light very recently become the first alcohol brand to advertise on Snapchat, with age-gated content integrated into the “Stories”, selected by an editorial team, of the brand’s owned US festival. This may appear experimental and niche; however, events around the world will be broadcast here.

Snapchat will play a similar, although light-hearted, role to Twitter in breaking news about events through its visual format; much like a hashtag or TV show on Twitter, you can ride the wave of events with your owned/earned media planning. In contrast to Facebook’s combination of apps, Snapchat is evolving into an inclusive network that encompasses user/brand generated content, event marketing and publisher-owned channels that will become an extension of their main property (e.g. Vice or Yahoo). When commerce develops, Snapchat could introduce “shopping experiences” that would make this platform even more high priority for long term strategy.