Creative Marketing | 12/03/2014

Snapchat Anyone?

Posted by James Dempster

At recent networking events I’ve been asked questions about SnapChat. Questions like: “do I need to be involved?”, “will I make money from it?”, “how will it work for my business?” have flown around like discarded bbqs on Brighton’s sea front.

It got me thinking though. This instant photo sharing software that allows you to send incriminating images that only appear temporarily turned down Do they know something we don’t?

In an overcrowded market, SnapChat’s instant deletion has set them apart from the competition. Just ask the Associations of Professional Surfers (SnapChat aspworldtour). ASP provide details of competitions and instant updates from their events (including short interviews). The temporary nature of this content creates a really unique feel for its clientele. To delete is to miss out. Looking at SnapChat’s Twitter profile would indicate that they think @ASP are using their product well, as they retweet a lot of their activity. Of course the effectiveness of this as a medium depends on the market being targeted. The largest demographic of Snapchat users are 18-29 year olds.

Here are a couple of our favourite case studies:

Mercedes Benz USA are sharing exclusive content for a high end motoring event with their SnapChat users.

Love it or hate it MTV UK promoted the new season of Geordie Shore by sending exclusive footage to its subscribers to good effect.

I’m a huge fan of most Lynx marketing activity, for a number of reasons. Using SnapChat they leaked exclusive content from one of their recent parties. My invite must have been lost in the post, but nevertheless this was a great idea.

I can see this working really well for a lot of sectors, even B2B. Do you have a new product/ service that you’re trying to promote? SnapChat could be the way to stand out. How can you do this? Well, a few ideas to get you thinking:

  • Contests
  • Priority releases/ discount codes
  • New products
  • “It’s not about working harder, it’s about working the system” Evan Spiegel MD of Mashable on SnapChat.
  • Spend less and make more of your campaigns.