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October 27, 2014

Emerging Social Channel: Snapchat

Mashable effectively leverages Snapchat and meme culture to establish authority and brand identity.

Mashable effectively leverages Snapchat and meme culture to establish authority and brand identity.

As marketers and communicators, it’s our job to deliver messages wherever our audiences may be. If our target audiences happen to be of the Gen Z/Millenial demographic, then we know that core social channels like Facebook and Twitter may no longer be enough.

The new reality is that many marketers are experimenting with smaller, emerging platforms to test new content marketing strategies. Mobile apps such as Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat are all turning social media strategies upside down – challenging marketers to get as creative as possible and push the envelope in order to build brand loyalty and a stronger consumer base.

Snapchat launched in the iTunes App Store in September 2011. While popular with a much younger demographic than most marketers have focused on before, the platform is easy to use and allows brands to interact through snaps and stories. According to a Snapchat pitch deck obtained by Digiday, Snapchat boasts over 30 million users who send more than 700 million photos and videos a day. But that’s not it – the average users checks their account 14 times a day and 50% of all users are 13-17.

Engagement metrics are Snapchat’s strengths since every piece of content viewed on the platform is triggered only by pressing and holding the screen – you know that the user is consciously engaging with your content. The platform allows for brand personification, the opportunity for a brand to be seen more as a friend than a talking logo. This is accomplished on the platform with exclusive creative content such as new product announcements, behind-the-scenes access, brand stories, coupons, and so much more – humor and creativity never hurt.

To date, Snapchat is still trying to figure out how to monetize its platform. It has spent the past three years building a user base that has now become very attractive to brands that have ad dollars to spend. Now, with plans to launch Snapchat Discovery by the end of this year, a service that would partner with media companies and brands to serve content and ads, the Snapchat landscape may become much more interesting.

This Business Insider report published in August 2014 identifies the following five key benefits of Snapchat that are making the platform hard for brands to ignore: 

  1. Significant scale. With users checking their account more than 14 times a day, Snapchat’s monthly active users are a first of its kind.
  2. Unique demographics. The platform’s users are majority female, and most users are between the ages of 13-25. Young women are the hard demo to reach and of the most influential, so targeting them on this platform is key if that’s one of your target audiences.
  3. High engagement. Two-fifths of 18-year olds in the U.S. use Snapchat multiple times a day to communicate with friends. That’s a higher rate than the same demographic using voice calls.
  4. Global phenomenon. The mobile app is in the top 3 rank in the iPhone store in many of the world’s wealthiest and most developed consumer markets including the US, Canada, UK, Sweden, France, Australia, and Norway.
  5. Visual sharing is growing. Snapchat stories get over 1 billion views daily while 760 million photos and videos are sent daily.

Check out the following examples of how some brands are engaging audiences through Snapchat.

Taco Bell, teasing its Snapchat presence and providing incentive:

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Grubhub, taking advantage of the universal appeal of pizza and coupons:

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