Getting started with Snapchat for businesses

As part of Bdaily’s latest feature week, The Business of Social Media, we spoke with Thea Simpkins from iProspect regarding the marketing opportunities available on Snapchat.

iProspect, a dentsu company, is a global digital-first end to end media agency. Its mix of media strategy and storytelling with digital expertise and audience knowledge “defines the new territory of performance-driven brand building”.

By delivering human-centric solutions, iProspect accelerates growth for brands including Sonos, Cox, LG, Hilton, Levi’s, Budweiser, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble. The iProspect team works across a network of more than 8,000 media and performance specialists spread across 93 global markets.

In 2011, a group of students at Stamford University founded a social platform that would transform the way we consume and digest online content, pioneering the concept of “disposable” video and offering a completely new experience to advertisers.

Snapchat has grown to be one of the biggest social media platforms in the world. With over 332 million daily active users, five billion snaps being sent each day, and an addressable audience in the UK of 22 million.

From a business perspective, Snapchat claims its users represent a new generation of shoppers, willing to use the latest tech to their advantage. No longer just a platform appealing to younger users, 81 per cent of Snapchat’s UK audience is over 18, and one quarter of UK parents are present on the platform.

These Snapchatters hold $4.4tn (approx. £3.5tn) in spending power globally, with over $1tn (approx. £795bn) of that in Europe, and users say it is their favourite platform to “share purchases that they love”.

But how does this translate to a business environment? In recent years, Snapchat has invested heavily in creating a network that is “accessible and useful” to brands and advertisers, offering a unique way to reach and engage with consumers.

iProspect believes it to be an “attractive prospect” for both SMEs and larger businesses who have audiences that use the platform, as low minimum adspends ($5 a day) and free creative tools make it “easy for businesses to develop a presence”.

The platform offers a range of immersive features that can be used to promote products or businesses, such as Snap Maps, AR Lenses and Public Profiles. Thea has put together a few ideas to help brands get familiar with the opportunities available on the app, and how they could form part of a “wider social strategy for success”:

Snap Maps

Snap Maps is an interactive map that allows users to see where their friends are (depending on their privacy settings) and shows businesses, locations, and venues nearby. It also shows snaps that have been taken by other users in certain locations. For example, pictures of food taken in a restaurant, or videos taken at sporting events.

Brands can drive organic discovery by claiming their business on Snap Maps and sharing their locations, hours, and contact information, and give users the ability to get directions, visit the website or contact the business, as well as to make a reservation or order directly from the business.

There is also the opportunity to advertise on Snapchat while targeting within a chosen radius of the stores, to increase awareness and footfall. Another feature (currently only available in the US, but a UK rollout is expected), offers the ability to target location categories, such as music venues, beaches, or car dealerships, useful if a brands target audience are likely to frequent these locations.

AR Lenses

Snapchat also offers augmented reality lenses, meaning users can try on products like shoes, watches, or even lipstick through their camera lens.

There are over 2.5 million lenses on the app, and 3.5 trillion lens views, a figure which is expected to rise significantly over the next few years. Other examples of lens use include Snapchat users putting their dream car on their driveway, trying out different furniture in their homes and even translating languages.

For brands, this represents an opportunity to promote products in an interactive way, and in a way that users are likely to share, therefore organically increasing awareness, consideration, and conversions. In fact, AR lenses on the app drive on average a 25 per cent lift in ad awareness, 25 per cent lift in product awareness and 67 per cent lift in action intent.

However, it is not only retail brands that can benefit from this feature. Kent State University in Ohio partnered with Snapchat to reach students aged 16 to 18 who were considering going to college and created a lens allowing Snapchat users to see themselves wearing a graduation cap.

To create a lens, Snapchat has two platforms: Lens Studio and Lens Web builder. Lens Studio is a desktop application for artists and developers, whereas Lens Web Builder enables brands or agencies to create branded AR experiences through their own templates and requires no coding experience.

Public Profiles

Public profiles on Snapchat are similar to profiles on other social media channels, in that they offer brands a free permanent home on the app, where users can discover and interact with them. They offer brands a chance to share public stories with their subscribers to communicate with users in real time.

Brands can also publish their AR lenses so that they can be discovered and used, and can showcase saved stories to permanently house the best public snaps, photos, and videos. There is also the option to link a native store (powered by Shopify) on the profile, so that users can shop directly through the app. Snapchat users can subscribe to a brand profile, meaning their content will appear in the Discover and Lens Explorer features within the app.

Thea concludes: “These features represent a unique opportunity to engage users and showcase your brand’s offering, putting you at the forefront of marketing innovation, if it’s applicable to your brand.

“With these distinctive features, low minimum ad spends and a large addressable audience, Snapchat could form an important part of a brand’s social media strategy.

“For retail brands wanting to target Gen Z or Millennials, Snapchat should definitely be considered to not only build mass awareness, but also to increase consideration and conversions. Run, don’t walk!”

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