Snapchat: The IPO, The Marketer & Gen-Z
Talk all things Snap with your crew at Cocktail Hour! When they say Geofilter, you say Snap Map. In this piece, we cover:
- Snap Maps
- Self-Serve Snap Campaigns
- Video Ads Purchaser
- And Gen-Z — whose quickly defeating Millennials in the marketer’s chief preoccupation.
Snapchat: The IPO, The Marketer & Gen-Z
Not long ago, my colleague Elba wrote a piece on Snapchat’s much-discussed IPO. In it, Elba discusses the perils of a company like Snap going public, including the high expectations and skyrocket valuations that are often met with a downward trend in the months following.
Fast forward five months later, and it’s safe to say that Snapchat has had its fair share of challenges. In particular, its chief rival, The House of Zuckerberg (that’s the term we use when we’re discussing Facebook and Instagram at the same time), unapologetically continued to “rip off” Snapchat’s technologies, and, in some cases such as “Stories”, won: just one month fresh into its IPO, Instagram blew past Snapchat’s DAU using the Stories feature by a cool 39M.
With that said, the peaks and valleys haven’t been without emerging trends for marketers to think critically about.
Not convinced yet? Snapchat’s Gen-Z audience can’t be ignored. For starters, Snapchat is now the largest population segment of the total media audience worldwide, with a buying power of a whopping $44 billion. This number will only continue to grow as Gen-Z’s audience matures.
Of course, the question remains: is Snapchat strong enough to grow along with its powerful audience? Let’s recap its advertiser-optimized releases since that fateful day in March:
The Introduction of Snap Maps
While there is no feature for marketers to highlight their local business and run campaigns here quite yet, this feature is ripe with opportunities to bring nearby consumers into their stores. Not to mention the fact the whole “birds of a feather” concept: if your store or restaurant happens to have the most popular Gen-Z’er in town as a customer, others will flock. Social selling for the win!
The New Self-Serve Campaign Platform
“Geofilters? What are those?” Wrapping our heads around Geofilters, how they work, and why they’re important, isn’t always an easy task. But a successful Geofilter campaign can see a brand’s UGC production and engagement shoot through the roof. To compete with Facebook and Google, Snapchat introduced a new self-serve platform that allowed marketers to launch Geofilter campaigns with ease. Advertisers can spend as little or as much on their Geofilter campaign as they wish — and receive analytics and make campaign changes on-the-go via the ultra-convenient mobile dashboard.
The New Video Ads Purchaser
As a complement to its self-serve Ads Manager, last month, Spiegel & co. released an update that allows brands to go directly on the Snapchat website and easily purchase video ad space. Previously, advertisers had to go through a sales rep at Snapchat before making the purchase. This ease of access is a big move for Snapchat to appease its advertisers, especially considering the fact that the swipe-up rate is, on average, 5x higher than that of its House of Zuckerberg compatriots.
So, what’s next?
Snapchat’s success may continue to be somewhat unpredictable. But we expect that Snapchat’s offerings for marketers to only become more and more sophisticated in the next year, as appeasing the big, bold and slightly relentless stock market becomes top priority.
