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1. Snapchat Unfiltered:
A Guide for Marketers

2. 2 Introduction
3 What is Snapchat?
4 Why Snapchat?
6 Millenials Dominate
7 How to use Snapchat
9 Navigating Snapchat
11 Advertising features
14 Brands who got it right
16 Takeaway
Contents
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Snapchat Unfiltered:
A Guide for Marketers

3. You’ve heard all the hype about
Snapchat, but there’s a good chance
you still don’t really know how it works.
You’ve heard all the hype about Snapchat, but there’s a good chance (if you’re a marketer
over the age of 20) that you still don’t really know how it works, much less how to leverage it
to reach the highly sought after millennial audience. Here’s what you need to know about the
explosive social app, including newly released features and current ad products.
Here’s what you need to know.
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4. What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is a free mobile messaging app
where users can share photos, videos, text and
drawings which are deleted after a maximum of
10 viewing seconds.
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5. Why Snapchat?
Some may wonder, what’s the point of having an app to share
photos that disappear? Well, that is one of the core features
that appeals to more than 200 million Snapchat users. It’s not
about the mere sharing of photos; it’s about the immediacy
with which users can directly communicate to people what is
currently happening in their lives.
Snapchat enables users to turn ordinary photos in to works of
art. The app offers drawing tools, emojis, text, and even rewind
and fast forward for videos. The most popular feature? Adding
a filter to your selfie. And, Snapchat recently released several
new features as part of what they’ve dubbed “Chat 2.0.”,
which includes voice chat, video and audio notes, stickers, and
more additions to the user interface.
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6. How has Snapchat gained more U.S. active users in its five
years of existence than LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest? 35%
report using Snapchat because their parents don’t, and another
30% say it’s because their content disappears. Interestingly,
eMarketer projects that Snapchat will surpass Twitter and
Pinterest in user size this year, but it won’t catch Facebook’s
Messenger app which is headed to a nine-figure user base by
2020, growing by 27% this year alone.
Not only have users flocked to Snapchat quickly, but they are
incredibly active on the app: half of all Snapchatters use the app
every single day. This amounts for over 8 billion video views per
day (more than Facebook), making it the fastest growing social
media platform in the world.
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7. Millennials Dominate
Snapchat’s audience of over 200 million global users (59M U.S. users) is famously skewed
towards millennials, who account for 46% of all users.
On any given day, Snapchat reaches
41% of all 18 to 34 year-olds in the
United States.
41%
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8. How to Use Snapchat
Now, let’s get back to the basics of how to use the app and navigate its features.
The Lingo
Snaps: Photos or videos you send to a friend
(or multiple friends). A snap self-destructs 10
seconds after someone opens it.
Replay: You can replay the last snap you
viewed one time per day. (Note that the user
is notified when you replay their Snap!)
Stories: Stories are collections of Snaps
submitted by users that can be viewed by
their friends or publicly for up to 24-hours.
In addition, live stories are compilations
of Snaps from Snapchatters at events and
locations around the world, curated by
Snapchat. These also typically appear for 24
hours. (Instagram recently also introduced
their version of Stories, which moreover
offers the same functionality.)
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9. Memories: Memories is a personal
collection of saved Snaps and Stories
which are backed up by Snapchat.
Discover: These are channels created by
various publishers for a mass audience—
ESPN, Food Network, Comedy Central, etc.
Snap Score: According to Snapchat, your
Snap Score is a combination of the number
of Snaps you’ve sent and received, stories
you’ve posted, and other factors.
Filters: A filter is essentially an interactive
or decorative overlay for your photos and
videos; these can change based on special
events or holidays, brand promotion, location,
or time of day.
Geofilters: These are specific filters available
based on your location. The community can
submit Geofilters for Snapchat approval (i.e.
community Geofilters), as well as businesses
(i.e. on-demand Geofilters).
Lenses: A lens allows you to add animated
effects to your photos and videos. These are
commonly confused with Filters, but you use
Lenses while you are taking a Snap.
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10. Navigating Snapchat
Swipe down to see current friends and add
new ones. Swiping left allows you to browse
the Discover page to see branded content
from publishers. If you subscribe to these
publishers, their daily content appears on
your story page.
The app has three screens and the camera
view is the first to open to allow quick
access for new snaps. Press the circle
button once to take a photo and hold it
down to take a video.
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11. Swiping right allows you to send individual
Snaps/chats to friends or groups of friends on
their feed page. This is also where you can
see the Snaps people send you; reply directly
by sliding over to the left to the “chat” page.
By swiping right on a specific
friends’ name, you can see your
friends’ stories and reply privately
via direct messages.
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12. Advertising Features
Sponsored Lenses were introduced in
September of 2015. Essentially, these
are layered effects on top of your selfie
sometimes tied to specific holidays
and events. Sponsored Lenses are the
most premium ad buy on the app, and if
interested, brands can purchase a national
Lens from $100,000 to $750,000, which is
available to users for 24 hours.
How can brands leverage Snapchat to engage with younger audiences?
Snapchat offers a variety of ad products.
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13. Sponsored Geofilters are similar to lenses;
however, they can only be used in a specific
location. For instance, if you are within 200
feet of an event, you will have access to its
associated Geofilter. Any user or brand can
submit a personalized Geofilter for events,
which start at as little as $5. Recently,
sponsored Geofilters have become popular for
weddings, costing around $25 for a weekend.
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14. Advertising Features
3V are 10 second videos that appear on the
Discover page or as a Live story. This feature
is available to advertisers on a pay-per-view
model and have a flexible campaign duration.
A Live Story Takeover secures 100% of the
share of voice across all three ad types. This is
a great way to share your brand’s perspective
on a particular holiday or event. For example,
MTV hosted a Live Story Takeover for the MTV
Movie Awards showcasing the red carpet back
stage occurrences and exclusive celebrity
appearances.
Snap Ads, a recent addition to Snapchat’s
offerings, appear in the context of other
Snaps. Brands can also give Snapchatters
the choice to swipe up and see more, just
like they do elsewhere on Snapchat. Swiping
up reveals extended content like a long form
video, article, app install ad, or mobile website.
This is Snapchat’s first foray into in-stream
ads, as well as their first direct response ad
product, allowing content to link outside of the
app to a brand’s website or mobile app.
Campaign minimums start at $25K currently and are
only available through third-party API partners.
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15. Brands Who Got it Right
Terminator used a Sponsored Lens to promote
the premiere of “Terminator: Genisys.” The Lens
made Snapchatters look like the famed Terminator
protagonist – robotic eye and all. This campaign was
enhanced by influencer marketing by Schwarzenegger
himself taking selfies using the Lens and posting them
to his various social media platforms. On Facebook,
this was particularly successful where the post reached
over 54,000 likes. It’s important to note that 5% of all
selfies shared online are taken using the Snapchat app,
meaning that impressions aren’t simply restricted to
that platform!
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16. Gatorade was also hugely successful with their Superbowl Sponsored Lens, which
drove an 8-point jump in purchase intent during Superbowl 50.
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17. Takeaway
For brands looking to reach a highly sought after millennial audience, Snapchat
provides an opportunity to offer unique, creative content in real-time. Although
advertising minimums are higher than other social networks, these will likely
decrease with the recent launch of their ads API. If millennials are a key
target for your business, you should strongly consider creating an organic brand
presence on Snapchat as well as testing their advertising products.
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Got a question or need help?
Drop us a line.
Rina Cook
Director of Business Development
404.233.0332
rina.cook@bkv.com