Answer: If your audience is using it, then anything can be a marketing tool. The trick is learning to use it effectively before your competition.
After Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat is the third most popular mobile app among the coveted millennial demographic; men and women aged 18-26. It’s a big deal! As a company Snapchat is worth approximately $US 19 billion, and around 400 million snaps are sent each day, making it more popular than Twitter!
So what is Snapchat? It’s a smartphone app allowing users to send photos and videos that disappear after you’ve seen them. It’s fun, visual communication, providing instant updates of day-to-day life.
Recently Snapchat partnered with CNN, National Geographic, ESPN, People Magazine and some other big names, to provide exclusive content through Snapchat’s ‘Discover’ feature. TV shows use Snapchat to provide ‘sneak peeks’ of their next episode. It’s the perfect medium for previews, breaking stories, or updating coverage, because once you’ve seen it, it’s gone. The practical marketing applications for your business are huge. You can preview events, go behind-the-scenes, give exclusive details for a sale, or show a slice of office life.
Instead of building brand awareness through repetition, Snapchat users prefer authenticity and humour. Because photos and videos are temporary they don’t need a highly polished look, making them perfect for the less-than-serious. Snap someone’s bad tie or fashion faux pas, a short prank, or someone having an afternoon nap. It may seem incredibly trivial, but updates like these show the human side to your organisation, helping people actively identify and connect with your brand.
Snapchat is not for everyone, but if you’re trying to reach the 18-26 age group you should seriously consider it. To give you an idea, check out how the New Zealand Transport Agency used Snapchat to communicate the dangers of driving while on drugs.
If you’d like to learn more about increasing your brand awareness through digital marketing, give Manu Media a call today.
