Snap Inc., popularly known as Snapchat, evolved in July 2011 by creators Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. What started as a class project has now evolved into a mobile photo sharing application that allows users to take photos, record videos, and include text on the photo or video. It only allows shared photos and videos to be viewable for one to ten seconds before disappearing (Asad, 2014). This app has driven many to download the application to allow users to communicate with friends, express themselves, and learn and see the world through someone else’s experiences that they may share on their stories.
More recently, Snap Inc. has developed Publisher Stories in which it allows the Snap community to view content from some of the most creative media companies in the world. This has significantly helped companies market towards almost over 150 billion users of Snap. Marketers can use Snap as a way to bring awareness to prospects, get prospects interested, and evaluation.
Marketers have used Snapchat to grow their businesses. Many businesses have chosen to offer promo codes. By posting a picture with a discount code to their story, those who view it can use this code to purchase something off the companies website. In most cases, businesses only allow this code to be used as long as the story is up, which is 24 hours. Businesses have also used Snap to launch new products. For example, Apple posted about their new launched products and sneak peaks of products to be launched including the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and the new apple watch generation 3. It gives users a “behind the scenes” look into what’s been going on in the businesses development of products. One last use that businesses have been using Snap for is to leverage influencer marketing. I follow many fitness accounts on Snap. Per their job, they are promoted by different fitness companies like Gymshark, PEscience, and other companies. Part of the promotion for the fitness person and the company, is for them to have their content viewed by both their followers, and the followers of that influencers. These large fitness companies are partnering up with fitness individuals and having them take over their snapchat account for 24 hours. They typically do this around a new launch as these fitness individuals have already been sent the product to try out. Companies have started doing this so that the consumers have someone to relate to.
Snapchat has become a highly used platform for companies. It enables companies to reach out to a larger number of users and consumers. Because people spend so much time on the app daily, companies are receiving countless views on their sponsored videos. It allows companies to use a different platform that is less competitive, it feels authentic for companies and consumers, and they are able to reach a new audience that isn’t like companies other costal media platforms.
Asad, I. (2014). Instant Profits with Snapchat: How to Use Snaps to Boost Your Sales Fast. Pennsauken, NJ: BookBaby.
Introducing Campus Publisher Stories! (2017, September 8). Retrieved September 25, 2017, from https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/
Siu, E. (2017, February 21). 3 Ways to Use Snapchat for Marketing. Retrieved September 25, 2017, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/289286#