Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Snapchat Gets its First Advertiser

Last week, Snapchat featured its first official advertisement on its app. While there was much speculation around what this would look like, and whether Snapchat would try to incorporate advertising in a more native way, the ad, promoting the new movie Ouija, played like a standard video ad. However, the ad was edited in such a way that the video was pieced together to look like a Snapchat story rather than a video one might find on YouTube.

Recently, Snapchat declared they had a $10 billion valuation, and until now many were skeptical just how the company would reach this valuation. With this first advertisement, many are now seeing the possibilities of using Snapchat as an advertising platform and the opportunity for Snapchat to develop a revenue stream. With US advertisers expected to spend $6 billion on digital ads this year, and that number jumping to $12.7 billion in 2018, the market is right for Snapchat to capitalize on this opportunity.

One of the benefits of using Snapchat to advertise videos rather than other social media or digital platforms, is that the audience must be actively involved, by holding down the play button for the entirety of the video. This ensures a captive audience and will likely lead to a higher return on investment, though only time will tell. With it becoming increasingly more difficult to reach this younger, often passive audience, it will definitely be interesting to see how brands jump on the Snapchat bandwagon.


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