Kids these days: reaching Gen Z through Snapchat

According to Piper Jaffray, Snapchat overtook Instagram this week as the "most important service" at 28 percent to Instagram's 27 percent. While Snapchat is still new and uncharted territory for most marketers, firms are beginning to realize its use in reaching younger (Generation Z, for example) markets. Snapchat is the fastest growing social network in the history of social networks, and 63 percent of its more than 100,000 daily active users are between the ages of 13-to-34. In order to stay relevant, marketers are following these younger demographics into the more intimate content space. And, this intimacy, a blend of private and public content, is where marketers are devoting incrementally more of their resources. However, the user-centric platform is a challenge for marketers on because it’s made for users rather than marketers. Snapchat lacks some of the basic tools necessary for measuring ROI, for example. There is a weak monetization strategy that is difficult to track. As Snapchat grows, it will be interesting to see how brands reach younger audiences and keep the content fresh and genuine. Reaching these audiences that expect realness and dynamism requires less approval processes and "tapped in" marketers.