Snapchat is a hot ticket for brands on the prowl for teens and young people. But so far, the standout brand campaigns have been few and far between.
“Publishers are doing good things on Discover, but on the Snapchat platform, there’s not a wealth of fantastic stuff from brands,” said Max Ward, head of multiplatform at content agency Gravity Road. “They just want to be first. They don’t have to be innovative right now.”
Here are three U.K. Snapchat campaigns that are working.
Domino’s gave money-off codes.
The short video, which aired for 24 hours last week, followed an intrepid delivery guy avoiding alien invasion and other obstacles to get a pizza to its destination. Throughout the video, letters were shown that made a money-off code for the viewer’s next order.
Ward adds that, with Snapchat notoriously scant when it comes to analytics, the number of people redeeming this would give a slight indication on how many people watched the film, as well as drive some revenue for the brand.
Nick Dutch, head of digital at Domino’s, told Digiday that the story got 6,000 organic views for that 24 hours (the channel recently posted it is getting 7 billion video views a day), but the brand was happy with this.
“We learned it was a great opportunity for us to reach that audience in relative isolation; we could be more pointed in our communication,” he said. “And also, if you want lots of people seeing your stuff on Snapchat, you will have to pay for it; organic reach will not go far for long.”
Burberry’s Testino campaign draws on being lo-fi.
Immediacy and accessibility are important factors in Burberry’s social media work, and a lo-fi finish is ideal for the backstage footage that the heritage brand Burberry has played with on the channel. Having previously streamed its catwalk shows on Twitter and Instagram, in October photographer Mario Testino (portrait photographer featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ) shot the brand’s Spring/Summer 2016 catalog while posting to Burberry’s Snapchat channel.
“Some people will try and go too slick and make it too polished,” Ward said. “This is about being quick and easy. It’s lo-fi, and it’s meant to be poor quality; otherwise, people won’t buy into it.”
KFC and geofilters get people in stores.
The fried-chicken outlet partnered with Snapchat in December for its sponsored geofilters. The channel offers special overlays that could only be accessed in 900 of its locations. Snapchatters were able to decorate their photos with seasonal frames and themes, designed to “bring the joy of Christmas together with the joy of KFC.”
“It’s a great example of a category-specific piece of work,” said Domino’s Nick Dutch. “It hones in on the audience, almost forcing them to come in-store and spend money. It’s a great blend of online in an offline world.
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