5 ad agencies to follow on Snapchat

VaynerMedia (vaynermedia)

Founder Gary Vaynerchuk is a big proponent of Snapchat, so it’s no wonder that VaynerMedia was an early adopter of the platform. The agency has been active on Snapchat with the handle vaynermedia since late 2014, using it as a window to showcase its company culture. For Vaynerchuk, the investment the agency’s making into the platform will only intensify this year.

“For me, there are two real wins of doing this: it boosts the internal morale within the agency and connects people across offices and two it makes my employees true practitioners of their craft,” he said.

Huge (hugesnaps)

Huge launched its Snapchat handle hugesnaps in the summer of 2015, tying it in with its “Summer Fry Day” program and encouraging employees to document their day off on the agency’s Snapchat account. It continues to regularly post a mix of content, including events and parties it hosts, behind-the-scenes footage from its offices around the world and even industry events like Advertising Week.

“We’ve found having a Snapchat account is valuable not just for forcing people to become fluent in the product as content producers, but as users as well,” said Sam Weston, vp of communications at Huge. “It’s very easy in an agency to pay lip service to Snapchat’s popularity and importance, but you can’t really talk as an expert unless you’re a user.”

McKinney (Mckinneysnaps)
The Durham, North Carolina, shop launched its Snapchat account Mckinneysnaps in November 2015 to break away from the “traditional rules of social media” that it follows on its LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Like Huge, it hands the reins of its Snapchat account to a new employee every Thursday, for “a personalized, authentic story from one of our own,” hoping to attract more potential employees.

“The only rule is, ‘Don’t get fired,’” said Renee Montpetit, agency communications coordinator at McKinney.

Giant Spoon (giant_spoon)

Giant Spoon launched its own Snapchat channel in October 2015 to share presentations and cultural intelligence with its clients in a fun, digestible way. From GIFs to emojis, the agency has since used the handle giant_spoon to share briefs with its clients on a wide range of cultural and marketing topics. It also posts tidbits from the ground at events like CES and ComicCon and dishes out recommendations of a new app or book.

“We want our Snapchat to be useful – not just an agency tour or a way to show off accolades,” said Nathalie Con, senior strategist at Giant Spoon. “It’s a fun platform to tell stories on – it’s not too serious and it gives us a lot of room as marketers to be creative on the fly.”

MRY (mryagency)
MRY first launched its handle mryagency in fall 2014, ahead of the SnapAds stunt where it accepted briefs using SnapCash. It rebooted its handle this past fall to create more frequent stories that are “informative, light hearted and welcoming — with a dash of provocativeness.” While the account is run by its senior marketing manager Kate Bryan in conjunction with its community management team, the agency does open it up for others to contribute to as well.