James Bond’s ‘Spectre’ is the first brand to get its own Snapchat Discover channel

By Digiday • October 26, 2015 •

It’s only appropriate that James Bond, a man on the technological cutting edge, would be the first person to get his own Snapchat Discover channel.

Sony Pictures is the first brand to purchase its own Discover channel to promote next week’s release of the latest Bond installment “Spectre.” The channel is labeled as “Sponsored” on the Discover tab, where it’s the first brand displayed, pushing iHeartRadio’s channel temporarily off the screen.

Live for the next 24 hours, it’s loaded with cast interviews made specially for Snapchat, behind-the-scenes videos from the movie’s exotic shooting locals (Austria in the winter sure looks cold!), and sendable filters that has a design flaw of not being able to insert a picture in it.

Here’s what it looks like:

Today only on Snapchat you can access #SPECTRE content on the first-ever Discover channel created for a film pic.twitter.com/KHD9NTTaSK

— James Bond (@007) October 26, 2015

People seem to actually not hate an advertisement, as seen from these Twitter comments:

The James Bond #Spectre Snapchat story is pretty awesome today…it’s a great look at how sponsored Snapchats can work/be engaging. — Taylor Shold (@tshold) October 26, 2015

The #Spectre snapchat has to be the best story I’ve ever seen on there

— Tom G (@TomG_274) October 26, 2015

Okay, this #SPECTRE sponsored @Snapchat Discovery story is next level. So cool. — Elijah Ray Perez (@ActuallyEliP) October 26, 2015

So #SPECTRE has its own @Snapchat Story. Yes please. pic.twitter.com/rmJ1814gxu

— Van Baird (@vanbaird) October 26, 2015

Besides interstitials that appear on publisher’s Discover channels or on Live Stories, Snapchat has been slow to roll out fully branded experiences like this one.

Last year, Universal Studios purchased a sponsored snap story for its low-budget horror movie “Oujia.” That, however, was simply a trailer for it displayed on user’s Recent Updates list and wasn’t interactive or shareable like the channel for “Spectre” is. Snapchat has since stopped selling Brand Stories instead pushing companies to advertisers within Live Stories or on Discover channels and filters.

Sony Picture’s experimentation with the Discover channel comes one day after Warner Bros. was the first brand to try out Twitter’s “Promoted Moment” format for its upcoming boxing movie “Creed.” Flush with cash, Hollywood seems to be a potent source for social networks to serve as guinea pigs for new ad formats.

Snapchat didn’t immediately respond for comment on whether more brands will be purchasing a custom channel.

Images via Snapchat.

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