It may seem like a flash in the pan, but compared with Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat gives marketers a better chance to create close relationships with consumers, according to a ClickZ Live Toronto session.
Social media is important for every marketer in 2015, but it's equally important to know not to blindly jump on the bandwagon, according to Stacey Boguslavskaya, chief marketing officer at Shopbake, an online bakery marketplace based in Toronto.
At the start of her session during ClickZ Live, Boguslavskaya showed a video from Adobe, in which one young man asks another, "Yo bro, you on Woo Woo?" His friend replies, "You kidding me? Everybody's on Woo Woo." After a minute of Woo Woo-related hysteria in which marketers scramble to join the newest platform, both young men leave the social media network because, as one of them puts it, "my mom's on Woo Woo."
Boguslavskaya warned the audience not to become too caught up in social media fads. "There are a lot of things that come out and a lot of strategies that get pushed at us as marketers, but we really need to take a step back and not fall for the hype," Boguslavskaya said.
However, while platforms come and go, Boguslavskaya doesn't think Snapchat's success is fleeting. Facebook and Twitter may be seen as the king and queen of social media, but Snapchat has a young, engaged audience that uses the platform religiously. Currently, 50 percent of all North American smartphone users between the ages of 13 and 34 use Snapchat on a daily basis.
"There is a majority of young people using these platforms, but those young people are going to become your future customers if you fall into other age groups," Boguslavskaya said. "Not keeping up with how they're (Read more...) and what's important to them is going to make you lag behind once they become the customer you do need."
Marketing is different on Snapchat because it's so much more intimate than Facebook or Twitter, Boguslavskaya said. She pointed out that the platform has no search component, so in order to follow someone, you have to either know their handle or already have them in your phone's contacts.
"When Sephora launched new makeup brushes and they said, 'Hey, share this with your friends' on Snapchat, I'm actually sharing with my closest friends; I'm not sharing it [with many acquaintances] on Facebook and Twitter," she said. "My friends message me back. The quality of people you're sharing their message with is a lot higher when it comes to call-to-action."
That added intimacy makes brands seem like a part of consumers' inner circle - one of their "bestie brands" - which is something every marketer should aspire to.
"Your bestie brands are the ones you're going to back up no matter what," Boguslavskaya said. "If you see the brand out, you get excited; you're going to be more likely to share something they posted."
According to Boguslavskaya, Sephora is one brand killing it at Snapchat. The beauty brand, which doctored Snapchat's logo so that the ghost is wearing bright red lipstick and carrying a Sephora bag, recently launched a contest campaign called #MyGuyAtSephoraSweeps. Taking snaps of male shopping companions, consumers with the wittiest captions entered to win $250 and a bunch of products. Hundreds of people have shared their snaps on Instagram.
Other brands she listed as rocking the platform include Groupon, which promotes special events in Snaps; and fast food brands like McDonald's, Taco Bell and KFC, which use the platform to launch new products.
Given its "bestie brand" potential, Boguslavskaya doesn't see Snapchat fading away anytime soon. She thinks as it's around longer, it will only become more sophisticated for marketers.
"I foresee them changing certain things about the platform that will slowly make it into a platform that has longevity, where you can search based on topics or connections," she said. "I'm not exactly sure where they're going to take it, but I do see the addictiveness for sure."
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.