Fast food chain Sonic Drive-In played into the social media discussion surrounding Snapchat's recent update by leveraging fun facts and personal conversations across several channels in a continuation of the brand's lighthearted personality. 

Snapchat?s recent update sparked a flurry of discussion throughout social media, as the platform has made its most surprising change yet - the elimination of having to hold down photos to view them. Sonic instantly jumped at the chance and sent a series of snaps to fans, celebrating the relief to users? fingers. 

"The better user-viewing experience offered by the update allows us to play with longer-form stories and get the benefit of full-screen impact," said Sarah Beddoe, vice president, national marketing at Sonic Drive-In. "One of the most interesting things to us is how much easier it makes taking screenshots. 

"It is a native behavior for users to take screenshots of snaps and post them to Twitter or other platforms," she said. "Now that action is frictionless, and that allows for us to lean into Snapchat as a tool to not only storytell on Snapchat, but also across platforms."

"As brands become more comfortable with longer-form content, fuller stories can be told."

The photo-sharing mobile application, since launch, required all users to keep their fingers on their smartphone screens to view content on the app. Snapchat has been a significant topic of discussion with its frequent changes, but photos and videos always had to be held down. 

When the app took away the feature on or, as some would say nuisance, it became a trending topic in many discussions. To play into that, Sonic jumped to the opportunity and incorporated the update into posts the next day. 

The fast food chain posted an image to Snapchat?s story feature, in which every follower can view, declaring users now have the ability to hold Sonic?s beverage, Slush, at all times. Following the first celebratory photos, the retailer suggested to fans that the new update was needed to screen shot its content in the future. 

Sonic then shared instructions with consumers to have fun with them while celebrating the Fourth of July. Users scrolled through the Sonic consecutive story posts to find their personal state. 

The retailer included silly, fun facts for every state. Users that found their state took a screen shot of the post to be shared on Twitter. 

With the image of users? relative state posts, players included whether the fact was true or false.

This is apart of Sonic?s tendency to promote through humorous and lighthearted content. This method of promotion seems more authentic to consumers, because the brands seem as though they are having fun themselves. 

The playful marketing methods are vital when it comes to the demographic and product. Sonic?s products appeal to a younger demographic, which enjoys this type of marketing and spends a large amount of time on Snapchat. 

Sonic is securing its place as a ?friend? of consumers through similar interests, trending topics, comedic content and greater personalized platforms.  

The retailer employed a similar tactic when the season premiere of HBO medieval fantasy Game of Thrones incited a flurry of social media posts with brands jumping on board and taking full advantage to appeal to fans of the show. Sonic tweeted other brands challenging them with different quotes from the show (see more). 

Victoria?s Secret also ramped up two-way communication with its fans by asking social media users to vote on finalists for the brand?s first Summer Hot List on Instagram and Twitter (see more). 

"With the Snapchat update, we took advantage of how the update made it easier to capture screenshots, by reminding the consumer to update the app so they could engage with the next story in a more seamless way," Ms. Beddoe said. "This gave consumers the utility to participate and engage, and allowed for us to extend our story more effectively across Snapchat and Twitter.

"Snapchat still offers an advantage with the skipping technique," she said. "So it is still a unique content platform now without the intrusion of the thumb."

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer