Brief:
- Brands can now create 3-D AR World Lenses content within Snapchat, Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan announced today during a session at Advertising Week.
- The launch partners for the new sponsored content offering are Bud Light, which has created a talking beer vendor, and Warner Bros., which developed a flying car that ties in with the upcoming release of the film “Blade Runner 2049.”
- Khan also showcased recent stats around some brands’ activities on Snapchat, including that Jeep's flying hair AR filter delivered a 14% lift in purchase intent while a Mother's Day lens and exclusive video clip for "Wonder Woman" resulted in a 9% lift in watch intent. Additionally, American Eagle Outfitters saw a 6% lift in store visits shortly after launching a five-second Snap Ad.
Insight:
Snap Inc. clearly is looking to the Advertising Week announcement to rekindle some excitement around Snapchat, which is facing sluggish growth. While Snapchat is not adding new users at the brisk pace it once was, executives with brands, agencies and marketing services companies repeatedly had good things to say about Snapchat’s ability to connect with younger consumers in an authentic and emotional way during the annual gathering in New York City for the advertising industry. Khan echoed these sentiments, saying that research shows approximately 75% of people between the ages of 13 and 35 are on Snapchat.
The new 3-D AR World Lenses are likely to bolster Snapchat’s credibility with marketers not only for connecting with younger consumers but also for continued innovation, another area where some have suggested Snap is losing its edge. Interest in AR has been building ever since Pokemon Go launched last year and while Google and Apple are both making a concerted push into this space, Snapchat has an advantage in that, as an early AR platform, its users are already very familiar with how to access and insert this content into their snaps. For this reason, brands interested in dipping their toes into AR could find Snapchat’s audience one that is interested in engaging.
The new lenses from Bud Light and Warner Bros. use well-known cultural touchstones like the guys at sporting events who walk around the stadium and sell beer or flying cars from the future. As a result, the lenses reinforce what each brand is about while giving Snapchat users a fun and new way to engage with the brand.
World Lenses launched for users several months ago and have quickly drummed up excitement, with Snapchat reporting today that a dancing hot dog lens that has been receiving a lot of media attention has accumulated more than 3 billion views. Universal Pictures was one of the first to trial sponsored World Lenses with a campaign this summer for "Despicable Me 3."
