Dive Brief:
- Snapchat and the luxury brand Coach partnered on a line of Snapcode-enabled pins, marking the first time a fashion brand has created a product with the scannable technology embedded in it, according to Adweek.
- People can win a pin by taking a free quiz online or in 20 select stores throughout the season, then scan the code with a smartphone camera to play an arcade game based on Coach's holiday video campaign. The quiz will also appear in some ads by the brand and will unlock special Snapchat filters. The pin designs feature one of the brand's holiday mascots — unicorn, dinosaur or shark — surrounded by an outline of the iconic Snapchat ghost logo.
- The accessories are the first physical accessory from Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, since the 2016 release of its camera-enabled Spectacles sunglasses, Adweek said. While Spectacles launched to a lot of fanfare, the demand quickly died down, and the company ended up taking a $40 million loss from unsold units in its Q3 earnings. It's now trying to sell some of that inventory in the U.K.
Dive Insight:
The holidays are a crucial sales window for retailers, which must devise unique approaches to their marketing in order to catch consumers' attention in a crowded space. Coach's pins could engage shoppers by bridging a flashy, fun and — perhaps most importantly — free physical product to digital games, special filters for video messaging and more.
The partnership comes amid broader changes at Coach. Its parent company recently rebranded with a name change to Tapestry, Inc., and working with Snapchat might be a bid to draw in the young users who make up the core of the app's user base. The news also underscores what's been a reemergence this year of QR codes, spurred by ad products like Snapcodes, which can tie together in-store and online experiences.
For brands, Snapcodes and similar tools might better measure ROI in a way that other digital metrics can't. Similar strategies are being adopted by other digital advertising platforms, including Pinterest, whose Pincodes have started to appear more frequently on products from brands like Kraft Heinz and at Nordstrom and Home Depot store locations.
A recent Nielsen Buyer Insights report done on behalf of Snap found that households with Snapchat users spend 39% more money than the national average at retail stores and are more likely to try new products. Twenty-five percent reported using Snapchat filters while shopping, which supports Coach's effort to engage consumers with special filters on the platform.
