Brief:
- Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, tested a coupon campaign for retailer Express, Technical.ly reported. The campaign, which offered a $25 discount on $100 in purchases, was overseen by Philadelphia-based startup Slyce.
- Snap recently selected Slyce as one of 14 new Snapchat Creative Partners to help advertisers meet their marketing objectives on the platform, which has about 173 million mobile users.
- Snapchat also added creative partners with specialties in video and GIF creation, playable ad development, 360-degree videos and mobile coupons, including Adludio, Ceros, Entrypoint and Wirewax, according to a Snap Blog post.
Insight:
As it looks to find ways to monetize its viewership with marketing and back-end services, Snapchat is signing up more marketing partners to help brands handle a range of possible activations after a viewer swipes on an ad to get more product information or respond to a call to action.
Its latest deal with Slyce appears to be somewhat of an experiment aimed at monetizing Snapchat’s large network of data and better targeting its users.
Slyce’s ability to get coupon activations for Express shows that Snapchat has a powerful platform to reach an audience of young adults and teens that generally embrace mobile tech. Many teen retailers have struggled as younger people show more interest in fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21, H&M and Zara. Their focus on continually updating their racks with low-cost fashion items that younger consumers like to share on social media like Snapchat and Instagram appears to be a winning formula as of now.
Snap’s revenue rose 21% in Q2 2017 from a year earlier, but the company missed investor estimates of user growth. If Snapchat doesn’t grow to have the same kind of user base that Facebook has, the company needs to at least capture a solid niche audience and keep that group engaged. Since its beginning, Snapchat has been popular with young adults and teenagers, which can be fickle audiences that other media channels have had difficulty reaching.
