Dive Brief:
- Snapchat Discover now includes 15 publishers after the addition of Refinery29 and its focus on millennial females.
- Snapchat has shaken up its Discover roster several times, expanding from the initial group of 11 at its launch earlier this year to the current crop of 15 publishers.
- Unilever is the initial sponsor of Refinery29’s channel.
Dive Insight:
With Snapchat's massive and engaged millennial audience -- the app claims 100 million unique daily users -- media brands are competing to become part of Discover.
What began as 11 is now 15 after Refinery29 joins the growing list of publishers on the Discover feature. Refinery29 brings its millennial female audience to a group that includes BuzzFeed, IGN, iHeartRadio and ESPN.
“This almost reminds me of programming in TV, but this whole thing feels completely new," Amy Emmerich, executive vice president of programming, Refinery29, told the Wall Street Journal. "Snapchat is one of the most complex channels I’ve ever worked on. It’s an awesome challenge.”
Previously, Snapchat would reshuffle its Discover roster by dropping publishing partners when adding a new group, but the portal's member list is now growing. The Discover partners have had some issues with Snapchat including concern after the social media company dropped the ability of its users to share publishers’ ads.
Recently, Discover publishers have launched campaigns to expand their Snapchat reach by using special QR codes as their Facebook and Twitter avatars to drive users to sign up for their Snapchat Story.
