Brief:

• Smartly.io, a Finnish startup that makes software to automate social media advertising campaigns, is now integrated with photo-messaging app Snapchat through a collaboration with parent company Snap. Brands can now use Smartly.io's tools and services to run hyper-localized campaigns on Snapchat and monitor their performance, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
• Smartyl.io customers can use its platform, including its Creative Studio, to produce mobile-first creative for Snapchat or transform existing creative assets into short-form content that is geared for the app. Smartly.io's services previously were available for campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
• Smartly.io's clients include Uber, FanDuel, Sportsbook and Nutrafol. The company announced the partnership with Snap in a virtual conference called the "Sofa Summit" that's available to download from its website.

Insight:

Smartly.io's addition of Snapchat to its automated platform for social media campaigns gives the company's customers another media outlet aside from Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. In several case studies posted on its website, Smartly.io explains how brands have used its platform to personalize their social media campaigns for different ad formats, seasonal shopping patterns, geographic regions and weather patterns. It also shows how brands can make ad production less expensive by automating the process of customizing the creative for different audience groups while using existing materials from their digital catalogs of products.

Snapchat is an important addition to Smartly.io's platform for customers that want to reach the image-messaging app's audience, which mostly consists of Gen Z consumers in the U.S. Snapchat's parent company Snap claims that the app reaches 90% of people ages 13 to 24, and 75% of 13- to 34-year-olds nationwide. Almost three quarters (72%) of Gen Zers who use Snapchat weren't reached by TV, per data from researcher Nielsen cited by Snap. The data also show that Snapchat, on average, is seven times more efficient than TV at reaching an advertiser's intended audience, and that the app added 23% to incremental reach.

Snap in the past year has expanded its range of ad formats and software tools for mobile marketers. Most recently, the company began testing video ad insertions before the first show that people watch each day on Discover, where Snapchat has a growing library of professionally produced content. More than 60 of Snapchat's original shows reach a monthly audience at least 10 million viewers, while time spent with its Discover programming rose 35% in Q1 from a year earlier, Snap's management said in its most recent quarterly conference call. Snap also has highlighted its augmented reality features that engage consumers with branded content.

The integration with Smartly.io adds an incremental source of ad sales for Snap, which last month reported a 44% jump in revenue to $462.5 million in Q1 from a year earlier. The company said user engagement with advertising grew in March amid record highs in usage as the coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay at home. App marketers experienced a 36% jump in install volume and a 19% gain in their ad swipe-up rate — key indicators of user response — in late March from a month earlier as people deepened their engagement with Snapchat, the company said. A key test for the company will be maintaining as much momentum as possible while the COVID-19 health crisis leads advertisers to shift their media spending.