Dive Brief:

• Snapchat has launched a new suite of ad solutions, called Creator Collab Campaigns, designed to make it easier for brands to work with the platform’s creator community, according to a company news release. 
• Included in the suite is a Creator Discovery API, meant to streamline the process for identifying available creators. Additionally, brands can now place branded content within creator-driven stories. A new Paid Partnership Tag will allow content creators to more easily tag branded content as a paid promotion.
• Snapchat partners for the new API include Captiv8, CreatorIQ and Whalar, among others. The new additions arrive as parent Snap continues to struggle to grow advertising revenue.

Dive Insight: 

With the launch of Creator Collab Campaigns, Snapchat is attempting to shore up additional advertiser interest at a time when influencer marketing is growing compared to other paid social advertising. The move comes at a rough time for business, with parent Snap reporting a 4% year-over-year revenue dip in Q2 and a weaker-than-anticipated outlook for Q3 as the business “remains in a period of rapid transition” and looks to bolster its ads platform. 

Managing creator relationships can be challenging for marketers, so a suite of solutions designed around streamlining the creator and brand relationship could prove valuable. Within the suite is a Creator Discovery API, which allows third-party partners to search Snap’s creative roster by metrics including name, username, age, bio and follower count. Beyond, creators will also have the ability to share additional metrics for insights around Stories, Spotlights and audience insights. The company is already working with a number of API partners to integrate creator data into their services.

Additionally, Snapchat will now allow advertisers to place branded content within creator-driven Stories with its new Creator Midroll Placement, a move that could help brands as app users spend more time watching content. According to findings shared in release details, the time spent by Snapchat users watching Stories from creators in its revenue share program in the U.S. has more than doubled year-over-year. Snapchat currently has 397 million daily active users. 

Snapchat also is rolling out a new self-serve Paid Partnership Tag feature, allowing creators to more easily label branded content as a paid promotion. In the weeks to come, the platform will launch a new ability for creators to tag a business when posting a Spotlight, Snap Map and Public Story Snap within the app. Brands will be able to approve the partnership with Ads Manager, which will also allow them to see analytics and use the content as an ad, per the release.

Along with the launch of Creator Collab Campaigns, Snap revealed that it’s currently working on a feature that will allow any Snapchat user, creator or business to promote their own content in addition to new tools that will allow marketers to discover and promote organic creator content within Snapchat. 

The new tools are another way in which Snapchat is trying to promote its creators as the backbone of the platform for advertisers. Earlier this month, the platform rolled out an immersive content series, Phantom House, which follows several content creators as they attempt to escape a haunted house. Snapchat is promoting the series as an opportunity for brands to run ads and create AR experiences. Disney+ and Maybelline have signed on as early advertisers for the program.