Dive Brief: 

• In a campaign using Snap’s Sponsored Snaps ad product, Wendy’s recorded nearly 52 million impressions in a single day, marking the highest view rate of all U.S. takeover advertisers during the product's alpha test phase in Q4 2024, per a company blog post. 
• Snap began testing Sponsored Snaps, which allow brands to deliver a vertical video Snap directly to Snapchatters in their chat inbox, last October. Wendy’s used the format to send a photo of its sign outdoors with a message on it that read, “Can we yap now.” 
• The campaign generated nearly 120,000 clicks and drove an ad awareness lift over five times above the restaurant category benchmark. The results represent Snapchat’s first time sharing performance outcomes from a brand’s Sponsored Snap campaign. 

Dive Insight: 

Snap is pulling back the curtain on the brand results for its Sponsored Snaps product for the first time to share the results from Wendy’s use of the product during its Q4 alpha test phase. Snap began testing Sponsored Snaps with launch partner Disney. The format allows brands to deliver full-screen video Snaps directly to the app’s users, who can reply by sending a message directly to the advertiser or using the call-to-action to open a link. If left unviewed, Sponsored Snaps will be removed from users’ inboxes. 

For Wendy’s campaign, the fast-food chain made an effort to showcase its often playful brand personality with a Snap sent directly to Snapchatters that depicted a Wendy’s sign that read “Can we yap now” with the caption “Saw this and thought of u <3.” On the day of the brand’s Sponsored Snap, organic followers on its public Snapchat profile grew by 54%. The campaign also drove an over 17% overall lift in brand ad awareness.

Wendy’s often employs buzzy marketing strategies. For the return of its Strawberry Frosty, the brand teamed with T-Pain to remix “Buy U A Drank” with new lyrics about the frosty flavor. Prior, the chain re-upped its partnership with “Rick and Morty” for a special menu inspired by the sci-fi-comedy. Wendy’s has also experimented with channels including the metaverse and shoppable ads on connected TV.

For Snap, Sponsored Snaps allow the social media platform another way to court advertisers. In Q4 2024, the ad product was its largest single-day reach product, according to press details. Additionally, Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places both grew the number of unique Snapchat users reached by advertisers and delivered a 30% increase in reach on average in the U.S. 

Snap has sought other ways to grow the advertising arm of its business. This week, the company introduced its new Agency Partner Program, an expansion of the agency offering it launched last year, to allow agencies of all sizes to work more closely with the company and help maximize client results. Snap reported a revenue increase of 14% year over year to $1.56 billion, according to an earnings release. The social media platform has over 850 million monthly active users and 453 million daily active users globally.