Editor’s note: Nigel Hollis is chief global analyst and Chief Global Analyst at market research firm Millward Brown, New York City. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared here under the title, “Snapchat users positive about advertising on the app.”
The range of potential social communication platforms is growing bigger and marketers need to know which ones will best reach and engage their target audience. However, when dealing with emerging platforms opinions differ on which one will work well for brands and when. When it comes to the role of different social platforms anecdotes abound
, never mind whether new ad formats are effective or not. Recently Dan Calladine highlighted an interesting post by an “actual teen,” Andrew Watts, giving his view on social media.
Calladine cautioned that anecdotes are not data but even so I found myself momentarily swept along with the narrative; yes, what is the point of Twitter? Then a couple of days later I came across this post by Dana Boyd trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Her attempt to contextualize Andrew Watts’ comments is a legitimate reminder of the need to make decisions based on more than just anecdotes.
That of course is where research comes in. If you had asked me whether Snapchat users would be open to advertising on the platform I would have said no. Wrong! The evidence suggests they are. Snapchat is famous for the fact that photos and other content sent with the app disappear from recipients’ devices shortly after viewing. On Snapchat one form of advertising is when brands sponsor Snapchat’s our stories. Sponsors can add 5 to 10 seconds of their own photo and video content. The other form is advertising that appears in people’s recent updates. Our analysis has shown that the campaigns were received positively by Snapchat users: 60 percent of “our stories” and 44 percent of “brand stories” viewers enjoyed the ads, higher than expected based on general attitudes toward mobile advertising. This article in Digiday gives a good description of the type of ads that have appeared on Snapchat, including those tested in the study.
We measured the first six advertising campaigns to appear on Snapchat and found that the average increase in ad awareness was 16 percent points, ranking in the top quarter of similar mobile campaigns according to the mobile database. Most notable was the fact that online exposure was linked to subsequent offline behavior. Viewers of the Dragon Age video game brand story were 7 percent more likely to buy the game and those that viewed NBCUniversal’s Ouija and Dumb and Dumber To brand stories drove a 14 percent increase in actual attendance amongst those exposed.
So why is Snapchat an effective advertising medium? First and foremost it represents a good means to reach a younger target audience. However, reach alone does not guarantee effectiveness. There are a couple of reasons why I believe the new ad formats might get more attention than the typical display ad. First, if unopened, the ad sits there in someone’s feed for 24 hours. It’s tempting to simply see what it has to offer and get it out of there. Second, you can only view if your finger is on the screen, something that almost demands you pay attention to what is shown. Besides, a few seconds of advertising is a lot easier to endure if you know you won’t have to watch it time after time after time.
Of course, there is also the need take the “new factor” into account. Unfortunately, fifteen years of testing new digital ad formats has taught us that interest will wane but Snapchat’s ad format may hold up better than many. What do you think? Please share your thoughts.