Tag: snapchat

Snapchat Reveals Plans To Be More Brand-Friendly

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: Marketing Land

In an interview at the Code Conference this Tuesday, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel did his usual round of horn-tooting about the rapid growth of the app, hinted at an ambitious plan for IPO, and revealed some future plans to make Snapchat more brand-friendly.

Spiegel said the company would eventually add a self-service ad platform to “make it easier for brands to be brands”. So far brands can only get on the platform by purchasing expensive ad units within its Stories and Discovery features, and a new self-serving ad platform would certainly give brands more freedom to test and explore the messaging app. However, don’t expect Snapchat to start actively helping brands with more organic use of the platform just yet, as Spiegel seems to consider it “frustrating when brands come on to [Snapchat] and tries to act like a person”.

Snapchat To Debut New Content From Sophia Vergara And MLB

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Variety & WSJ Blog

“Modern Family” star Sophia Vergara is coming to Snapchat with her own reality series Vergaraland. Co-produced by Fusion and Latin World Entertainment, the six-episode series promises a humorous look at the actress’ career from the perspective of her son.

Snapchat has also reportedly worked out a deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to introduce a weekly series of baseball-related video content. We first heard back in March that Snapchat is looking to broadcast live sport events, and this seems like a solid first step in that direction.

Ever since the beginning of this year, we have been witnessing Snapchat’s relentless push into original content to build out its media platform outside messaging. So it seems only natural that Snapchat is now getting Hollywood celebrities and sport leagues on board to boost awareness of its original content.

Led by Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, the messaging apps are racing to become full-fledged media channels. Although it seems still a bit early in the game to declare a winner, Snapchat is most definitely in the running with its vast popularity among Millennials and Gen Z, which means that brands trying to reach those young audiences need to take notice.

 

 

Snapchat Spices Up Discover Content With New Features

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

Continuing its transformation into a content platform, popular messaging app Snapchat has rolled out an update that brings a few significant new features to its branded content channel Discover. Snapchat users can now share content clips with friends, which will include a clickable banner that would direct recipients into Discover. Online publishing thrives on virality, so it makes perfect sense for Snapchat to make Discover content easily shareable.

Moreover, users can also embellish on the content clip with their own drawing and captions before sending. Undoubtedly a good way to encourage reader engagement, brands should be mindful of the content they put out, as this feature opens content up to parody and co-option, potentially resulting in “next-level awkwardness” for brands and media owners.

 

Why Instagram Launched Its First Official Content Vertical

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge

Taking a page out of Snapchat’s playbook, Instagram just made its first step to transition from a photo-sharing social media to a media content platform with the launch of its first-ever official content vertical @music. The account will update six times per week, sharing photos, lyrics, and videos to showcase some of the up-and-coming and popular artists to Instagram’s over 300,000 users. As of now, the account has already gained over 46,600 followers. We expect similar vertical content channels to appear if this experiment turns out successful.

Radio Killed The Podcast Star

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: AdWeek

At its first ever “Soundfront”, iHeartMedia pitched a dozen original podcast programs to radio ad buyers, citing the recent breakout hit podcast “Serial” as evidence of the format’s rising prominence. The 12 podcasts will run on iHeartRadio’s app, iHeartMedia websites and possibly some of the media giant’s radio stations, and some will be hosted by celebrities, such as Jared Leto and Jaime Pressly.

The radio behemoth is also teaming up with Snapchat to push a social marketing campaign on the latter’s platform as an effort to reach the younger audiences, who typically choose music streaming over radio, but also make up the mainstay of podcast audiences.

TechWreck: Madonna’s “Ghosttown” Video Premiere On Meerkat

Posted on by Lab Team

When it comes to trying out emerging media platforms, Madonna, or rather, her team, has been quite bullish. Back in February, Madonna debuted the music video for her single “Living for Love” on the Discover tab of Snapchat, making her the first mainstream artist to premiere a full video on Snapchat. Last month, she also teamed up with Grindr to promote her new album with fan competitions and sweepstakes on the app. So it seems only natural that her new music video for “Ghosttown” was scheduled to debut on one of the hottest platform right now—live-streaming app Meerkat.

Since Monday, Madonna’s Meerkat page counted down the hours and minutes until the feed went live. Yet, the video premiere never happened—at 10 a.m. PT this Tuesday, fans that tuned in on Meerkat were greeted with either a blank or 500 error page. Outrage ensued. Later, Meerkat CEO Ben Rubin denied any “scalability issues”, and a new stream went live for the video at 10 a.m. the next day.

Nevertheless, the incident does provide an important reminder for high-profile early adopters: new platforms might be popular and shiny, but they probably still have a few kinks to work out. While mobile live streaming offers exciting new possibilities, live broadcasts are inherently less forgiving towards technical glitches. This, however, shouldn’t stop brands and celebrities to stop experimenting with new services. After all, all media platforms have to start somewhere, and only early adopters get to share the newcomer buzz and enjoy the first-mover advantage.

Snapchat Grows Up And Asks For User’s Trust—And Ad Dollars

Posted on by Lab Team

Initially launched back in 2011, Snapchat has greatly matured along with its ever-expanding user base, transforming from a tool for sharing disappearing photos between friends into a content-sharing platform for consumers and brands.

Last October’s security breach, which resulted in over 90,000 leaked Snapchat photos, severely damaged users’ trust. So it’s about time that the company launched a number of initiatives to show that it takes its users data and privacy seriously. Last week, these included releasing a first-ever transparency report, shutting down third-party apps, and expanding its bug bounty program.

As Snapchat matures, it is also winning over advertisers and media partners with its massive amount of users in highly coveted young demographics. Since the introduction of its first official ad format, Brand Story, Snapchat’s advertising platform has become increasingly lucrative, reportedly asking brands for over $750,000 a day for its Discovery ads, which embeds video ads into choice-based viewing activities of brand’s target audience.

Why Snapchat Is Looking To Broadcast Live Sports

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Digiday

As part of its continuing effort to diversify content and evolve into a media platform, Snapchat is now working to get live sports in its “Our Story” feature, starting with the NCAA Final Four, by making media-rights deals with sports leagues and broadcast networks. The popular messaging app is also reportedly raising money from Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba at a $15 billion valuation, up from its $10 billion valuation last year.

Snapchat Is Getting More Local

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

After dipping their toes into original content development, Snapchat has started locally curating its content. The chat app is now turning its previously open-to-public, event-based curating feature “Our Stories” into a geo-fenced content channel that hightlights local Snapchat contents that can only be seen by people nearby. If Yik Yak’s recent rise in popularity proves that there is a market demand for location-specific social sharing apps, then this new localized feature might just be a timely addition for Snapchat.

 

Can You Guess This Week’s Two Top Emerging Media Channels?

Posted on by Lab Team

With the proliferation of OTT and mobile devices, new emerging media channels are popping up every week. This week, that honor goes to GoPro and Snapchat.

Wearable camera-maker GoPro has always been a pro at content marketing, as evidence by their über-popular YouTube channel with over 2.7 million subscribers. Other existing distribution partners of GoPro include Microsoft Xbox, LG, and Virgin America. Now, GoPro is making another big step in becoming a media channel and content provider by launching its own Roku channel dedicated to sports and action videos shot with its cameras.

Meanwhile, messaging app Snapchat continues to make strides towards becoming a full-fledged media channel. Following its announcement that it is experimenting with original content last week, Snapchat scored the exclusive premiere of the newest music video from Madonna, the first established artist to debut content on the messaging app.

Any brand with a sizable audience can try their hands at becoming a media channel, either by partnering up with existing distributors, as is the case with GoPro, or building out on their own like Snapchat. But in the end, only the ones with great content will win out.