Before we learn how to analyse Snapchat for marketing, it is imperative to talk about how Snapchat really works as a digital marketing channel. Snapchat is a social networking application for iOS and Android mobile phone users that enables you to take up to 10 seconds of videos or photos with or without using different filters available through the application itself. This is called snaps. The snaps can then be used in a number of different ways:
- Users can upload it straight to their Snapchat story, which can then be seen by the public or users can set the privacy to friends or their followers and it last for 24 hours.
- Users can also send their snaps as messages to their followers or a group of selected friends.
- Directly send it to somebody as a private message. For further readings please click here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPzZevSbgGk
Snapchat has 178 million daily active users internationally according to an online statistics portal for market data called Statista that specializes in market research and market studies (Statista, 2017).
This blog supports Dave Chaffey’s marketing tactics such as “Viral Marketing and Online Partnerships” (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2015). 10 billion daily video views by 178 million daily active users create a perfect user generated, viral marketing & online partnerships opportunity environment for businesses to use snapchat as a marketing tool (Statista, 2017; Statista, 2016). For further reading please click here.
Dave Chaffey’s six digital marketing channels (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2015).
Snapchat as a digital marketing channel can support marketing in a number of different ways, to learn more about it please click here. In this blog we will specifically look into Audi’s marketing success with Snapchat.
A very successful campaign on Snapchat from Audi, who were the sponsors of the 2014 Super bowl. Largely viewed as one of year’s biggest sporting events. In order to maximise their reach during this event, they decided to go after the audience who wouldn’t normally be affiliated to the luxury car brand. Throughout the game they sent very simple Snapchats to football fans, of animals and food that were photographed with a camera phone, with witty captions. Fans loved them so much that they took to other social networks to share their feelings about Audi’s Snapchats. Please watch in the video below.
The results were very impressive; 9,600 more followers in 48 hours and reaching to 10,500 followers in total, 100,000 total views on Snapchat, and 37 million total social impressions. This also pushed Snapchats ability to keep up with the volume of user growth. By using Snapchat, Audi gained a huge engagement with new audiences (Audi, 2014). For further readings please click here.
Why did Audi chose snapchat as their marketing channel?
Audi collaborated with Huge and did a survey around individuals second-screen habit when watching TV. The study found that 59% of 2013 Superbowl used their mobile phones during the game (MMA, 2014). Based on this study Audi found the potential opportunity for a viral marketing to a specific audience and chose Snapchat.
What success did Audi have with Snapchat marketing?
Audi got more online engagement than any of its automotive rivals on the greatest marketing day of the year and increased its brand awareness on both conventional and web based social networking among Millennials. Snapchat also told Audi that they were the fastest-growing followings they had ever seen (Audi, 2014).
How did Audi use Snapchat to market the Audi brand?
Audi teamed up with The Onion to deliver contents that isn’t about football. You can see some of the snaps in the video above. Audi only used simple photos taken with a smartphone (see the picture below ), the success factors that played behind the campaign going viral was that audi created clever messaging with simple content. This approach engaged more users to pay attentions to their snaps because of the quality and the relevancy of the content as opposed to other brands’ endeavours at “real-time” recordings and more difficult approaches.
Audi’s snaps of a dog during the 2014 Super bowl (Audi, 2014)
Obviously, results for everyone aren’t likely to be quite so spectacular, but it goes to show that thinking outside the box goes a long way!
When did Audi use Snapchat and what advantage they had to chose that specific time period?
Audi started to use Snapchat on the the greatest marketing day of the year; the 2014 Superbowl. It is when millions of people watch the game and in 2014 it had 112.2 million viewers which set a record, as the most watched event in U.S television history (Stelter, 2016). Having done a research on individual second-screen habit it makes Snapchat the perfect choice for Audi as a digital marketing channel and a lot cheaper than advertising on TV.
To conclude, Snapchat is comparatively a new digital touch point; the above analysis may not be a fully exhaustive critical review of Snapchat as marketing tool. However, I would like to know what do you think of my effort and I am very keen to know about your experience of Snapchat. Please leave your feedback, reviews and suggestion in comments section.
Bibliography:
Audi,. 2014. Audi | Huge. Available from: http://www.hugeinc.com/case-study/super-bowl-snapchat [30 November 2017].
Chaffey, D. and F. Ellis-Chadwick. 2016. Digital marketing. 6th ed. Harlow [etc.]: Pearson.
MMA, 2014. Available from: http://Audi Takes Snapchat by Storm on Super Bowl Sunday [1 December 2017].
Paul, L. 2017. Logan Paul on Twitter. Available from: https://twitter.com/loganpaul/status/486232814195843072?lang=en [29 November 2017].
Statista, 2017. Snapchat daily active users 2017 | Statistic. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/545967/snapchat-app-dau/ [29 November 2017].
Statista, 2017. Snapchat daily active users 2017 | Statistic. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/513494/snapchat-daily-video-views/[29 November 2017].
Shields, M. 2017. NBA Embraces Snapchat and Google Hangouts For the NBA 2014 Draft. Available from: https://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/06/24/nba-embraces-snapchat-and-google-hangouts-for-the-nba-2014-draft/ [29 November 2017].
Stelter, F. 2016. Super Bowl 50 audience is third largest in TV history. Available from: http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/08/media/super-bowl-50-ratings/index.html [1 December 2017].
Whitney, M. 2016. Snapchat, Facebook Roll Out Charitable Functions. Available from: https://www.mainstreethost.com/blog/snapchat-facebook-charitable-functions/ [29 November 2017].