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What brands are best in class examples on Snapchat that are not featured in Discover and Why?
Hi! Thanks for your question asking for best-in-class earned media examples on Snapchat. I found that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) #LastSelfie, Heineken SnapWho for Coachella, Audi 2014 Superbowl Sunday, Sphero BB-8 Launch, and Burberry's 2016 Spring Sneak Peek are good brand examples of companies that engaged with followers. All five campaigns received industry recognition either through an award, addition in 'Best or Top' case study list compilations, and received extensive media coverage. Please find below a deep dive of my research.
METHODOLOGY
I started my research by looking for pre-compiled industry lists that profile 'Creative,' 'Best,' 'Top,' and 'Innovative' Snapchat case studies. I also looked at the Webby and Shorty awards. From there, I limited my results to campaigns that had not paid for advertising space on Snapchat or to be featured in the Discover Channel. Please note that the brands I have presented may have since appeared on the Discover channel or paid for advertising, but the specific campaigns I highlighted were 'earned,' meaning Public Relations/Marcom was used instead of advertising. The one campaign that comes the closest to advertising was the Sphero BB-8. Although they did not pay for an ad, they did use Snapchat Influencers. I was unable to find out if, and how much the Influencers were paid to participate. Some of the campaigns are from 2014, but are still being mentioned in recent sources as a best-in-class example. After 2014, many campaigns have been linked to advertising through the launch of Discover.
SNAPCHAT
Snapchat is a social media platform known for sharing images with a limited lifespan. Launched in September 2011 Snapchat has added new features recently including Stories (October 2013), Live (August 2014) and Advertising (October 2014.) "A favorite among millennials, Snapchat boasts 150 million daily users by some accounts, surpassing Twitter’s daily user count, and was recently valued at $18 billion after raising $1.8 billion in cash earlier this year." Daily active users are mostly in North America (43%) and Europe (33%). Users are predominantly (60%) under age 25. There is an average of 2.5 billion snaps a day with average users spending a daily average of 25-30 minutes on the app. There are 5 ways brands can use Snapchat to engage followers: 1. Promotion, 2. Teasers, 3. Giving back to their Audience, 4. Influencers and 5. Events.
WWF #LASTSELFIE
The WWF offices in Denmark and Turkey were inspired by the disappearing content of Snapchat and came up with a campaign that matched the format. The promotion campaign showed "animals on the endangered species list and implored fans to not “let this be my #LastSelfie,” before the image disappeared after a few seconds." The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness among Millennials and increase donations. This campaign was launched before Snapchat was used as an advertising platform, so traffic was a concern.
The #LastSelfie campaign won the 2015 People's Voice / Webby Award for Social Media Campaigns. The day the campaign launched they received 40,000 global shares on twitter. After a week, other offices of WWF asked to use the campaign for their market. By the end of the campaign they had secured media coverage in more than 6 languages. The biggest sign of success, however, was that their donation target for the entire month was reached in 3 days.
HEINEKEN SNAPWHO
The SnapWho campaign was launched prior to Discover being available and was linked to Coachella. The goal was to create excitement for Coachella and promote bands that would be on the Heineken House stage. Cropped photographs of bands and musicians were sent to followers as 'clues.' If they could identify who was in the photograph, they received exclusive early confirmation of the lineup for Heineken House at Coachella. This campaign was a combination teaser and linked to an event. This campaign was considered a "beer brand first" and it has been included in many 'best' compilations as an example of connecting with, and engaging followers.
AUDI SUPERBOWL SUNDAY (2014)
In this campaign, Audi partnered with The Onion and Huge. The goal was to entertain Millennials and generate conversations during Superbowl through sharing humorous photos and captions. The campaign gave back to the customer and took advantage of an event.
Audi is considered to be the first "major brand to achieve a big Snapchat success." They also received one of the fastest-growing followings with 9,600 new followers in 48 hours. The campaign had 100,000 total views on Snapchat and received 2,400 Twitter mentions. Audi saw a 9,000 increase in their Facebook fan-base. They also received earned media coverage including Fast Company and Adweek. "The campaign helped Audi drive the most online conversation of any automaker on Super Bowl Sunday and comprised more than 30% of the online buzz about the brand."
SPHERO BB-8 LAUNCH
Sphero's BB-8 is a Star Wars-themed droid that can be controlled via an app on your phone. When Sphero launched their BB-8 on Snapchat on September 4, 2015, they had no paid advertising. It is considered to be the first global product launch on Snapchat and can be considered as a promotion, teaser, Influencer and event campaign. Sphero approached 5 Influencers in Paris, London, Dublin, New York and San Fransisco to tease the #ForceFriday event at Disney stores. Using videos and photos their role was to generate excitement for the product.
The campaign was incredibly successful. They generated more than 10 million views in 24 hours (exceeding their stated goal of 6 million views) and the product sold out within hours. The campaign also "generated half a million engagements outside of Snapchat." Other metrics include 4.76K Screenshots were taken and more than 69M seconds watched. The campaign has been entered for the Shorty Awards.
BURBERRY SPRING SNEAK PEEK
In September 2015, Burberry used Snapchat in a number of different ways to promote their Spring 2016 lineup. The first thing they did was a sneak peek of "featured items from the collection as well as a look inside the make-up choices for the London Fashion Week show, a whole day before it hit the catwalk." They also did the "first-ever show on Snapchat" and a campaign photoshoot with Mario Testino.
Although I was unable to find metrics to determine the success of the campaign, they did receive extensive media coverage and industry recognition as the 'First.' Please note that Burberry did use the Discover channel but it was for the launch of Mr Burberry and occurred after the campaign mentioned above. You may find it interesting that Burberry was the first luxury brand to have a Discover segment on Snapchat.
SUMMARY
Of all of the successful campaigns, my favorite is the #LastSelfie. Although it was launched in 2014, it still stands as one of the best Snapchat campaigns. They picked the perfect platform to reach their target: Millennials. They tailored the campaign to meet the specific format of Snapchat: limited lifespan photos. The campaign exceeded expectations - both in terms of donations and awareness. The campaign won a Webby as well as industry-wide recognition. This is the ultimate best-in-class example of an earned Snapchat campaign.
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