What do Cynthia Erivo and Snapchat have in common? Only one has defied gravity, but they’ve both been behind the scenes of Wicked.
On Wednesday night, executives from Snap., the parent company of Snapchat, announced new, more direct ad products and a push into live entertainment sponsorship opportunities at its annual NewFronts presentation, capped off with a jazzy performance from Broadway, film, and TV star Erivo. To show off some of the new offerings, the company highlighted several successful previous partnerships on stage, including cheeky BTS footage from the Wicked set fronted by Erivo’s costar Jonathan Bailey that made the rounds on Snapchat this past fall.
The presentation comes after the company reached several milestones in Q1, including surpassing 900 million global monthly active users, growing revenue by 14% YoY to $1.36 billion, and increasing subscribers to its paid subscription offering, Snapchat+, by 5 million for a total of 15 million. (During the company’s earnings last week, though, the company pulled its full-year guidance, citing the difficulties of forecasting future quarters amid “macroeconomic uncertainty.”)
To help highlight the platform to more users, the company debuted its latest brand campaign, called “Say It in a Snap,” which encourages both advertisers and app users to communicate on Snapchat.
“Snaps, like a great moment, are memorable,” CMO Grace Kao said during the presentation. “Because it’s happening in the moment, it’s happening in moments that matter to your brand.”
Direct to the point: For brands trying to reach younger people, Snapchat is offering a chance to slide into Snapchat users’ DMs. This year, the platform is rolling out an expanded version of Sponsored Snaps, visual ads that appear like direct messages in users’ chat feeds that lead to a call-to-action message. The company is also updating its sponsored message opportunities with auction ads for both web- and app-based advertisers that want to use goal-based bids like pixel purchase, pixel add-to-cart, pixel pageview, pixel sign up, app install, and app purchase.
“Everyone knows that messaging is at the heart of Snapchat, just like we invented Stories, just like we pioneered the vertical-video format that we now see is quite common across the industry,” Ajit Mohan, chief business officer, said. “But for the longest time, brands have been excluded from tapping into this power. You told us this a lot, and we heard you, and we are now doing something really big about it: opening up messaging for marketers.”
In addition to opening up the chat feed, Snapchat is also introducing First Snap, a single-day takeover-style offering that places ad content in a premium app position; and promoted places that appear on the Snap Map, which Mohan said now reaches 400+ million people a month.
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For advertisers looking to DM with the help of Snap-beloved personalities, the company is rolling out Sponsored Snaps from creators, which will allow brands to send ads that appear like messages from individual content creators like Dillian The Celebrity.
“A lot of creators I work with, they’re getting really excited about this additional way that they can connect with their communities,” Brooke Berry, head of creator development, said at the event.
Spend smarter: Like many companies this NewFronts season, Snap emphasized AI-powered offerings, including sponsored AI lenses and a bundle of products called Snapchat Smart Campaign Solutions, which senior director for product marketing, Abby Laursen, said will help drive brand value without sacrificing community values.
The solutions include Smart Bidding, a strategy that allows advertisers to set a target cost-per-action that Snap’s platform will automatically adjust bids and budgets to, and Smart Budget, which will allow advertisers to automatically shift spend to the highest-performing ad sets within a campaign. The latter is still in alpha testing, and more updates are to come.
Going live: Snap has long looked to showcase sports content on the app, and sports content remains a highlight for advertisers. Both WNBA and Super Bowl content on Snapchat saw major viewership increases of 326% and 88% YoY, respectively, according to Laursen, and Snap is offering WNBA and NFL ad packages featuring behind-the-scenes footage, AR experiences, and real-time highlights ahead of this seasons’ starts.
In a new live event offering that bears shades of resemblance to NPR’s popular Tiny Desk series, Snap unveiled Under the Ghost, a music performance series hosted at Snapchat’s Santa Monica studio that will allow musical artists to connect with fans while giving brands some cultural caché.
“We know that Snapchatters aren’t just interested in discovering new music. We want to dive deeper, even more,” Laursen said.
According to Snap, Under the Ghost will offer artists the ability to engage fans more directly with intimate studio sessions and raw video clips while giving brands full-funnel media package sponsorship opportunities, including Sponsored Snaps, creator content, Total Takeover placements, and more.
While Erivo might have already dazzled a live Snap audience this week, perhaps Wicked fans should keep an eye out for an Under the Ghost appearance to come.
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