Inside Snapchat’s Three New Targeted Ad Offerings

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While brands are champing at the bit to reach Snapchat’s 150 million daily users, a recent survey placed the ghost-iconed social platform dead last for producing investment return, a harsh reality that could be attributed to a lack of on-board analytic tools. With Instagram rolling out its “Stories” feature—a blatant, if not improved copy of Snapchat’s format, the original self-destructing message app is feeling the pressure to meet marketing demands.

In an attempt to avoid being “creepy,” the messaging app has thus far steered away from ads that are targeted more specifically than age, gender, location and other determining factors. Creepy or not, Snapchat is rolling out three new targeted ad options for marketers to play with, while attempting to protect the privacy of their users.

Snap Audience Match

Marketers can now take existing lists of email addresses and mobile device IDs and anonymously match that data with Snapchat’s own pool of consumer data to target desired demographics. In this process, Snapchat is taking steps to make sure it does not employ any personally identifiable data when executing these ad campaigns. Consumers will eventually be able to opt out of the Audience Match product, but until then will have to endure any unwanted ad attention.

Snapchat

Snapchat Lifestyle Categories

This targeted group is fairly obvious—if I’m a video game publisher, I want to target Snapchat users who watch video game stories. Likewise, brands can target users who tend to watch videos related to the product or service they’re selling.

Lookalikes

Lastly, Snapchat is helping advertisers target ads to consumers who share characteristics with the advertiser’s existing customer base. This should prove an easy entry point for first-time Snapchat marketers to see how Snapchat users act and compare to previous marketing campaign behavior. What does this mean for marketers? Although these targeting tactics are standard fare for many digital media outlets, it’s a new one for Snapchat.

App founder Evan Spiegel was famously quoted as saying that he doesn’t want advertising on the app to be “creepy” for consumers. In an interview at the Cannes Lions Festival, Spiegal criticized banners that follow people around the internet after they shop for products. Now that Snapchat updated its privacy policy to include tracking internet activity before and after leaving Snapchat, that view may be changing, but the company has a reputation for doing things a bit differently, so how it uses that data remains to be seen.

Facebook Messenger Is Now An ECommerce Platform

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Facebook continues to evolve from a status and selfie central to a purveyor of virtual reality, live streamer and now, a source of eCommerce. Facebook Messenger has become a valuable resource for marketers, reaching one billion users in July, up from 700 million users in July 2015. According to David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging, 300 million people use audio and video calling features on Messenger every month.

Facebook messengerDuring TechCrunch’s annual Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Monday, Marcus announced a significant change to how Facebook chat bots can turn conversations into revenue.

“Now Messenger bots will allow native payments,” Marcus said, using the example of a single Messenger thread to complete all of the steps of travel planning, from browsing flights to customer service and booking, all in-app. “Bringing all of these types of mobile experiences together is what will ultimately make the platform successful over time,” Marcus added.

For its new payments feature, Facebook is working with a number of companies such as PayPal, Stripe, Visa, MasterCard, Braintree and American Express, who recently launched their own Facebook chat bot. The payment tool allows users to complete purchases in-app without going to an external site. Messenger users can now use credit card information they’ve stored in Messenger to make payments via bots, as well.

“Messages with payments utilize industry-leading controls and financial information is protected with bank-level encryption,” explains the Facebook for Developers blog. “Payments will be available for select developers in beta; businesses can apply through the Messenger developer webpage. We expect to roll out this capability more broadly by the end of the year.”

According to the Facebook for Developers Blog, bot messages can now be shared with friends, as well. “We’re enabling seamless sharing of bots and messages from bots to friends on Messenger,” the company said. “People can share any message with friends using the standard Messenger share button next to the message. People can also share bots with their friends using a share option in thread details of the bot thread. All shared messages will include the bot icon, name and CTA that allows people to start a thread with the associated bot. This feature will help you reach the [one billion-plus] people on Messenger today.”

How Non-Gaming Brands Took On National Video Games Day

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National Video Games Day is upon us and brands are taking the opportunity to reach this lucrative market through social media. Naturally, game developers and publishers gave a shout-out to the masses, but here are a few non-game-related brands that found creative ways to connect.

Pizza Hut

Pizza and video game parties go hand-in-hand, so Pizza Hut wanted to extend a thank you to its gamer fan base.

US Air Force

Even the military got in on the action, knowing full well that gamers have some of the best reflexes on the planet. To test those skills (and inspire enlistment), the US Air Force promoted a video game on their website.

Yelp

The online business locator and review site is catering to the Pokémon GO craze by offering a special filter for Pokéstops—designated areas that offer free in-game items. Players can also place a “lure” at the location, attracting Pokémon creatures to the area.

Burger King

The social media account for Burger King Philippines created a Pac-Man level out of a chicken patty, chicken nuggets and french fries to mark the occasion, which looks as fun as it is delicious.

Coca-Cola

The soda’s United Kingdom Twitter account offered this simple but effective way to show off different versions of Coca-Cola with four bottles playing a video game together.

Subaru

Subaru created and reinforced brand awareness with gamers through nostalgia, reminding (or informing) players of the BRZ model in Forza Motorsport 6.

New York Islanders

Hockey fans were treated to an NHL 17 video game giveaway, courtesy of EA and the New York Islanders on Monday.

Laporu Nails

Laporu Nails, a mobile app for finding and booking nail appointments, posted this clever mash-up of nail art and video games to promote the brand.

Classic FM

A classic music radio station in the UK celebrated the beauty of video game soundtracks with a two hour broadcast.

Jacamo Outfitters

This company out of the UK provides clothing “for the real man” in all shapes and sizes. You don’t want to be facing down a fire ball with pants that are too tight!

Short and sweet—these Twitter shout-outs allowed brands to join the conversation of a lucrative, growing and enthusiastic community. Not into video games? Don’t worry, September 12 is also National Chocolate Milkshake Day and National Boss/Employee Exchange Day, in case your boss walks in to find you with your feet on his/her desk while slobbering chocolate syrup all over the TPS reports.

How Pizza Hut’s Packaging Innovation Is A Ploy For Football Fans

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Pizza Hut is kicking off the NFL season by courting football-starved fans with some old-fashioned cardboard delight by introducing them to a playable flick football pizza box.

The all-new pizza box/game features a playable field on top and comes equipped with goal posts, punch-out football triangles and a score card that all forms after some simple assembly; two medium boxes form a full football field. The boxes are available with purchase of any medium pie, including a one-topping medium pizza off of the chain’s nationally available $5 flavor menu. The box also serves as a contest for consumers to win free food.

“Football season is pizza season. Our intent was to bring a little entertainment to the table,” Doug Terfehr, a senior director for Pizza Hut, told [a]listdaily. “Pizza is the most talked about food on social media. This is a really fun way for people to share even more about their experience with Pizza Hut.”

The brand will use Instagram Live, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to integrate the novelty box. Terfehr said that they envision engagement to live best on social, and that they’ll be marketing the flick football box across all channels, with a heavy dose of videos and social content.

They’ll also present fans with different challenges, like most creative flick, most consecutive flicks and longest flick. Fan are invited to submit videos under the hashtag #PizzaHutHut for a chance to win free pizza. Winners will be chosen each week through October 14.

Dallas Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey, the most accurate kicker in the NFL history, has been pegged to promote the challenge. Pizza Hut’s clever experiential marketing move effectively steals some thunder away from Papa John’s, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL and the Super Bowl who uses pitchmen like Peyton Manning, J.J. Watt and Joe Montana to promote their pies during the season.

This isn’t the first time Pizza Hut has experimented with their boxes, as evidenced by previous promotions of their cardboard doubling as playable DJ pizza boxes and movie projectors. And if you thought pizza chains were not on the forefront of innovation, think again, because they also introduced a chat bot in July to enable conversational ordering through Facebook Messenger and Twitter.

“We want it to be easy to get our great pizzas, and we are exploring all ways to do that. It’s important for us to meet customers where they are, and to make that experience easy and one that they’ll choose to use again,” Terfehr said. “A pizza box must first and foremost be able to keep a pizza piping hot, but after that, if it can provide a little entertainment, that’s even better.”

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan

Snapchat Expected To Earn Almost $1 Billion Next Year

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There were many that were originally skeptical of Snapchat as a marketing platform because of the high costs and how content expires, but times have certainly changed. Marketers are increasingly looking to Snapchat to reach the valuable millennial and Generation Z audiences. As a result, eMarketer estimates that the social sharing platform will generate $366.69 million in ad revenues this year and $935.46 million in 2017.

Snapchat’s Discover feature currently generates about 43 percent of the platform’s revenue. However, eMarketer expects that things will shift to Stories next year—a feature that makes up 37.8 percent of the company’s US ad business. Snapchat gains 95 percent of its ad revenue from the US, and eMarketer reported last year that about 45 percent of those users are millennials.

“To engage those often hard-to-reach consumers, Snapchat has expanded its advertising portfolio over the past year to include a wider array of video ads, and more sponsored geofilters and sponsored lenses,” said Cathy Boyle, eMarketer principal analyst.

A recent report from Bloomberg revealed that Snapchat saw more daily use than Twitter. So marketers have been getting very creative with Snapchat’s features, particularly the animated lenses and filters, despite the temporary nature of the content. Furthermore, the platform has been steadily expanding its capabilities. In August, Sony Pictures was the first to use 360-degree video within Snapchat to promote the horror movie, Don’t Breathe.

Snapchat also saw its first multi-level video game featuring tennis pro Serena Williams. Gatorade launched Serena Match Point last month—an 8-bit tennis game that’s timed to coincide with the US Open.

Promotions on Snapchat are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and are certain to become more so with the introduction of behavioral targeting features on the ad network. However, nothing beats the classics, as Kim Kardashian had some fun with her son, Saint West on his 9-month birthday using Snapchat lenses and sharing them with fans.

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Stay On Target: Snapchat’s Ad Network Will Feature Behavioral Targeting

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Snapchat has come a long way since its humble “Pictaboo” beginnings (and now you finally understand the ghost logo), and brands are taking advantage of the tremendous growth. There’s no question that Snapchat’s popularity is surging with eight billion video views on a daily basis and a new eMarketer report predicts the app will increase its userbase to 217 million by the end of 2017, up from 150 million in 2016. So what’s next?

Clement Xue, Snapchat’s director of revenue operations, said behavioral targeting was on track to roll out before the end of the third quarter of 2016, according eMarketer.  What this means is that if a user follows or views a lot of video game or sports channels, advertisers could target them with categories such as “gaming” or “basketball.” Snapchat currently offers advertising target options for age, gender, location, device and operating system, mobile carrier and content affinity, but this could soon expand to broader interests such as “beauty,” “animals,” etc. (Category titles are speculative examples only.)

bitmojiThe disappearing photo-sharing app has expanded into a number of advertising firsts for the platform, including its first 360-video ad for Don’t Breathe and its first multi-level video game ad for Gatorade. Meanwhile, Snapchat acquired Bitmoji, a custom emoji-creating and sharing keyboard that is now integrated into the app and vice versa.

During this year’s Cannes Lions festival, Snapchat co-founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel expressed that his company “really care[s] about not being creepy,” which is why the business chose to concentrate on the context of advertising and where it sits, rather than targeting. Snapchat’s Privacy Center states: “We want you to feel understood. We want to understand what’s relevant to you and your life, and we want to show you things that you’ll care about. At the same time, we don’t want to serve ads that are so custom-tailored that they feel invasive or uncomfortable.”

Despite its increasing popularity, Snapchat has some catching up to do in the way of measuring ROI. A recent survey placed Snapchat at the very bottom of the list for producing investment return, which could be attributed to a lack of onboard analytic tools. Snapchat currently does not offer direct monetization, but brands are still finding ways to measure financial success through the app.

Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag Explains The Importance Of Authentic Brand Engagement

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Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag will be at the Call of Duty World Championship beginning Thursday in Los Angeles, but it marks the first time he won’t be competing as a player. The former captain of Optic Gaming knows how to win, owning a 2011 Call of Duty world championship title and a 2014 X Games gold medal, among many accomplishments.

“I’m excited because not only is there going to be the COD Championship, Activision is turning it into a fan event where you can come and experience the COD franchise with other like-minded individuals,” Haag said. “It’s weird not to be competing in it. I don’t miss having to practice eight hours a day and arguing with teammates about what we could do better, but I do miss playing in front of hundreds of thousands of people. I’m still going to support it and have fun.”

With 1.8 million Twitter followers, Haag has partnered with jerky brand Slim Jim for the first time to engage with his fans. On Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, Haag (@nadeshot) will do a one hour live Twitter chat with fans under the hashtag #SettleTheBeef.

“We’ll be trying to find the answers to debates that have gone on forever in the gaming space,” Haag told [a]listdaily. “Everyone is going to voice an opinion. We’re going to talk about things along the line of consoles and PC, different stereotypes of games and the most thought-provoking topics. We’ll compare first-person shooters to third-person shooters and MOBAs. We’re not going to dive into specific titles, but we’ll discuss genres.”

Haag has over 2.7 million subscribers on YouTube and over 646,000 subscribers on Twitch. He’s worked with brands such as Astro Gaming and Scuf Gaming over his career, and he recently switched from a Red Bull sponsorship to G Fuel Energy.

“Anybody who works in gaming appreciates any time a big company like Slim Jim steps into eSports,” Haag said. “Our visions lined up with driving engagement. At the end of the day we all love games, and Slim Jim is the perfect snack for gaming because it’s quick and it fills you up. I hoped the engagement and interaction they’ll see from the gaming world will incentivize them to get more involved in eSports.”

Nadeshot

Haag said non-endemic brands to eSports are crucial because they support so much engagement and send people who know their brands into the gaming and eSports world.

“They put more eyes into the industry we’re working in and help drive sales and supplement the community,” Haag said. “Non-endemic brands that have never stepped into this space provide so much opportunity to complement eSports and implement their brand. It’d be great if more companies follow suit and find more creative ways to work in eSports. Anybody getting into eSports now is ‘A-OK’ in my book.”

Haag said being creative with how a brand engages with an eSports audience is key, which is why he partnered with Slim Jim on the Twitter activation.

“If it’s fun and creative and doesn’t feel forced, it will drive engagement, which is the most important thing for any company trying to advertise in gaming,” Haag said. “Gamers are super opinionated, and they know when something is fishy. Companies need to make sure people aren’t getting something jammed down their throat. I’m not trying to sell a product. These are questions that will provoke thought. This is the first time I’ve ever done a Twitter chat. I’ve seen The Rock do one and other celebrities do them. It’s a new opportunity to work with a company in a creative way.”

The timing of this event is also right before Activision’s COD XP event at the Forum in Los Angeles. There’s only been one other COD XP, which also marked the debut of the COD World Championship.

“The first COD XP allowed me to quit my job and school and become a professional gamer,” Haag said. “Hopefully, this one can give some other guys the same opportunity.”

Haag said the changes Activision employed with the Call of Duty World League have been a mixed bag thus far.

“It’s been a bumpy ride from the outside looking in and inside looking out,” Haag said. “We’ve had so many different changes with tournament structure and league structure; we need a little more consistency to find stride. Activision has done a pretty good job in its first year of regulating Call of Duty, allowing the competitive community to grow. They’re adding more prize money to tournament. That in itself is doing the players justice, and that’s important. These guys dedicate their entire life to it. A lot of them have been playing for almost a decade now. They’ll see all of that hard work pay off.”

That said, Haag believes COD World League needs more regulation with players treated fairly, especially since other eSports like Dota 2, CS:GO and League of Legends are more viable for players.

“Call of Duty isn’t far behind, but it’s lagging a little bit,” Haag said. “Viewership numbers have increased. We’re still in a good place. We need a little bit more of a push from Activision to enable growth.”

Gatorade Celebrates Serena Williams With Video Game Snapchat Ad

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The U.S. Open has begun, but you don’t have to be a tennis pro to get in on the action. Gatorade has served up some 8-bit video game fun with the launch of Serena Match Point—Snapchat’s first multi-level video game ad that was made for Serena Williams.

The 8-bit, 22-level game is playable on Snapchat, ESPN Discover and its own dedicated website. The game celebrates Williams’ career and all the wins that led her to the 2016 US Open and her 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

Serena Williams gameSerena Match Point features an 8-bit soundtrack to match the graphics and the only controls players need to learn are tap or click. Players take control of Serena as she goes head-to-head against a variety of opponents. To win each round, players need to click or tap on the left or right of the screen, depending on which direction they want to send the ball. After failing to return a serve or volley back over the net three times, the game starts from the beginning.

“Level 23 will unlock on September 10, the day of the Women’s Finals, should Serena capture the career milestone,” said Gatorade in a statement. Should Williams win, it will be a record seventh singles title at the US Open.

Williams has no shortage of endorsement deals and brand partnerships, having just wrapped on a film shoot for Delta Airlines and hinting at a project with dance choreographer Will Adams. Recent social media posts by the tennis champion mention Nike Court and an exclusive Instagram campaign with Mission Athlete.

Tennis aside, Gatorade is setting a new standard for Snapchat ads, proving that an entire game can be embedded into the platform. The sports drink company launched a hugely successful Snapchat filter campaign for Super Bowl 50, in which users could virtually drench people with Gatorade.

According to Kenny Mitchell, head of consumer engagement at Gatorade, the Super Bowl moment on Snapchat wound up driving 160 million impressions. To put that into perspective, that’s more than the 115 million who tuned into the game itself.

“If you’re trying to connect with young competitive athletes, [Snapchat] is the platform to seriously be considering,” Mitchell told Digiday in February. “This was a great opportunity to partner with them to showcase an iconic moment and let consumers engage with it.”

Turn It Up: Facebook Is Testing Autoplay Videos With Sound

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An estimated eight billion videos are viewed on Facebook every day, making the platform a prime target for marketing. Earlier this year, however, it was reported that 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched without sound—calling into question whether users actually, you know, watch them.

Facebook counts a video “viewed” after three seconds of play time. However, since videos auto play within a user’s feed, accurately reporting who was consuming content versus looking away from the monitor for at least three seconds has been a challenge. Further adding to the speculation, mobile Facebook videos only have to be at 50 percent on the screen before it begins to play on its own.

Marketers have learned to cater video content to Facebook’s current format, either creating videos that can be easily enjoyed with the sound turned off or capturing a user’s attention so that they want to turn sound on. However, Facebook is exploring the idea of turning the sound on by default.

Facebook rolled out a series of tests across Australian accounts on Tuesday, specifically for mobile devices. In one version of the test, sound plays immediately as the video begins, if you have sound enabled on your device. Another group is able to turn sound on during the test session using an icon that will sit to the bottom right of videos. Both groups see a pop-up message informing them about how to use the controls, and sound will only play if the smartphone’s volume is up. If you don’t want to annoy your workmates, sound can also be turned to “always off” in Facebook settings.

“We’re running a small test in News Feed where people can choose whether they want to watch videos with sound on from the start,” Facebook told Mashable Australia. “For people in this test who do not want sound to play, they can switch it off in Settings or directly on the video itself. This is one of several tests we’re running as we work to improve the video experience for people on Facebook.”

If Facebook can offer detailed metrics about viewer sound preferences, marketers can plan accordingly. At this point in time, the test is just that—a test, and whether or not Facebook adopts a new sound policy for videos remains to be seen.

Video Ads Are Getting Longer, Especially on Instagram

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According to the latest report from research firm Sensor Tower, video ads are not only becoming more popular and effective, but the length of these videos is growing.

Video Ads On Instagram

Today, twenty-six percent of advertisements on Instagram are video—up twenty-three percent since January of 2016. In an attempt to attract more brand advertisers, Instagram has steadily increased the length of videos from 15 seconds at launch to 60 seconds beginning this past February. The move has paid off, with one out of every four ads on Instagram being a video in the second quarter of 2016—up 23 percent over January. The average length of video ads on Instagram is now 25 seconds, a growth of 67 percent. While video games remain the top category for iOS apps represented by Instagram ads, mobile-first shopping apps such as Mercari, SHEIN and OfferUp remained a dominant presence in the second quarter.

sensor tower instagram video ads

Top Advertisers For The 2nd Quarter 2016

Strategy game, Mobile Strike was the #1 advertiser based on impressions for Facebook, Google and Tumblr, and held the #2 spot for Instagram. The type of advertisers flocking to Instagram was the most diverse in the second quarter, with the site’s top advertisers including mobile publishers from 10 different App Store categories. While gaming was the most popular advertising, HBO NOW received a major push across social platforms, taking the #1 spot on Instagram.

The Sensor Tower study notes that Facebook advertiser rank correlated with the existing revenue of the app in question. In fact, 40 percent of the top advertisers on Facebook were also in the top 25 grossing apps for June 2016.

When it comes to Pinterest, 80 percent of advertisers represented shopping and lifestyle brands, a perfect fit for the idea-sharing platform. For the second quarter in a row, Etsy was the #1 advertiser in terms of share of voice.

The Future Of Video Marketing

Marketers are ramping up their video efforts, and for good reason. Facebook earned 84 percent of its ad revenue from mobile during the last quarter and earlier this year, Google stated that it is now serving more search queries on mobile than on desktop. According to a recent survey by Animoto, a cloud-based video creation service, 70.8 percent of respondents said they plan to invest in social video ads, including ads to boost content in the next 12 months.