Snapping Comps!

Who doesn't love an opportunity to win free stuff with minimal effort?!
Certainly not me.
One of the best marketing techniques over Snapchat I've seen so far are Snapchat competitions. There are many types of these that I've noticed some of which being:

1. 'Screenshot this coupon before it...'. Oh it's dissapeared.
2. 'Send in your best snap in the next 3 hours for a chance to win [insert cool prize here]!'
3. 'Treasure hunt! Follow the clues in the our Snapchat story and the first Snap of the answer wins!'
4. 'Screenshot this pic and share on Facebook for your chance to win!'

The opportunities are endless!

One Snapchat blogger I follow, Drew Binsky the travel blogger, runs these competitions flawlessly and often holds them with the prize being small but interesting (often a postcard from his current location).

Most recently he help one where he asked his followers to send in their craziest travel stories. The results must have been hilarious and the winner was a boy who was hitchhiking though Arizona when one of the people offering him a lift asked him if he wanted a paid job being in a porno with him and his mate. 

Drew's Competition snaps, announcing the winners and showing the prizes.

Now Drew doesn't gain any new followers from these competitions but he encourages his followers to interact with him which results in higher engagement and a higher likelihood of his blog spreading through word of mouth. This is smart marketing and Drew has certainly benefited from it with his thousands of followers on all Social Media Platforms.

Kylie Jenner's Lip Snappers

Kylie Jenner. One of the most famous people in the world, just released cosmetic line names Kylie's Lip Kit, a liquid matte lip stick and in he process broke the internet (well, Google Analytics which is still pretty impressive). But the most incredible thing about it is that Kylie used used no conventional advertising to hype up her products, only her personal Snapchat where she dubs herself as King Kylie and others refer to her as the Queen of Snapchat.
This was her Snapchat story when the lip kits sold out on 16 minutes:

Of course, this would not happened to this extent if it weren't for the fact that Kylie was already renowned snapchatter with a massive following. Regardless of this obvious head-start that she has on other Snapchat marketers, Kylie has still done an incredible thing by so fully adopting this reasonably new platform for her marketing.

Eurovision: The Greatest and Biggest TV competition on Snapchat

You  may or may not have noticed that last weekend there were a few things strange things happening, did you see anyone wearing a Guy Sebastian mask? Or perhaps a sudden prevalence of bearded ladies? Drag queens? Or maybe a few strangely patriotic/ interestingly dressed people?

If so, you probably saw a Eurovision Song Contest fan. I know I saw a fair few of them and at one point had a beard drawn on my face to resemble the winner of 2014, Conchita Wurst.

Conchita and I - We could be twins!

This year, Eurovision created a Snapachat account which they advertised on their website:

They captured backstage moments, live performances and interviews with cast and performers.

In addition to their personal Snapchat, they also had a Live circle dedicated to the song contest which contained live audience reactions to the contest, live performances and little fun facts about Eurovision's history.

Geofilters: Seriously, they're incredible.

Snapchat has done it again, as soon as we think they've come with all the good ideas possible- they make one better.
This being, geofilters. Now anyone, whoever you are, can make their own personalized geofilter for a limited amount of days over a limited area. This is their YouTube advertising campaign:

 Now Snapchat is aiming this advertising at normal, everyday users of Snapchat. However, when I had a look at it and how it works I discovered that in order to make a geofilter cover the size of my block of land at home for 24 hours, it would cost over US$1,000. I'm not sure about others, but this is well out of my price range for a birthday party- especially when there is limited phone coverage over the area. However, if I were holding an established, commercial event it would be a fantastic accompaniment to help with the marketing and advertising for it.
For example, an event covering Victoria Square in Adelaide over a weekend, would only cost US$500 which in my opinion, is a pretty good investment for the amount over Snapchat coverage you would receive. Especially if the event was aimed at young adults- the main users of Snapchat.
And it is surprisingly easy to create! All you need to do is create your graphic, select the area and time you want the geofilter to be available and viola. Instant (almost) and very cheap marketing!

It's Festival Time in the US!

'How do you know this?' You may ask.
The answer: Snapchat
Of course, if I were any other normal human being who doesn't live under a rock I would have also found this out by the plethora of magazines that stalk the celebrities and performers at the festivals, or the newpapers which follow the statistics of the huge nature of these mega festivals, or even the odd new bulletin story on TV (don't own one, soz).
But I'm not and the main way I keep up with world happenings is over Social Media and the first I heard about Coachella this year was through Snapchat 'Live'.
'What is Snapchat Live?' I hear you asking.
Ok, so open your app, go to the stories pace and under the line of discover journalism, but above your friends stories should be something that looks like this:

Basically, these are the best snaps from events as curated by Snapchat. So wherever you are in the world (say, Australia) and no matter how far away you are from Coachella (say, 13,309 km). You can experience it live! (Kind of).

This is an incredible form of marketing. You can get your brand/event out and be seen by the entire world by showing the best snaps and most interesting behind the scenes happenings, making people all over the world experience a little jealousy and wunderlust. Especially me. 

Screenshots from the Coachella Snapchat Live story

'Discover' Journalism on Snapchat

You may have noticed, over the past year there has been another page on Snapchat labelled 'Discover'.
If you don't know what this is, open Snapchat to the home page, swipe to the left onto the 'Stories' page where up the top there will be a line of circles under the title 'Discover'. You can swipe in the same direction to find the entire list of these 'Discover' circles.

Swipe left from the home page to the 'Stories Page' then swipe left again for the 'Discover Page'

From here you can pick any of these media platforms. Ranging from the young adult, pop culture  focused 'Buzzfeed' to the food revolved 'Tastemade' to the animal porn, 'National Geographic'. The above example was taken from news based 'The Daily Mail' circle.

And apparently, it's working crazily well in getting traffic and awareness about these journalism platforms. According to statistics, Cosmopolitan's Snapchat Discover Channel generated, on average 19 million veiws per month while cosmopolitian.com generates 20 million unique visitors per month. Also, Buzzfeed's CEO Jonah Peretti has said views from Snapchat make up 21% of his companies total traffic. These statistics are massive for a platform only one year old!

However you may wonder what these brands are getting in return for paying the suspected millions to be advertised on this page? The answer is, technically not much apart from traffic and awareness. But when your Snapchat views and your website views are almost neck-to-neck. It's pretty worth it, yeah? 

National Geographic- Tastemade- Cosmopolitan

Drew Binsky's Snapchat 101

Over the past few weeks I have been coming up with new ideas for this blog, and one of them was to potentially write an in depth how to of snapchat, putting your business on snapchat and how to make it work effectively for you. I thought about this idea for a while, began writing and realized what a massive job it really was. Then I came across Drew Binsky (If you think that name sounds familiar, it does, if not check out my previous blog post on travel blogging on Snapchat!) and his absolutely marvelous 'SNAPCHAT 101: MARKETING FOR BLOGGERS & BUSINESSES'.
SO instead of writing out my own, I contacted Drew to see if he would mind if I shared his post with you guys, the answer was affirmative and so here's Drew's opinion section on...

Why is Snap Chat so Effective? 
 In this section, I am going to lay out 10 reasons why Snapchat has blown up so quickly and why it’s so powerful:

1.  It works like a text message – Snaps immediately are sent to the recipients phone and they will receive a notification – Just like a text message, but much it’s more entertaining and fun. 
2.  You have extreme PRIVACY – Nobody else can see what you’re doing on Snapchat besides yourself. It’s personal. This is perhaps the most attractive feature of the app, because it sets it apart from the other major social media platforms.
3. You don’t need wifi to send snaps – This is crucial especially for us travelers who don’t always have access to strong wifi on the road. You can take as many snaps as you want, and save them on the app to resend when you do have access to wifi. I’ve been doing this in on my current trip in India and it’s been working magically.
4. It’s quick and to the point – There is no bullshit with Snapchat. You send a photo/video, and the recipient views it. No advertisements, no re-Snapping, no sharing. That’s it.
5. It’s fun –Snapchat is a more FUN way to communicate with your friends and followers than just standard texting. The same way that watching videos is more fun than reading blog posts.
6. It’s Customizable – After you take the photo or video, you are able to choose any color and draw freely on the screen with your finger. You also have the option to write up to 31 characters on the screen. Better yet, you can use emojis and put them anywhere on the screen and make them as big or small as you want. There are unlimited options to customize your snaps!
7. Users will Anticipation Your Snaps – If you are somewhat entertaining and creative with your snaps, then people will start looking forward to your next post. Just like Instagram.
8. Photo + Video Option – While photos are nice, videos are much more powerful. You are allowed up to 10 seconds of video to send.
9. It’s addicting – You know how Tinder can be addicting? Yeah, Snapchat has 100 million active monthly users. People who are on it can’t seem to stop (I’m guilty of it too). 
10. It’s behind the scenes – My favorite part about Snapchat is that you are essentially filming your life experiences behind the scenes! Nothing is planned or staged. People are seeing content exactly how you are seeing it in real life. It offers an incredibly your viewers a unique perspective, almost as if they are standing next to you. 
11. 100% user engagement – When someone is viewing a snapchat, their finger must be touching the screen at all times or the snap will disappear. Therefore, you can be 100% certain that you have the full attention of your viewers when they are opening your snaps. This is unlike Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where users quickly scroll through their newsfeeds and hardly retain anything unless it pops out or catches their eye.

So there you have it guys, if I can't convince you to get on Snapchat, Drew certainly can! Check out the entire of his blog post at: http://thehungrypartier.com/snapchat-101-marketing-for-bloggers-businesses/ and follow him on Snapchat to see his travels by snapping this:

How to put your brand on Snapchat

Recently I've been talking a fair bit about brands and companies who have been using Snapchat, but today I thought I'd tell you how to actually put YOUR brand on Snapchat and how to make it work.

To make it real simple, I found this infographic which is pretty spot on. Enjoy and good luck!

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-amazing-facts-about-Snapchat

The WWF #LastSelfie Campaign

Early last year the Danish branch of WWF conducted what was arguably one the of the best marketing campaigns seen on Snapchat. The #Lastselfie campaign involved taking full advantage of the fleeting nature of Snaps in order to highlight the rapidly diminishing numbers of so many endangered animals lives.

The Snaps featured 5 endangered animals all sending the same message; 'Don't let this be my last selfie' as the image slowly faded away into darkness. Each image offered the viewers the opportunity to share the campaign with friends, adopt an animal or donate over text message.

WWF reached their donation target for the entire month in just 3 days and over 120 million twitter timelines were reached with the campaign. This meant that 50% of all twitter users were exposed to this innovative, beautiful video (which, by the way is absolutely incredible! Absolutely no one reaches 50% of all Twitter feeds without being the Kardashians or Obama!):

Batman vs. Superman- Sponsored Selfies

For all those who have Snapchat, I'm fairly certain that at least half of you would have noticed that some of the snaps they have been receiving have been every so slightly altered...
Well maybe a little more than ever so slightly, vomiting rainbows sound familiar? How about turning you into a puppy dog? Or Kanye West? Or an Alien (told you they're real!)? Or making you look like you sitting on a tropical beach? Or what I consider possibly the best of the lot; swapping your face with your friend? So many choices!

For those who haven't yet figured how to use this feature, here's a quick how to:

1. Open the app Snapchat and ensure your front facing camera is on
2. Press and hold the picture of your face until the app scans you face and the options pop up below
3. Chose an option below your face and press the circle shutter button to take photo/video
4. Have fun!

Used with permission

But of course, not just anyone can make a filter and have it put on Snapchat and there are a few companies (like Warner Bros.) paying very big money to have theirs featured for only a few days. It's not certain exactly how much it cost, but it's rumored to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per day.

The most recent, and probably most prolific of these, was the Batman vs Superman movie advertising that was on Snapchat only a few weeks ago. For example:

http://snapchat-download.net/how-to-use-batman-lens-in-snapchat/

It allowed users to turn themselves into character of the movie and encouraged then to see the move by creating so much hype before it was released. 

I personally think this type of interactive marketing is a fantastic way to get people interested in things like this, especially when the product (in this case a movie) is fairly un-interactive.
What do you think? Is it worth the money?

Used with permissions

Snapfact Tuesday!

To keep the typically boring day of Tuesday interesting, here's some quick Snapfacts to keep you going:

1. Originally Snapchat was called Picaboo! (It was renamed in 2012)
2. Inspiration for the self destructing nature of the photos and messages came to Evan Speigel and Bobby Murphy (the creators of Snapchat) after co-creator (Frank Reginald Brown) regretted sending a photo to someone else.
3. Snapchat's mascot is called 'Ghostfact Chillah', a name Frank Reginald Brown derived from Ghostface Killah of the group Wu-Tang Clan

Used with permission.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/25-things-didnt-know-snapchat/91169/

@StuBallingerArt- Small town artist on Snapchat

I don't expect you to know him yet- but one day you will. Stuart Ballinger is a 20 year old digital artist who has been featured in magazines, on art sites and is currently has his first physical exhibition in Horsham Art Gallery (go check it out if you're in the area!).
He also uses Snapchat, along with an Instagram, a Facebook, a Behance and a DeviantArt page as a way of advertising to his followers. When I asked him why he uses Snapchat in addition to so many other mediums, his reply interested me. Apparently, he finds it a more 'personal' platform compared to the others. For example, if he shared a picture on Facebook and someone comments, everyone can see that comment. Unlike over Snapchat where if a picture if shared, only those who it was sent to can see it, and only Stuart can see their comments and reactions-providing a more private place for his followers to give him comments and tips.

Screenshots from Stu's Snapchat- Used with Permissions

He also uses it to send partially finished artwork and progress updates, something quite unprofessional and personal, along with what he is doing in his day to day life so his followers actually see the type of human is behind the art. This is unlike his Behance where he shares only finished artworks. Admittedly, there are some downfalls to Snapchat, for example, the art can only be viewed once and only for 10 seconds max. if shared by private Snaps. Also you can only have people add you on Snapchat if they know your username, meaning that the only people who follow him on Snapchat- already follow him on other social media where he has advertised his Snapchat- leaving it virtually impossible to build a fan base over the platform and therefore needs to be used in conjunction with other social media platforms.
However, he's obviously doing something right because he's being noticed! So chuck him a like/follow guys, you won't have any regrets :)

Light The Way- Stu Ballinger

And We All Fell Back to Earth- Stu Ballinger

Marketing on Snapchat

Even though I personally believe that Snapchat is a fantastic platform for marketers, but this infographic highlights the lack of marketers and brands who have actually caught on to the exponential growth of this Social Media platform. 

An infographic from medium.com/@demainlaveille

Regardless of the small amount of people marketing on Snapchat, there are a few individuals/companies/geographic areas etc. who are doing an absolute ripper of  a job at marketing their products and services to their Snapchat followers. And people are noticing with more and more marketers and brands beginning to reach ouch to their audiences via Snapchat. My next post is featuring a digital artist by the name of Stu Ballinger, so stay tuned to find out how and why he markets his personal brand over Snapchat :)

The Wonders of Geofilters

For those who don't know what a 'geofilter' on Snapchat is. This is a geofilter.

See that thing down the bottom saying 'Flinders University 50 Years'? It can only be accessed whilst on Flinders University grounds!

Personally I think it's pretty cool. Where ever you are in the world, if someone has made a geofilter for that area, you can have not just a pretty little graphic on your snap but also a really important marketing tool.

For example, anyone who I send this snap to now knows that Flinders University is celebrating it's 50 birthday. A fact that probably none of my friends in the other states of Australia know.

It's also fantastic for the tourism industry, if a friend sends you a snap of a really pretty mountain range that you had never been to and if seen on other social media platforms, it would have probably remained unknown to you. However on Snapchat with a geofilter, the area in which the photo is taken is immediately displayed in an aesthetically pleasing way on your Snap. Effectively advertising, and even better recommending, wherever the Snap was taken!

Now I feel as if I had better explain how to actually use the geofilters because while I was asking friends to send me a snap with their areas geofilter on, the most common reply I got was 'What's a geofilter?' and then followed by 'How do I get it on there?'. So...

How to put a geofilter on your snap:

1. Take a photo on Snapchat
2. Swipe to the left
3. Continue swiping to the left until a geofilter comes up

N.b. Some areas may not have a geofilter.

All photos used with permission

Travel blogging on Snapchat

As Snapchat has evolved, many people have started using it as a method of communicating with their friends and family whilst overseas.And as free wifi is now readily available in all major tourist destinations; Snapchat travel blogging has bloomed. Along with your everyday relative or friend sending you 10 second videos or pictures of what they got up to that day, people are creating full blown, profitable businesses out of travel blogging.
 Take for example, the now pretty famous Drew Binsky who makes his living by both travel blogging on his page The Hungry Partier and through Snapchat (@drewbinsky) where he has over 42,000 followers and over 8,000 people viewing his daily travel snap stories. When I last caught up with his snap stories he was having a ball in Indonesia and giving me serious travel envy as I procrastinated from doing my uni study.  He provides travel advice to those who ask for it and allows people to experience other countries whilst never leaving the comfort of their own home.

Drew Binsky is also an avid used of the Snapchat geofilter (as pictured above) which in my opinion is one of Snapchats best tourism marketing ideas and is what my next blog will star!

For a list of the best travel blogs to follow on Snapchat; visit Getting Stamped, another snapchatting travel blog with an entire post dedicated to this.

An Introduction to Snapchat

For those who have not yet encountered the social media phenomenon that is Snapchat, I though I would write a quick description on what it actually is, does and the appeal of it.
When it was first launched in September in 2011 and the main users were high school kids wanting to pass messages to other students behind their teachers' backs and Snapchat delivered the perfect service for this as all photos sent through the app self-destructed after 10 seconds, leaving behind no trace of the 'Snap' ever existing on the phone or the Snapchat servers.
However, today the audience has extended from just high school student passing notes. Now celebrities share their daily activities on there, bloggers share their opinions, journalists share their articles and companies advertise their wares and services. Along with the 100+ million daily active users who share over 20,000 pictures per second of their food, selfies, suspected alien sightings, activities, opinions, bowel movements and their newly washed, shiny cars.