Snapchat has recently sold and launched their first live advertisement. The ad, which was for Universal Pictures upcoming horror movie, “Ouija” is said to have been seen by millions of people. This is a major milestone for Snapchat, which is used by many people but up until now hasn’t had a good monetization strategy in place.
According to early reports, Doug Neil, Vice President of Digital Marketing at Universal Pictures, is happy with the results of the advertising campaign.
Snapchat has been used by Universal in the past to promote movies, but that was always through organic followings that take time to build up. Using paid advertising, however, can get their message in front of millions of people in a very targeted way. The majority of the Snapchat audience is teenagers to early 20’s, which is the perfect target for this type of movie.
What makes this type of advertising even more effective is the fact that people on Snapchat had to actually press and hold the video to get it to play. This means that everyone who saw the video was actively engaged in what they were doing.
Neil commented saying, “It was a lean-in experience. The people who watched the ad were ones that pressed to play so they were focused on actually viewing the content.” In addition, many people reportedly captured the ad and shared it on other platforms, which is clearly a good thing for Universal.
This is likely going to be just the first of many sponsored ads on Snapchat. As they polish the platform, this could become a powerful advertising medium for many marketers looking for something innovative and effective.
