It’s 2017. If you’re not using Snapchat geofilters in your marketing strategy, you’re missing out. This is a wildly different ad platform than most marketers are used to. Snapchat is reinventing the world of GPS location and social media advertising to its core millennial users, using geofilters.
What exactly is a geofilter? A geofilter allows you to add on location specific filters and designs over your photos and videos. They have become a popular way to show friends where you are, what you’re doing, what the temperature outside is like, etc.
These geofilters used to be exclusive to corporate giants until early last year. Now, anyone can create and publish those quirky overlays or interactive special effects you see when you swipe through your filters. Snapchat nailed it when it comes to outstanding user engagement, and to an audience (teenagers), that’s infamously difficult for advertisers to reach.
This feature could be key to a company’s marketing campaign, especially because of how insanely cheap it is; an on-demand filter starts for as little as $4.99. Even if no one uses your filter, 3 cents per view or less is a great deal for an advertising campaign. Also, if you target the correct location, not only will your geofilter interact with potential customers, but everyone who is connected to them through Snapchat. Even if you only pay for an hour, the filter doesn’t leave the snaps it was added to, so you can gain conversations for the following 24 hours.
Anyone trying to create brand awareness in-and-around a specific location should be making use of this feature. Bite-sized content, like a decorative filter, is definitely more impactful to the next generation than a two-minute commercial on TV-do millennials even watch TV?
Even more entertaining than on-demand filters, is the sponsored lenses Snapchat offers. The fact that they’re so hilariously loveable and engaging makes them any marketers dream. To be clear, filters are static images, while lenses are interactive animations or special effects that react to movement using facial recognition. These lenses are available unanimously, regardless of location, but they change every few days. Some of the lenses you may have seen tell you to “open your mouth,” and has a rainbow shoot out of your mouth. Another lens advertised for Gatorade during the Super Bowl allowed users to dump a virtual cooler on themselves.
Gatorade’s promotional Snapchat lens during the Super Bowl
These lenses and filters have been used to market new product launches and in spreading company culture. As Snapchat continues to evolve, marketers should try to capitalize on its newest capabilities and developments. If selling to a younger demographic especially, now is the time for small businesses to invest in Snapchat. Use your geofilter in a highly trafficked and densely populated area, while also alerting users on another social media, say Facebook, to share their snaps on Instagram with a hashtag.
