With the new year, there’s a new raft of social media networks to become a part of. For brands, this means even more advertising and marketing opportunities, and more effort for where to put their precious digital marketing dollars.
Here we look at two of the biggest emerging networks that are really just getting their feet wet with paid advertising – Snapchat and Tinder. We found that:
- Both are successful because they’re picture-based, have deep penetration with Millennials, and have superb engagement statistics
- Both are looking at advertising for the first time, with Snapchat a little further along
- Creating a company Snapchat profile is a great way to get started, but Tinder isn’t quite there yet
Here’s the networks in a little more detail.
Snapchat
Snapchat is the golden child of
social media marketing. It has spectacular
growth rates, in June 2014 it was the
third most popular network for millennials, it has superb open rate, and perhaps most importantly,
32% of teenagers in the US use it.
It’s essentially a photo messaging app, except that the messages disappear forever after 10 seconds. Its unique offering and strong position with great demographics make it a powerful network to be a part of.
Companies can pay to advertise with Snapchat, running 20 second videos that users can choose to click on.
However, with the launch of Snapchat Discover, where media organizations like VICE and Yahoo can build stories through snaps, advertisers are now able to buy ad spots on Snapchat
through those media companies, which may result in something closer to a native advertising opportunity in the near future.
Who should be on it
Snapchat’s penetration into a super young and valuable demographic make it a great option for companies targeting Millennials. Because it’s visual-based, it lends itself more to companies that are image and video-heavy. For example, Red Bull might be a prime candidate for Snapchat advertisings because:
- It only cares about that demographic
- Its entire brand is based around cool images and videos of really awesome stuff
But even if you’re not ready for a big ad spend, there may be some opportunity to simply snap your customers from a company profile, folding its maintenance and execution into social media marketing’s workflow. Upload images to Instagram, update your Snapchat story. Easy, peasy. Paid ads will get a lot more exposure, but this might be a good way just to get your feet wet.
Tinder
Tinder straddles the line between social media network and dating/hookup app. It’s not a line often straddled, but there you go. The idea behind Tinder is simple. First, you sign in via Facebook authentication. Then, it takes your location and shows you other Tinder users close by. You see their picture and swipe left for no, right for yes. If they swipe right when they see
your picture, then you both have the option for private chat.
With clever (and enormously successful) marketing, Tinder has managed to fall into the mainstream, rather than cast to the side like Chatroulette (and let’s be honest, it could have gone either way).
Brands and Tinder
Brands have so far struggled to use Tinder. There are some examples – Tinder itself used its network to match people in
NYC with cute dogs to adopt.
Gilette has also worked with Tinder, getting them to conduct a giant survey of swipe preferences of women re: facial hair.
However,
the resulting campaign doesn’t actually user Tinder to promote itself, opting for YouTube instead.
Dominos just created a profile for themselves and presumably swiped yes to everyone, but it’s not clear if this was actually a good idea.
So, why are brands so interested in Tinder?
Because Tinder users are young, generally educated (
very high penetration on university campuses), and because (like Snapchat) they pay attention to Tinder.
People look at Tinder on average 11 times a day for a total of 90 minutes. If brands can harness that in a positive way it could be a huge marketing win.
How to do it
Tinder is still working through their advertising options. Since last year there have been rumours about a native advertising option, but it’s still not clear how that’s going to unfold.
One potential model might be a Spotify-esque paid option, with an ad-free premium service on offer. Since they already have a subscription service set up, adding a no-ads feature would be virtually effortless.
For brands and companies right now though, Tinder is best approached with at least some caution.
The Gap had a plan to use a profile to advertise, but it was cut because it violated Tinder’s T&Cs. For now, it might be just a waiting game before a true engagement with the platform (no matter
how much you want 11 checks a day).
Conclusion
Snapchat and Tinder are two networks that are poised to be incredibly successful tools for brands to get their messages out to a very specific audience. The immediacy created by each network provides really whole new way to engage with customers, and opens to door more to more app-driven marketing techniques.
While there are hurdles to overcome, especially with Tinder, establishing a presence on these sites is a good way for companies to get ahead of the curve, and present themselves as consumer-centric organizations who know their customer, inside and out.
