There’s been a lot of focus on SnapChat lately, and what they have up their sleeve if they’re turning down $3,000,000,000. I think they made a huge mistake turning down that amount of money, but that’s not to say I think SnapChat is worthless either. Here is what I see for SnapChat as a marketing tool.
First, they need to implement a few simple features to make it useful for brands. They are:
- Location-based Snaps
- Pre-Snap “subtext” (I’ll explain further below)
- Longer Snaps
I spoke in a previous post about SnapChat’s power of urgency, and how users give a FULL, UNDIVIDED 10 seconds of attention to a Snap when it comes through. What do you think is worth more: 10 seconds of undivided attention, or a 30 second commercial someone may not even be watching? I’m betting on the former.
Anyway, here’s how that urgency comes into play. Allow me to paint a picture in your mind. You walk into Finishline, your phone vibrates, you see that you have a Snap from Finishline. The “Pre-Snap Subtext” tells you to open the Snap at the checkout for 15% off. You pick out your shoes, head to the register, and open the Snap (which lasts roughly a minute). The cashier scans the barcode in your snap, and you receive your discount.
Sure, that’s a perfect scenario, but knowing that Snap is in your pocket will make you think a lot harder about making a purchase. They know you’re interested because you’re already in the store. That’s about as close to the end of the conversion funnel as you can get. That Snap could pull you through.
As for monetizing this, I’m not sure. SnapChat could charge brands $1 per Snap sent, or redeemed. $.10 for a Snap, $.10 to add location, $.10 to add Subtext, and another $.10 to add extra length. (These numbers are all rough numbers, but a sweet spot could be found.)
With 400 million Snaps sent a day, that’s quite a bit of income.
Chats & Gadgets 
This scenario is plausible. The key is a longer time for the snap to be available, or be able to access it more than once. The larger problem, I think, is that I don’t think people want to be marketed to on Snapchat. The whole appeal of the platform is brevity. And you’re banking on nothing distracting someone in that 10 second span.
Like I said, here’s hoping snapchat can prove me wrong, but they’ve got many miles to travel before I’d recommend to anyone.
I can see it either way. Like “following” your favorite brands for special offers, like you would on Facebook or Twitter. Or having “sponsored” Snaps sent to a targeted audience.
I also think SnapChat gets those 10 seconds of undivided attention because people know it will disappear.
I agree they have many miles to go, but it was years before Facebook was legitimate for marketing as well.