Snapchat announces new camera ads to draw in advertisers

May 18, 2017

In a bid to be a step ahead of Facebook, Snapchat has announced three new ad products, adding to the already trending lenses and geofilters. As Snap Inc. missed the expectations for its first quarterly earnings last week, it’s really not surprising that the pressure is on when it comes to winning over big advertisers.

First up are Sponsored World Lenses. After launching World Lenses, where 3D objects appear in the real world, brands can now use them to create ads. The newly released lens is an upgrade to Snap’s Sponsored Lens, which has already allowed advertisers to turn selfies into ads. With the Sponsored World Lenses advertisers now have even more room to play with.

Warner Bros. ran the first sponsored World Lens ad this Monday to promote its upcoming film Everything, Everything. Netflix also plans to run a campaign in the following weeks.

The World Lenses will have four variations:

You can place 2D or 3D animated characters or objects into photos taken with In Snaps via the outward-facing camera

Action-based lenses that require the user to look at or tap an AR object to trigger a reaction

Interaction World Lenses – in the form of an in-app game

Environmental lenses will add atmosphere to photos, like light effects

Secondly, Snap is tweaking the targeting of Sponsored Lenses by allowing advertisers to buy regionally Targeted Lenses for the first time. The ad buy allows advertisers to buy a specific number of impressions. Red Bull and MTV have both already tested the targeting option.

Lastly, the third new ad product is an update to the previously released Geofilters. The Smart Geofilter will automatically add specific location information to branded geofilters that users apply to photos and videos. These could be used to include a school name, venue, city or postcode. Warner Bros again tested the new Geofilter ads in the “Everything, Everything” campaign to target high school students by featuring the name of the school in the ad.

These additions will help Snapchat keep its users engaged with the app – the daily user opens it over 18 times per day and spends over 30 minutes on it on average, up from 25 to 30 minutes last quarter.Snapchat users create more than a total of three billion Snaps every day — up from more than 2.5 billion in Q3 2016. And over 60 percent of Snapchat’s daily users create content every day.

Now, we just have to sit back and see what Facebook comes up with…

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