Snapchat's Test to Go from Popular to Mass
Snap, Inc. is well on its way to an IPO this year. It’s been working quickly to position itself as a good bet for investors and make itself even more attractive to advertisers, including implementing guidelines to restrict potentially risqué content from Snapchat Discover and working to secure media commitments from agency holding companies. Perhaps, the biggest and most important update is Snapchat’s new layout.
The new Snapchat layout started rolling out over the past couple of weeks but is now available to all users. It emphasizes one thing Snapchat hasn’t emphasized in the past, usability. The previous version of Snapchat relied on swipes and showed icons with no real clarity on what they did. Users just needed to try things out and learn. The new app relies on a search bar to link users to content they may want to share and interactions they may want to do. It’s not a completely intuitive process, but it goes a long way toward making the platform more usable for non-power users.
Setting Up for the Ultimate Test
Snapchat has been a mainstay for younger users. If a brand needs to reach a younger demographic, Snapchat is essentially a must for any marketing plan. Younger users embraced the app with its privacy and quirks in usability. It became a reliable home on the web where they could interact with friends.
Snapchat wants to keep those users. It needs to keep those users, but it also needs to make the jump to bring in a wider, older demographic. Snapchat needs to go from being popular with a core group of users who took time to learn the app to being commonplace among the masses.
Facebook made that jump. It passed the test. Twitter hasn’t, and Snapchat wants to follow in Facebook’s footsteps. Much of that involves this updated app. As Snapchat enters its IPO and becomes more mainstream, new users will try it out. Snapchat hopes its update encourages them to stay.
A Test Marketers Should Pay Attention To
Snapchat has been on every marketer’s radar, if not media plan, for awhile now. The app launched with an aura of mystery as the “app of Millennials and teens,” as well as a place for lewd content. But marketers have also viewed it with a degree of skepticism around how safe it is for brands to be there and how measurable the platform really is. Snapchat’s taking steps to solve both of those issues, the first with updated guidelines and the second with third-party ad measurement partners. The pieces are starting to come together and the implications for marketers matter.
Snapchat success means giving marketers a new way to reach people. “Facebook and Google account for 85% of every new dollar spent on digital.” Obviously, some healthy competition would be helpful for marketers looking to negotiate as well as diversify their digital footprints to reach new consumers and interact with them in new ways.
Today, Snapchat lives in a specialized effort category for most marketers. Success in growing its user base, proving it can diversify its offerings and maintaining engagement could propel Snapchat from being a single, focused effort to being almost a default on any media and marketing plan. If you need to reach people online, chances are Facebook and Google are on that plan. Snapchat hopes to be there as well.
Snapchat’s about to enter a pivotal point. The pressure will increase as Snapchat will shift to not only answering to its users and a handful of advertisers but to Wall Street, as well. That pressure has broken many companies and led others to thrive. Marketers will be watching as Snapchat’s success or failure will have big implications for the near-term future.