Snapchat as a marketing tool: Areas of application and problems

The instant messaging service Snapchat is booming and is particularly popular with young people. In July, MK asked almost 70 marketers which marketing measures Snapchat is best suited for and where the biggest problems lie.

Event marketing and Snapchat go well together.Almost 64 percent of respondents believe that Snapchat is particularly well suited for event marketing. For 52.9 percent, a company's image cultivation and a look behind the scenes are also sensible marketing measures that can be realized with Snapchat. Half of those surveyed believe that live streams and Snapchat go well together.Influencer marketing (45.5 percent), product presentations (40.9 percent), photo and video contests (36.7 percent) and promotions/discounts/betting contests (29.6 percent) are also possible areas of application for Snapchat. Only 11.4 percent, on the other hand, believe that in-app advertising or video advertising with Snapchat is worthwhile.

Snapchat's ephemeral content is causing headaches for marketers.The respondents consider the short-lived content of the messaging service to be the biggest problem (62.8 percent). On Snapchat, photos are only visible for a certain number of seconds. The narrow target group of mostly young people also posed a headache for 52.2 percent of marketers. Other challenges frequently cited include creating suitable content (39.5 percent) and too little expertise (37.2 percent). Other problems include poor measurability of the advertising impact (30.2 percent), low acceptance of advertising and insufficient targeting (23.3 percent each). By contrast, only 18.6 percent see legal uncertainties and data protection problems.Comments: What do you think of Snapchat as a marketing tool?"It is another digital channel and touchpoint that, like others, has target group-specific characteristics or constraints and frameworks, which can and/or should be taken into account accordingly in marketing resource and digital asset management, provided it appears to be efficient and purposeful in this respect (in terms of overarching marketing/branding/communication objectives)."MorPedro. P. R. Mor Consulting Ltd."Snapchat is a good companion medium for influencer marketing campaigns that you run on YouTube or Instagram. Influencers document their lives on Snapchat using short videos that are only available for 24 hours. Often, the Snaps become real online diaries or behind-the-scenes. Companies can use this type of real-time storytelling for themselves and place themselves in the Snapchatters' stories in return for compensation. Be it beauty, fashion, food or entertainment - the influencers document their lifestyle in great detail and authentically, which makes it particularly easy and discreet to include brands and products."Björn Wenzel, Lucky Shareman"For the target group of young people: great potential. For the other target groups, it won't catch on as a marketing tool, no potential."Kohler Yvonne"Not of great importance at the moment. In the medium term, weigh and monitor the development and potential in order to derive measures afterwards."Steiner Roger, Hagen-Glas"Currently, there are extremely limited opportunities. But because of the size, it's no longer just hype and we'll see what the founders make of it in the next 2-3 years."Chris Schroedi"Snapchat represents another opportunity to reach its (currently still rather younger) target group. In my opinion, integrating the tool into the marketing mix is definitely worth considering or analyzing." Arnold Myriam,Webtech AG"Not yet used. However, use for the target group up to 25 years is planned and considered very important!"Krieger Pascal, Weisse Arena Group AG"Snapchat's privacy policy is "problematic". It is probably better to refrain from using it for privacy reasons."Zurflüh Fredy, cce-partner