Brand Your Face - Snapchat to Give Lenses a Marketing Twist

imeworldwide.com

In their most recent update, Snapchat introduced the unexpected, and utterly bizarre 'lenses' feature, enabling users to turn themselves into demons, vomit rainbows and a number of other, equally horrendous things. Now, as is their custom at the moment, Snapchat are opening it up to brands, offering to put out a branded lens for a limited period (24 hours at the moment) for a nominal fee. And by nominal, I mean astronomical, we're talking upwards to $750,000. Don't worry though, on what Snapchat are calling 'Off-Peak Days', it will only run you $450,000. Either way, more than enough to make it rain.

Off-peak refers to basically any day that isn't a holiday, but since they're planning on starting with these on Halloween, they're obviously angling after seasonal content. One also imagines that the definition of 'holiday' is going to get stretched to breaking point with this. Things like the Super Bowl will likely fall under that umbrella, but big movie releases could also end up being involved, as well as music festivals and award shows. Hell, they got away with putting a filter out to celebrate Tom Brady's suspension getting overturned, they're clearly not that picky.

The real question is, with a price tag like that, whether or not it will be a worthwhile investment. The default lenses that Snapchat introduced with the update have been decidedly popular but will users be as receptive to a branded version? I'd say it depends pretty heavily on how overt the branding actually is. Nobody will want to use a lens which just makes 'Mountain Dew' appear in a spangled banner over their heads, for instance, but if it makes their eyes erupt with a burst of bright green lightning, they might be more inclined to forgive a cheeky little logo nestled in the corner. 

This, of course, is far from the only branding strategy Snapchat are touting, they've partnered up with a number of different organisations through their live stories feature. This might be a little harder to sell, since the brands aren't actually offering anything beyond user-generated advertising for themselves, so in a way it will force brands to think more creatively both to appeal to their audience and to justify the huge sack of money they just handed over. That's just me being optimistic though, time will tell. 

Callum Davies

Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF

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