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The Rise of Snapchat Sponsored Lenses


Alex Barth - 9th November 2016 - 0 comments

Despite copycats popping up left, right and centre, Snapchat has proven time and time again it’s not going anywhere. As demand continues to grow, brands are investing heavily in advertising within the social media platform, which provides a unique way to engage users. Lenses, the app’s augmented reality feature, first launched in September 2015. The following month, Snapchat released sponsored Lenses as an innovative way for brands to advertise.

 

The swift rise in Lenses’ popularity is indicative of its enjoyable nature and overall effectiveness. Social media users hate ads that are blatant and unavoidable, but adding a fun, interactive element was all Snapchat had to do to create a successful advertising platform. While early lenses were targeted to a millennial and younger audience, demographics are changing. In the U.S., 37% of users are ages 18-24, with 26% ages 25-34. The next highest user base, at 23%, is 13-17 year olds, showing that although the teenage user base is large, it’s not the leading audience. Brands are picking up on these changes, with generic companies and celebrities, such as Starbucks, Benefit Cosmetics and Hillary Clinton, all advertising via Lenses. The most surprising statistics comes from the UK, where 43% of users are parents.

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As the number of older users continues to rise, brands you wouldn’t necessarily associate with Snapchat are trying their hands at social media advertising. John Lewis will be releasing a Lens in conjunction with the company’s annual Christmas advert. This brilliant decision adds a new dimension to the famed ads, and the fresh take will appeal to more groups. Parents on the app will engage with the Lens, as will their kids. The hope is parents will choose to shop at the store and children will ask their parents to take them there. The personal nature of Snapchat Lenses aligns with the values of John Lewis, a company that relies on emotion to engage its audience.

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Although the price of a Lens campaign is steadily increasing, the results are worth it. Not only is the average sponsored Lens shared tens of millions of times per day, but the amount of users receiving Snaps of the Lens can easily reach the hundreds of millions. When Taco Bell created a promotional Cinco de Mayo Lens, it was viewed 224 million times within 24 hours. With so many people actively engaging on Snapchat, brands are wise to invest the time and money towards advertising on the platform.

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Alex Barth

Alex is a PR intern at Snack Media. Follow her on Twitter: @alexandrajbarth

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