Alyssa Mullins 0:00
Hi, everyone, I’m Alyssa!
Preston Snyder 0:02
And I’m Preston.
Alyssa Mullins 0:03
And this is your weekly social!
So Preston, today we’re gonna talk about Snapchat, but not just Snapchat- Snapchat for the holiday season. Because October is almost over, and then it’s November, and then we have Thanksgiving, and then it’s Christmas.
Preston Snyder 0:21
Except this year, as a general notice of because of ongoing supply chain issues, maybe now you want to start your holiday shopping, which is interesting. I mean, there’s the trope about it being early. But I think this is the first time in a while that deliberately, you should buy your stuff early this year.
Alyssa Mullins 0:40
And so with that, looking at Snapchat, there are a lot of different businesses that are looking to advertise on Snapchat, especially for the holiday season this year.
Preston Snyder 0:52
There’s a lot of murmurings that Snapchat is going to be the platform for the “Holiday Season 2021.” Which has kind of left us with a bit of mixed thoughts, at least an our end.
Alyssa Mullins 1:06
I personally like, I feel like there are too many ads on the platform. And so if it gets flooded with more, I don’t know how beneficial that’ll be for them. But Preston, you had some interesting articles to talk about.
Preston Snyder 1:18
There was a research firm Dentsu, and also one called Lumen- they did attention research and Attention Economy Research of what ads give the best attribution, and hold people’s attention and remembrance. And it was Snapchats commercial ads, which ended up being the six second unskipable ads, that they’re like, “By far, these are the best commercials on the platform right now.” But if you read more, and especially based on that first one, it is a Unskipable ad on a platform. So in our mind, that’s a “Yeah, it probably is gonna hold your attention a lot more!” So we don’t know if, because they remembered the brand, they’re more likely to choose it just from brand awareness and retention. Those ads do very well, which is great. However, there was also another one by Wool & Water, kind of a state of shopper and consumer interest, which said that people aren’t so keen on Snapchat. AR- augmented reality, and VR, virtual reality, are things that have kind of been buzzwords that exist in the main stay. But this report says even with Snapchat releasing their own AR functions, people want less of Snapchat being the platform, but more diversity and options for AR, VR interactive shopping experiences.
Alyssa Mullins 2:55
You maybe have experienced AR on a lot of different platforms; Amazon is a pretty good example of that. You can look at different items, and for example, a desk or a dresser, or even sometimes just other things that kind of are a bit too big and you want to know, “How would this look in my space?” Well, you can actually use that AR function on Amazon and see what it looks like in your space. And it’s actually pretty cool! I’ve tested it; if you have Amazon on your phone, go ahead and test it. And Preston, you had brought up something with a QR code when you were shopping for toys. That’s another example, where if you scan that QR code, you can see all the details of the toys, the different ins and outs. And that’s something to really look at when it comes to businesses doing that. Because it’s more engaging for the user. It’s another way to showcase your product in a light that is useful. And it’s not just some cute pictures, or a stock photo, or like a white background- it’s “This is what it looks like in your home. This is what it can look like inside out with these at different features added on to it.” Or for those of you who have played things like Pokemon Go or that Harry Potter world, that’s another variation and example of that AR function that people have done.
Preston Snyder 4:15
A lot of the games have really kind of pushed the needle on what exactly interactivity means, what we want to do. Pokemon Go in particular is probably the pioneer right now, that’s had the most work put into it kind of since 2016. They’ve continually updated the game, even to the point where if I wanted to, I could have pikachu in my chair right now jumping around or top of me. That’s something we talked about- I had a QR code. Other things to think about are, “What exactly what shopping in a brick and mortar store with AR look like?” “How do we do that better? How do we think through that? Is there an advertising capacity for that?” Or even just like, is there something that let’s say Walmart rolls out, “Oh, yeah, we have a limited stock of these guys. What is the thing look like out of the box?” Or, “Okay, there’s a big black chair that I really want. But it doesn’t fit my colors, what does the white one look like?” There seems to be a lot of possibility, but I find it absolutely fascinating that from a shopper standpoint, a lot of people that are actual consumers are like, “We want more AR, we want more interactivity.”
Alyssa Mullins 5:36
And from my personal experience, it’s a way to kind of, in those moments feel like you’re in the store without actually having to leave the comfort of your home. And that is something to consider when it comes to advertising. How can you get your customers your ideal customer to still purchase, whether they go to your physical store, if there is one, or if they’re browsing on your website or on an app? If you have an app that people can access such as Amazon, or even other big brands, American Eagle, how can you utilize that AR experience to both advertise, but also just to showcase your product?
Preston Snyder 6:13
And it looks like Snapchat is trying to be that like, filling the void for now; they’re definitely doing their best to be that innovator, and it’s fascinating to me that it looks like they are almost being rejected. They were in Congress this week with a few others testifying about like teenagers in the space, Facebook and Instagram got railed, and now it was everyone else’s turn. So there’s public sentiment against large social media platforms. And it’s trickling down even into shopping, which is fascinating. Part of our philosophy as Pullman Marketing is you’d never want to sit on a single platform, you want to make sure that you diversify your options, which of course, if you’re struggling figuring out how you want to advertise for Holiday 2021, feel free to reach out to us at PullmanMarketing.com
Alyssa Mullins 7:12
There are a lot of fun ways to advertise for anything that you do. AR experience is one of them. Social media is another- there are so many things that we can explore. And we’ll keep following this and everything else as the week goes on. Other than that, thank you guys so much for watching. And don’t forget to hit the bell, like, comment, subscribe!
Preston Snyder 7:35
And play with AR this week!
Alyssa Mullins 7:36
Yeah, try it out. It’s really cool. Especially on Amazon. I may or may not have decided some things…
Preston Snyder 7:42
You need to open up Pokemon Go again- it’s time.
Alyssa Mullins 7:45
Or if not Pokemon, there’s a Harry Potter version. Try it out, see if you like it and see if that’s something that you’d want in your daily, weekly monthly shopping experience with everything else going on. Thanks, guys. See you next week!
