Image source: In USA News
Instagram’s Stories feature presents a direct challenge to Snap, until recently called Snapchat. Instagram’s new feature closely mimics Snapchat’s Stories product. Users can create 10-second videos, post them to a Story, and contribute more videos all day. After 24 hours, they disappear. Both let users post photos and videos to a timeline that disappears in 24 hours.
If Snap is not worried, it should be, say digital marketing observers. Facebook-owned Instagram poses a significant threat because of its larger user base and friendliness to marketers. Although Snap may boast a higher ratio of loyal millennial users, Instagram has about 300 million daily active users versus Snap’s purported 150 million. In addition, due to Instagram’s search and discovery features, brands can more easily cultivate organic followings through search and discovery.
Why Marketers Like Instagram
Instagram users can easily follow brands and like their posts. Snap lacks Facebook’s ubiquitous heart icon, and users must know exact names of accounts in order to follow them. Instagram makes searching easier, and brands can buy ads that directly link to their accounts, where people can follow them.
Snapchat’s, or rather Snap’s, embryonic advertising programs debuted in June. However, brands already understand Instagram’s tools, especially since they’re similar to Facebook products.
Nike demonstrated the benefits of Instagram’s larger size. The shoe brand generated 800,000 views in 24 hours for an Instagram Story, the first day the feature was available, Advertising Age reported. On Snapchat, Nike’s best video got 66,000 views,
A Huge Opportunity
“Instagram is really brand friendly, so that’s a huge opportunity,” said Nick Sheingold, associate director of strategy at Laundry Service, Nike’s social media agency. “Those numbers are staggering.”
“It’s just another way to communicate with fans on their terms,” Sheingold told Advertising Age. “We know users love Snapchat, and since the Instagram experience is so similar it makes it a little easier for brands. They don’t have to develop a totally unique strategy.”
Molly O’Brien, Snapchat associate producer at Thrillist, argues that Snap still offers many benefits Instagram lacks, such as superior geofilters, the ability for users to create their own geofilters, and the ability to pin emoji and text into videos. However, it may be only a matter of time before Instagram copies those features.
Snap will Survive – and Thrive
Should PR, marketers and advertisers drop Snap in favor of Instagram? Some say no. Predictions of Snap’s demise proliferated following the introduction of Instagram Stories. Those doomsday scenarios are incorrect as well as boring, says Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert.
“Instagram Stories will skim off the casual Snapchat users, attracting them via ease-of-use and better account growth and discovery features. But it will not attract the Snapchat core,” Baer predicts. The app will retain an increasingly homogenous audience of massively passionate users. That demographically pure group of young users, extremely valuable to marketers, will allow the company to charge higher advertising rates.
Venture capitalists will see less value in that segmentation as they don’t understand social networks and consider only monthly active users, growth rate, and trying to “catch Facebook.” Facebook believes everyone wants to connect with as many people as possible, even if those connections are weak. But Snap users see the app as a personal messenger service; they don’t want to build large audiences.
Bottom Line: Instagram’s brazen replication of Snapchat Stories offers marketing and PR opportunities for brands. Brands may be motivated to increase organic followings before embarking on advertising campaigns. Some say the new feature foreshadows the demise of Snap and the coming dominance of Facebook-owned Instagram. Others say Snap will continue to thrive as a youth-oriented messaging app and will retain an extremely valuable audience for brands targeting the youth market. Marketers must follow developments closely to make cost-effective marketing choices.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks