After reporting dismal Q1 earnings, Snap has pitched a series of services and content partnerships in a bid to help advertisers increase exposure.
The latest features, launched at IAB NewFronts in New York, offer a potential daily reach of 383 million users worldwide, with more than 22 million users in the U.K., the company claimed.
The announcement comes after Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, reported its first revenue loss, of 7% year-on-year, in Q1. The brand has cited a “major evolution” of its platform during the quarter, which disrupted advertising demand, as a cause of the dip in earnings.
Among the list of ad services are an initiative to launch ads across Snapchat’s short-form video feed and a feature that will enable marketers to reserve the first non-skippable video ad between users.
The company also announced content partnerships with major upcoming sporting events, including the 2024 Paris Olympics and FIFA Women's World Cup, as well as further experimentation within the app’s AI-powered chatbot tool to boost contextual ad relevance.
First Story, Snap’s latest takeover product, will be rolled out across Snapchat this week, enabling advertisers to reserve the first six-second ad or sponsored augmented reality lens seen by users with a reported reach of more than 250 million users who engage with the app's immersive technology.
Louis Vuitton and Warner Bros are the brand’s first partners to run First Story ads.
Snapchat's parent company will also globally launch ads across Spotlight, the app's short-form video feed and its TikTok-like equivalent.
According to the brand, 350 million-plus global users view content on Spotlight each month, with total time spent watching short films having grown by more than 170% year on year in Q1.
Snap also claims that all content uploaded to Spotlight is moderated to reduce the risk of ads showing next to hate speech, misinformation or other harmful material.
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The company has also announced sponsorship packages to help marketers launch activations across Snapchat’s Stories, Spotlight and Camera features during some of the world’s biggest upcoming sporting events. Users will gain access to exclusive daily stories, AR experiences and experiential content.
Snap has also pledged an expansion of My AI, its interactive AI chatbot-powered tool, to increase ad outreach and deliver “more relevant” content and experiences to users.
This includes experiments that the brand claims are “privacy-safe," such as bringing users mobile video “powered by conversational intent” and testing sponsored links within AI-powered conversations to connect users with relevant advertising partners.
My AI, which is powered by the latest version of OpenAI's popular tool ChatGPT, was made available to Snapchat+ subscribers in February and to all global Snapchat users last month.
With the feature, users can start detailed conversations and receive custom recommendations within the app, such as pointers towards "relevant" AR lenses and places within the app's integrated map function.
To date, My AI has averaged two million chats with Snapchat+ subscribers per day.
"Snapchat is all about real relationships, and where over 750 million people come every month to build connections and have fun with friends, families, and their favourite creators," said Rob Wilk, president of Americas at Snap. "We’re thrilled to share at NewFronts how those real relationships drive real influence for brands as we announce new innovations and features across Stories, Spotlight, Creators, My AI and more.”
This story first appeared on campaignlive.co.uk.