In an attempt to join steep competition on advertising opportunities on social media platforms, Snapchat has opened their famous World Lenses for ad use. The new advertising tool, called Sponsored World Lenses, lets advertisers integrate their brand image into the augmented world of Snapchat.
Customization options include adding objects, action-based triggers on an AR landscape, and interactive augmented reality games. These filters can be used both on the front and back cameras, providing more engagement opportunity to users.
Big brands like Netflix, Glidden Paint, Dunkin Donuts and Warner Bros. are already testing this feature out – Netflix for its wrestling comedy entitled “Glow”, and Warner Bros. for its film “Everything, Everything”, with Warner Bros. also utilizing the World Lenses component of the app. The Sponsored World Lenses filter helps in targeting countries.
Warner Bros. is one of the companies testing Snapchat’s Sponsored World Lenses
Advertisers get specific audience targeting and a guaranteed number of impressions for these campaigns initiatives. Snapchat’s numbers claim that each tool has an average interaction time of 15 seconds. Still on a limited run, these new ad features are only available in certain parts of Europe – the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Germany.
A different variety of filters are available in the United States – the market-specific Audience Lenses and the location-centric Smart Geofilters. Right now, Snapchat’s advertising menu is still pretty limited, although a lot of improvements have already been seen. Now, U.S. advertisers can pinpoint age and gender demographics, as well as the type of content that people look at.
