Snapchat Marketing: the Rise to the Top as Fashion’s Must-Have

Snapchat is the name on everyone’s lips, the must-use tool for brands everywhere. Unlike it’s established social cousins, Twitter and Instagram, Snapchat is still a little rough around the edges (and all the better for it). With none of the shiny, perfect angles of photo sharing sites, but with the immediacy and realness of tweets and live streaming, Snapchat marketing has given fashion week a fast and dirty spin. A channel that’s no longer the preserve of tweens everywhere, with 41% of adults in the US under 35 consuming content this way, and the likes of high end fashion houses, glossy magazines, and the fashion world’s elite taking to Snapchat to document a real, intimate side of fashion month.

How Burberry and Gucci Won at Snapchat Marketing

Two labels making waves both on and off the runway are Brit brand and digital staple, Burberry, with Italian counterpart and Alessandro Michele’s brainchild, Gucci, bringing some much needed Mediterranean flare to the social sphere.

Gucci used Snapchat to promote #GucciGhost before autumn/winter 16’s show in Milan, with graffiti artist ‘Trouble Andrew’ spraying Gucci GGs & little ghosts around the derelict-looking showspace.

This gave the Gucci Snapchat audience more than just a view from the FROW, but an insight into a different, urban side to Gucci’s new collection, which was then revealed in full with graffiti adorned items hitting the runway piece by piece. This coverage built up to the show with more than just a countdown, it provided an experience and gave an insight into Gucci’s latest creative process

Burberry have also embraced Snapchat’s unique features, such as their filters, to edit and cut together engaging and entertaining Stories. Mario Testino launched their spring/summer ‘16 campaign with a Snapchat Story introducing the collection and the latest faces of the brand.

But perhaps most interesting, was Burberry‘s use of Snapchat to emphasise the immediacy of ‘see now, buy now’ at London Fashion Week. Audiences on the channel watched autumn/winter’s pieces make their way down the runway and then be packed up and taken directly to the brand’s Regent Street flagship ready for eager buyers (plus, there was even a cheeky hello to users from Christopher Bailey).

This kind of unique visual storytelling is why Snapchat has become so coveted, because it genuinely brings something different to the table. There’s no shaky filming or intermittent coverage like Periscope, but instead it gives users an opportunity to share their experience, or Story, in a real way. And with marketing focussing more and more on a mobile first approach, app-only channels such as Snapchat come further into the fore.

Another “brand” utilising Snapchat in a unique way is BBC News, who back in September 2015 published their first ever ‘mobile-only digital short documentary in portrait native format’ following the refugee crisis on Snapchat. Lifestyle brands could learn a lot from these story-lead Brits as they take otherwise sober news articles and tell them using this completely different, yet incredibly accessible, medium.

Are you ready to take your brand onto Snapchat? Here are our top tips for approaching Snaps:

1. Just because the channel is popular with millennials, it doesn’t mean that you need to start talking like a 16 year old

Audiences appreciate authenticity, decide on your message and stay true to your brand voice; if your content is engaging and different, your audience will appreciate it.

2. Limited insights shouldn’t turn you off

New features are implemented all the time (seriously, there’s new filters e v e r y day) and with such a fast-evolving channel, Snapchat will only add more features that are useful to both brands and users alike.

3. Have fun!

One of Snapchat’s most appealing qualities is that it’s fun! Take a step away from traditional social with the one goal of driving referrals back to your site. Show who your brand is made of and why you’re worth being interested in. The limited timespan of Snaps makes the channel very forgiving and a great place to let your metaphoric brand hair down!

Follow us on Snapchat @StylightSnaps for behind the scenes and more.

Header source: Burberry

|By Charlotte Stringer – Social Content Manager|