Teagan Harbridge - Snapchat are leading the way in geolocation marketing, with the introduction of their new ‘Snap Map’ feature.
The launch of the new feature which allows users to see where their Snapchat friends are on a map, comes after the acquisition of the French social location platform, Zenly.
The new update is intended to bring people closer together, by keeping users informed of their friends locations and whether they are at public events near them.
How does it work?
Users are able to view the map by pinching the screen in the in-app camera. The interactive map then appears, showing their friends locations via their Bitmoji’s and allows users to view their stories.
The new feature comes just a month after the launch of Instagram’s ‘Location Stories’ – the difference; the nature of Snapchat community groups.
With roughly 60% of the interactions on Snapchat between close friends (Sparkler), the new feature reflects a certain level of intimacy and mimicability of “real life” friendship in an augmented fashion.
While many have found it difficult to look past the flurry of security and privacy concerns, the new update establishes major advertising opportunities for the future.
Geolocation Marketing
Based on Snapchat’s inability to successfully monetise the platform, teamed with the low Average Revenue Per User (averaging at $1.05), we can assume Snapchat will be looking at developing this update for advertisers.
Although Snapchat are yet to monetise the new update, the potential for targeted advertising based on location and event advertising is exciting.
Snapchat users could potentially be walking past a clothing store, that Snapchat knows the user may be interested in – Snap Map could potentially roll out an advertisement for that store, with a discount code for Snapchat users.
Alternatively, a major sporting event may be taking place close to a Snapchat area who may be interested in that particular sport – Snap Map could roll out an advertisement for that event with a link to purchase tickets.
This may just be the feature Snapchat needs to well and truly establish itself from Instagram once and for all.
Watch this space.
