March Madness and Snapchat: Perfect Companions
Before last week, I would have told you that “Snapchat for Business” is somewhat of an oxymoron. Or if not an oxymoron, all it could possibly mean is that businesses might place ads on Snapchat that users see as they take and view silly photos. Even so, the business value of placing ads on a platform in which photos almost immediately disappear was certainly far from obvious to me. Perhaps this reveals my status as an “older” member of the millennial generation, but as someone who has never used Snapchat, I envisioned it as something teenagers use to send funny pictures to their friends, and ultimately, to waste time. I never had a particularly positive view of the platform, and I certainly did not think of it as professional enough to be considered as part of a company’s social media strategy, at least not beyond advertising.
However, now that I have learned more about Snapchat’s capabilities, as well as heard about some unique ways companies are using Snapchat to engage with customers, I must admit that my opinion has changed dramatically. I am particularly intrigued by one of Snapchat’s newer features, Live Stories, which debuted in 2014. According to the Snapchat website, Live Stories are, “are a curated stream of user submitted Snaps from various locations and events. Users who have their location services on at the same event location will be given the option to contribute Snaps to the Live Story. The end result is a Story told from a community perspective with lots of different points of view” (https://support.snapchat.com/ca/live-stories). Live Stories are viewed by 10–20M people every day (http://www.techinsider.io/snapchat-live-story-popular-views-2015-11).
This Live Story feature offers so many opportunities for a broad range of businesses and nonprofits trying to find unique ways to interact with customers. I have chosen to analyze one such opportunity in more detail not necessarily because is the only great application of the feature, but because it is one that I find personally intriguing.
Because I am a huge Duke basketball fan, and because I am still gleaming from the Blue Devils most recent upset of the Carolina Tarheels, I thought I would explore the use of Live Stories by the NCAA during March Madness (Broadcast networks such as ESPN or CBS would also likely benefit from a similar strategy). In case you missed it, here’s a recap:
I assume that one primary goal of the NCAA during March Madness is to increase customer engagement and excitement around the tournament, ultimately increasing viewership and revenue for the NCAA, which enables the organization to give more money back to member institutions (the NCAA generates revenue through both media rights and ticket sales). Ultimately, the more excitement generated by the tournament, the more leverage the NCAA will have in future media rights negotiations, and the more tickets they will sell down the road.
The NCAA has a broad range of fans, ranging from children to retirees, avid sports fans, to devoted alums who only follow their one team. Certainly though, a fair amount of NCAA fans are high school and college aged kids, and even young professionals in their 20s, who are likely Snapchat users. This proposed strategy would mainly seek to engage this segment of the market, a segment that is less likely to view traditional advertising through TV and likely to spend time on social media talking and thinking about March Madness.
Live Videos in general seems like a great marketing tactic for live events. This feature allows consumers to contribute their own perspectives to a story and then view a variety of vantage points from other customers. It puts the customer at the center of the experience, generates excitement, and also leaves the customer wanting more. The NCAA could use this feature to share highlights from a particularly exciting game, featuring both the players and the fans. Fans become personally involved in content creation, generating more excitement about the event and future events.
The use of Live Video provides entertainment, but also makes participants feel like insiders; they get a unique perspective on the game that others don’t. Perhaps the NCAA could even tie in promotions to the video. Maybe the customer that contributes the best segment (as determined by the NCAA) wins a ticket to a future tournament game. Perhaps that customer is also further featured in other media. Live Video provides a truly authentic view of what is happening, and not only makes customers feel excited to be there, but also excited to continue watching and attending other NCAA games in the future.
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