How Snapchat Is Changing the Game for Luxury Brands
Chris Gonzalez
In the coming months of 2016, Snapchat is going to present itself as an enormous opportunity for luxury brands. Brands like Louis Vuitton™ (@louisvuitton) and Gucci™ (@gucci) have already adopted Snapchat channels, and are using it to present behind-the-scenes action, and early glimpses of new collections. For instance, on Monday CNBC’s (@cnbc) Snapchat story was broadcasting from the 2016 Singapore Air show, showcasing the luxurious interior of a brand new “Bombardier Challenger 650” aircraft.
Here a Salesman walks the Snapchat audience through the cabin of a Bombardier Challenger 650 Business Aircraft, Photo Credit: CNBC
Snapchat’s ability to authentically expose consumers to real user generated content and stories will give luxury brands a unique opportunity to connect with their audience in a new but familiar way. If you think back to how Instagram became one of the best (if not the best) social platforms to advertise luxury goods, it was the ability to deliver highly visual content portraying the previously inaccessible lives of the consumers purchasing these high-end goods (think “Rich Kids of Instagram” phenomenon).
It’s the potent authentic story telling ability of Snapchat as a social platform that really gives it an advantage in the luxury space. Think about it, to upload a Story, native Snapchat features give you limited access to photo filters and bar users from uploading saved pictures or videos to their Story forcing brands and users to live in shared time in the moment. To upload and share an experience on a Snapchat Story, the user actually had to be there (Please Note: third party apps are still not officially supported).
In a study done by Pew Research published April 9th of last year, researchers actually found a strong positive correlation between Snapchat usage and higher household income in teens with 46% of all teens on Snapchat having a household income of 75K+. As users become more affluent, their overall usage of Snapchat increases. This is apparent in this years Grammy Awards and New York Fashion Week live stories, or as seen in popularized Dj Khaled’s(@djkhaled305) “secure your bag” lavish lifestyle Snapchats.
Chriselle Lim, Founder of Chriselle inc, shown using a custom filter during New York’s Fashion Week Photo Credit: Snapchat
In 2015 alone, the LATimes reported that over the last year, Snapchat grew its 25–34 year old user base by 103%, with users over 35 years old growing an astonishing 84%. It’s my opinion that this trend will continue with females in their late 30’s to early 40’s becoming the fastest growing demographic on the social network, as the platform continues to age up into 2016.
Snapchat represents the next step in the evolution of the way today’s consumers are interacting with brands. In the pre-social media world, luxury was often open only to the initiated, now in the connected social world; luxury has a vehicle for creating consumer desire and aspiration into the current and future generation of buyers.
Get look at my daily grind on my Snapchat: chrisgonzo11
Originally appeared at: www.blog.gnackapp.com
