Discovering a New News - With Snapchat

August 17, 2016

Snapchat. Teens love it, parents are bewildered by it, and businesses just want to understand how they can use it! Now, it seems we’re just a little bit closer to figuring it out.

With the release of it’s new Discover feature at the end of January, Snapchat has found a way to not only join the world of “apps that just may make it”, but has also popped open a bottle of news, business, and advertising that has yet to be uncorked. You thought we had short attention spans with 30 second TV ads, it’s about to get even shorter.

The 411.

Discover is a new swipe menu on Snapchat where media outlets can share content at the snap of a users finger. Currently housing twelve different outlets, these daily refreshed editions of content ‘news’ are a variety of videos, stories, links, and voiceovers that give you the “in” on the top stories of the day.

But these aren’t your grandpa’s news stories. Each channel is created ‘artfully’ – displaying a unique and visually appealing experience specific to that channel. Ads are dispersed throughout, but not only are they native to the content on the channel, they are easily swiped away with no if’s, and’s, or but’s. The real kicker? NONE of this relies on clicks, views, or shares to authenticate it. The content is simply there for us to enjoy!

What’s the sparkle?

So why is this big news? Discover contains a gold-winning trio:

1. It goes where the audience is.

Suddenly, teens that care more about snapping their friends than watching the news are one swipe away from engaging and relevant information about the outside world – that is, outside of their current snap conversation. This reaches an entirely new audience who, up until this point, has been unreachable.

2. It’s native.

All of the content from the outlets is housed completely inside Snapchat. This means these aren’t regurgitations of news stories or headlines with links to their websites. This is information completely made for the one venue you’re seeing it on – mobile. 

3. It’s form flexible.

Boring articles no more. These stories can be in any form – video, story, link, voiceover, you name it! In the same outlet you’ll find the first story in one form, the second in another! How’s that for keeping us on our toes?

Is it here for the long haul?

It reaches low-effort consumers, is completely mobile based, remains algorithm free, and seems to be instinctively native to both content and outlet. We’d say Snapchat has discovered a new way to do news – one that’s definitely not going to disappear in just ten seconds. Our suggestion? Get involved.