Snapchat might not seem like an obvious choice for marketers, but some of the most successful brands on the planet have been using this platform to run some really interesting campaigns. 

In this post I’m going to cover five of the most exciting Snapchat campaigns I’ve come across and the impact they had on the brands that ran them.

You can learn even more about engaging customers on social at our two day Festival of Marketing event in November. Book your ticket today and head to the Social stage to learn how to manage brand perception and reach new audiences.

Audi

Super Bowl Sunday is America’s biggest day of the year for advertising, which means every single media channel is flooded with brand messaging (because that’s what sport is all about, right?). In such a noisy environment, Audi decided Snapchat was the key to getting heard. 

Audi partnered with Huge to run a campaign around people’s second-screen viewing habits when watching television. Its survey found that 59% of 2013 Superbowl viewers used their mobile devices during the game.

Teaming up with The Onion to produce ‘all the news that isn’t football’ Audi created a number of humorous snaps. You can see some of them in the video below.

The results:

  • 5,500 new Snapchat followers on the day of the game.
  • More than 100,000 snap views.
  • 2,400 campaign mentions on Twitter totalling 37m impressions.
  • 2,500 new Twitter followers and 9,000 new Facebook fans.

Sour Patch Kids

Snapchat is generally associated with the younger generation, so it seems like a natural option for a confectionary brand whose target audience is predominantly made up of hyperactive, sugar-swilling kids.

Partnering with Vine star Paul Logan, Sour Patch Kids used the power of influencer marketing to massively increase its Snapchat following. 

Logan created a five-day series of Snapchat stories around the theme ‘sour then sweet’, in which he got up to various types of mischief with a life-size Sour Patch Kid. 

The results:

  • 120,000 new Snapchat followers.
  • More than 6.8m Snapchat impressions generated (583k on day one).
  • More than 26,000 screenshots.
  • Snapchat campaign received roughly 1,900 Twitter mentions.

Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein wanted to increase engagement on two emerging social media channels: Snapchat and Tumblr. This was partly to better connect with the millennial generation who are known to be prolific users of these channels. 

Celebrities such as Korean pop star Taeyang, singer/songwriter Dev Hynes, and models Edie Campbell and Lucky Blue were asked to produce selfies and videos in a room called the ‘Self Exploration Lab’. 

Morte than 200 pieces of content were produced and shared through various social channels and then users were asked to publish their own creations. 

The results:

  • 15% engagement on Snapchat.
  • 140,000 content views.
  • 16.5m impressions on Twitter.

H&M

Fashion retailer H&M carried out a marketing stunt in Poland last year in which they hid tickets to an exclusive party named Boiler Room in stores.

H&M then sent out cryptic clues via Snapchat as to the whereabouts of the hidden tickets.

The results:

  • 943 new Snapchat followers.
  • Over 200 people playing the game.
  • 3.8m unique users learned that H&M was behind the launch of Boiler Room.
  • Lots of positive media coverage.

McDonald’s

Influencer marketing seems to be something of a theme among big-brand Snapchat campaigns. McDonald’s significantly increased its following on the social network with the help of NBA star LeBron James. 

McDonald’s created a 36-second video ‘story’ featuring James and other sports stars to promote its new Bacon Clubhouse burger. 

McDonald's Snapchat

McDonald's Snapchat

The brand also used Twitter to promote its Snapchat account in the run-up to the campaign. 

The results:

Within an hour of announcing the stunt McDonald’s had already gained thousands of new Snapchat followers. 

If you want to learn more about social from some of the most successful brands on the planet, get a ticket for the Festival of Marketing 2015 and check out the Social stage.