Snapchat is not a youth engagement strategy

A lot has been said about mobile campaigns in the past 2 years, we know that marketers today need to create emotional connections with their customers to drive engagement across multiple touch-points. Using Snapchat is not really doing a mobile campaign and does not constitute a teen engagement strategy.

With the popularity of Snapchat, it’s no wonder that marketers targeting this demographic are prioritising it. Marketers should not rely on this single tactic as a strategy to get them results.

Consider the following options:

1. Create sharable comments: Teens today are interested in doing things than having things. (According to a survey by Ypulse, teens and Millennials (13-33) years old rather spend money on experiences than products. Experiencification, engaging young consumers with sharable moments during branded experiences, can help brands amplify their message. Music festivals, sport, and social gathering are a prime examples.
2. Speak in their or with their voice: Its quite normal for marketers to hop on the latest teen trends, but these tactics become Passé very quickly and Gen Z can hardly relate with a major celebrity driven campaigns as they want to read and associate with people they relate to and who look like they would be their friends, Speak to their interests and seem relevant to their lives. Teens these days have a different brand preference and their stars are their celeb Youtubers and Instagrammers.
3. Communicate using a medium teens use: Some brands are making engagement with this audience important to get them on board now in a bid to broaden their reach and retain them as they grow as loyal customers in social video campaigns on Daily Motion, Youtube. Teens are increasingly sceptical of ad messages and known to scrutinize brands, looking for those with whom they share values and can connect with authentically. It’s not enough to do mobile or social to engage teens, look at strategies that cross platforms and offer genuine shareable experiences, appeal to their wants and needs and speak in a language they speak.

Article by Saad Al-Saraf, CEO, Mediareach Advertising

About Saad:

Highly driven by exciting new challenges and a passion to innovate, create and succeed. Saad Al-Saraf is like the engine of a Bugatti that is constantly running at the highest speed. He is also behind ‘Think Ethnic’ a forum for marketers interested in understanding and reaching multicultural demographics. Saad is also an IPA Council member and Chair of the Ethnic Diversity Forum, is an author of many of books, reports and blogs on multicultural marketing.

Saad was awarded ‘Iraqi shield’ by the Iraqi Prime Minister for his contribution in organizing the biggest conference that brought 300 Iraqi scientists and experts from 28 countries to help rebuild Iraq. He was awarded the ‘Lloyds TSB Entrepreneur Excellence Award’ in 2009.

  Digital, Engagement, Gen Z, Marketing, Mediareach Advertising, Millennials, Mobile, Opinion, Saad Al-Saraf, Snapchat, Social Media, strategy, Teens