Snapchat is becoming another premium platform for Big Alcohol to target youth. Adweek reports that Snapchat has started to build serious buzz among brands over the past several months. Snapchat is an image messaging and multimedia mobile application created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown when they were students at Stanford University. The company headquarters are located in Venice, California.
As Snapchat’s popularity is increasing, many different brands, from Gatorade to Starbucks to Taco Bell, have launched Snapchat campaigns. From its earliest days, Snapchat’s main demographic has consisted of millennials. Research shows that the primary use for Snapchat was for comedic content such as “stupid faces” with 59.8% of respondents reporting this use most commonly.
Increasing popularity among adolescents and young people; and the fun and playful character of Snapchat activity – these are the buzz words that attract the alcohol industry. Alcohol brands, including Jim Beam, have dipped their toes into the platform.
More than 60% of Snapchat’s users below the age of 21 – the legal age limit for alcohol use in the USA.
Adweek reports that the general audience on Snapchat does not meet Federal Trade Commission requirements for alcohol advertisers. Therefore only brands willing to spend big money on custom work-arounds can advertise on the platform.
Which companies are those?
The world’s largest liquor producer Diageo, and its Jim Beam brand. And the world’s largest beer producer AB InBev and its Budlight brand.
Jim Beam tested out Snapchat last year, introducing its new apple bourbon using the platform’s Live Stories. After running the first ad on Tinder in April 2015, Bud Light has locked down a partnership with the other hottest app for millennials, Snapchat. In fact Bud Light was the first alcohol name on the platform and took advantage of the Stories section of Snapchat – the strings of photos and videos that users share and curate at events.
Some platforms, such as Pinterest and Tumblr, have banned alcohol advertisers all together. Other channels are friendly to alcohol companies, including Facebook and YouTube. Snapchat is attractive for Big Alcohol, not only for the young audience and the youth-values that permeate the platform, but also for the reason that it is a less cluttered space for brands. That means a well-done campaign has a real chance to shine on the platform.