Background
Music streaming company, Deezer, wanted to engage a young audience on Snapchat at scale but didn't have the massive budget of larger brands.
Insight
It used to be that a brand could not go viral on Snapchat unless they paid hefty fees for a Snapchat world lens. Most also think that Snapchat, due to its walled gardens, maked it impossible to go viral organically, versus something like Twitter where you can trend.
However Snapchat marketing agency Fanbytes believes it's entirely possible to go viral organically on Snapchat. The key, they said, is to not promote your brand, but instead, to help Snapchat's users express their own individuality. This works particularly well with content that touches on social culture.
Strategy
Fanbytes commissed an 16-year-old African-American to create an AR lens for Deeezer of a boombox that users could move around and interact with depending on the background music they were playing.
The agency insists that the age and ethnicity of the creator mattered in this case because the boombox lens is meant to remind people of a time when people would walk in typically black neighbourhoods, and, when targeting 16-year-olds, it's a good idea to employ one.
The lens was distributed on a Friday through one of Fanbytes' influencer channels which has around 150,000 followers and asked the audience to use it and send in their funniest ones.
As Snapchatters started using the lens, they started putting it on their stories and getting their friends to use it too. The best ones were featured on Fanbytes' channels, leading more people to take part.
Results
In just 24 hours the lens videos gained 1.1 million views and 46,000 people had scanned the lens and used it in their Snapchat stories. Deezer gained awareness and a wealth of user-generated content.