Snapchat’s looking to help more brands utilize its popular Lenses within their promotions, this time via AI-generated Sponsored Lenses, which enable brands to build interactive in-app experiences without developer investment.
As you can see in these examples, Snapchat’s Sponsored AI Lenses generate themed AI images from selfies, and are available within Snapchat’s Lens carousel in the app. So they’re not AR, which is the focus of most of Snap’s Lens experiences, but they do provide a similar form of engagement, by enabling people to place themselves within different settings via digital means.
As per Snap:
“With Sponsored AI Lenses, brands can help drive high engagement, virality, and AI-powered storytelling on Snapchat. This format generates personalized, AI-driven images that put Snapchatters at the center of unique brand moments, allowing them to express themselves while sharing their favorite brands with friends.”
Snapchat’s been working to build simplified Lens and AR creation processes for brand partners, via templates in its Lens Studio, and creator discovery options, so that brands can find relevant AR builders to work with.
These new AI-powered experiences add another consideration, taking out the complexity of building a custom AR experience by providing text-triggered interactive options that are powered by Snap’s existing AI tools.
And Lens-based promotions do drive strong response in the app.
According to Snap, brands leveraging this format “can be placed in the forefront of the Camera, enabling them access to 25-45% more impressions in a single day.”
I mean, that doesn’t say that your Lens will be placed in prime position in the Lens carousel in the app, but it could give your promotions a significant boost of that happens (an additional paid element of your promotions).
Snapchat also recently shared new research which shows that its Lens AR experiences are shared more often than other social media post types, especially among people’s close connections.
Snapchat also reports that its Lenses are used over 80 billion times per month, and that 85% of Snapchatters engage with its AR elements.
So there are a lot of potential positives there, underlining the opportunity.
As such, providing easier ways for brands to tap into Lenses makes a lot of sense, and this new, AI-powered process could be another option to consider.
