It’s no secret that the mobile sector has exploded in the past few years. Brands have been quick to utilize Instagram, Vine and a marketing strategy spanning other mobile apps. But what about Snapchat? We at The Practice think it’s time they unlocked its potential!

Snapchat seems to be an ideal medium for brands wishing to connect with the tween and 20-something market- the app’s main demographic. With over 400 million snaps sent per day between 26 million users in the US alone, projected reach will no doubt be huge. Not only this, but since Snapchat’s inception in early 2012, we’ve seen tenfold growth in the number of images being sent, and the number of users. Despite this, the app appears to be underused by major brands, many of whom favour to focus their visual marketing efforts on Instagram instead. When used effectively however, Snapchat seems to be a powerful way for promoting products, launches, exclusive offers, and other brand footage, in a way that appears more personal to the recipient. So which brands are excelling in their use of Snapchat?

We liked Taco Bell’s use of Snapchat to announce the launch of their new burrito, the “Beefy Crunch”. The fast-food chain used a combination of social media channels to build excitement, first telling fans on Twitter to head over to Snapchat to see their “secret announcement”. The company’s contacts were then sent a snap of the new product, edited with the hand-drawn words, “Hi Friend” and the date of the launch, adding a human touch. In a similar manner, fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff used Snapchat to showcase a debut, exclusively revealing her full Spring 2014 collection before it even hit the runway- surely a great way to get more fans to connect via the app. And demonstrating that they understand their target audience, teen clothing company, Wet Seal, tried something a little different when they arranged a fan takeover of their account to a 16 year old blogger. For two days, the girl in question used the “My Story” feature, posting snaps of herself wearing the company’s products, and as a result generated over 9000 new followers for the brand. Successful marketing indeed!

With mobile marketing on the rise, using Snapchat will certainly adhere to some emerging mobile trends this year including the desire for micro-content and narrowcasting, as marketers begin to meet the mobile user’s desire to see short content through specific social channels. The advantage with Snapchat is that content is sent to a select group of individuals or the brand’s “friends” seeming more exclusive- something that most certainly taps into our desire to communicate with the brands we love on a personal level. And what’s great is that the “My Story” feature is now available, so users can direct content to all followers, or target specific contacts if desired, depending on the message. Further to this, since October of last year, brands have been able to use the new feature, “Snapchat Stories” to their advantage, capitalizing on the longer time frame for content to be viewed, as well as the ability to combine several sequential and replayable snaps that remain on the recipient’s feed for a further 24 hours. We can only imagine this method increasing in popularity once brands see how easy, successful, and cost effective it can be as a marketing tactic, particularly when it comes to offering promotions, rewards, and enticing fans.

Do you think Snapchat will soon be adopted by brands as part of their mobile marketing strategies? And which other mobile trends do you think will dominate this year? We’d love to hear your thoughts so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments via our Facebook page.