Snapchat, the balm for our social media woes?

Is Snapchat the antidote to our social media woes? That’s the answer that Colleen DeCourcy, Snapchat’s Chief Marketing Officer, hopes to answer over the next few months.

How is Snapchat  planning on doing this?

First, the company looks to place more emphasis on its messaging feature rather than focusing on encouraging users to build a following or go viral-in contrast to Facebook, TikTok or Instagram-something that they feel is particularly important in the current friendship recession.

With fewer people reporting having close friends in real life and with social media building up a feeling of isolation, Snapchat is highlighting its chat feature through its first brand campaign in three years.

The campaign is titled ‘Less Social Media. More Snapchat,” first ran on TV during the Grammys, and will be run out across digital and other social channels in the UK over the next few days. 

How will the company judge success? By looking at measures such as brand lift and message breakthrough, alongside seeing how many users consistently return to Snapchat. With a key focus of the campaign being to remind viewers that Snapchat is a community and that there’s a reason why they and others either joined or wanted to join that community to begin with.

Furthermore, Snapchat will continue to work with parents and law enforcement to ensure that adequate protections and safety features are included to make the app safe for those who use their app. 

Whether the strategy works remains to be seen, but with people wanting a reprieve from the social media toxicity, it might just be the breakthrough they’re looking for.