Just the other day, Wil Reynolds sent out a tweet about being educated by a 15 year old girl:
So, I am being shadowed by a 15 year old today, she hasn't used her mobile to make a call in years....kik, whatsapp, instgram,snapchat
— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) April 28, 2015
This tweet confirmed my thoughts around the younger generation and what the "in things" are for communicating. See, if you're not in touch with the latest trends of the youth, you're not much of a marketer and this is something that is constantly on our minds.
One such application which has been used for campaigns but isn't used by the older generations is Snapchat. A couple of months ago, news hit the Internet about Alibaba backing Snapchat at a valuation of $15 billion! It's not rocket science to see just how very important it is to understand these new applications that are hitting the world.
We did some searching for a Snapchat campaign that had been a success and we came across WWF's Last Selfie Snapchat campaign:
How awesome is that for an idea? Both Dove and McDonalds have also launched Snapchat campaigns in the past. It's our opinion that Snapchat could be used as an excellently targeted marketing campaign for the youth here in South Africa, the best part is that it doesn't seem as though any one has capitalised on this yet in the local market.