MailOnline charms Starbucks, Sony and Specsavers to bet on Snapchat Discover ads
MailOnline is selling ad inventory around its repurposed content on the app, signing up Starbucks, Sony and Specsavers as its debut advertisers.
Each appears on the publisher’s “Discover” channel, which launched in January, alongside up to 15 handpicked news stories and videos that are refreshed every 24 hours. Details of how the revenue is split between the MailOnline and Snapchat were not given and the former was unable to provide clarification by the time this article was published.
It is an alternative way for publishers to generate value from a feature that puts media at the forefront of Snapchat’s product.
The social network has proved a hard nut to crack for advertisers to date with its chief executive wary of diluting the experience with too many ads. Yet the decision to allow publishers to sell ad space around their content could appease both Snapchat and advertisers by keeping trusted content at the heart of the offering.
Ian Cranna, vice president of marketing and category at Starbucks EMEA, backed this notion and singled out Snapchat’s untapped well of nearly 38 million as an opportunity to good to pass up. The coffee maker has already sponsored content on Cosmopolitan's "Discover" channel.
“With a growing audience of nearly 38 million smartphone owners in the UK, mobile continues to be a significant place for us to communicate with our customers. It’s great to be a launch partner as Discover provides the opportunity to engage with our current and potential customers through a new and exciting format,” he added.
For MailOnline , the move further expands its mobile offering, particularly among younger readers who consume news predominantly through their mobiles. The advent of mobile has proved tricky for publishers to adapt to due to the growing amount of harder to track traffic coming from social networks. Some publishers have looked to work with the likes of Snapchat and Facebook in the hope of better insight, while others worry that closer they get the more their traffic will migrate to those platforms.
Melanie Scott, chief revenue officer at the MailOnline, said: “We are thrilled with the commercial opportunity that Snapchat’s Discover offers. Given Snapchat’s popularity, especially amongst younger demographics, this partnership allows us to offer our clients unique brand awareness and positioning alongside MailOnline’s premium content.”
Other media owners to use Snapchat’s “Discover” service include Vice, Yahoo New, Comedy Central