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How to use Snapchat Spectacles effectively – a three step guide for brands

By Tom Ollerton | marketing director

March 30, 2017 | 5 min read

Social media evolves at a far quicker rate than most brands’ abilities to even understand it – let alone keep up with it. So it’s vital that instead of reacting to trends that brands attempt to get ahead of them. One way to do this is by experimenting with new technology as it surfaces, not once it has become mainstream.

Snapchat Spectacles

This is where our Social Scramble comes in. Each month we pick a new technology and build a product, service or some content with it. This allows us to understand how the new tech works so we can pass that knowledge onto our clients.

We’ve already experimented with our daily social broadcast on Amazon Echo, The Defibberator service for Google Home and now this month we have been experimenting with Snapchat Spectacles.

Tech interfaces have changed hugely throughout the years, from Charles Babbage’s first ‘computer’ to becoming vaguely usable machines due to the introduction of the MS Dos operating system that allowed simple commands to get computers to do things. Times then got even easier when the graphical user interface (GUI) was introduced, allowing users to use a mouse to start and run programs.

And then, we welcomed in the all-important touch-screen which meant users had everything they needed in the palm of their hands. In the most recent years, however, we’ve seen those screens evaporate and ‘gesture-based interfaces’ evolve, whereby we can use our bodies to control machines. Brands are still in a race to try and find the best way to allow humans to control computers. So we have seen the development of heads up displays like Google Glass and Amazon and Google trying to own the ‘voice’ as the next frontier of control.

This leads us into Snap’s Spectacles which allows users to capture life as it happens on their sunnies. We’ve already seen many brands try to utilise Spectacles such as Hyatt and Esquire Network to promote its show ‘Wrench Against the Machine’.

But how should your brand approach Spectacles, take great snaps and utilise the product’s features without looking like a severe amateur? We’ve got it covered. Here are our three top tips to using Spectacles effectively:

1. Tell a great story

The key for using Snapchat Spectacles is creating a great story. You need to think about your story as a whole rather than one video at a time. So when you set out on your adventure with the Spectacles, look to record 30 seconds or so of snaps that you can easily fit together to build into a bigger story with a beginning, middle and end.

Spectacles provides a rare chance to step into someone else’s shoes and this creates a great opportunity for brands to connect with their audiences in a raw, intimate, playful and creative way without worrying about ultimate perfection.

2. Make sure you keep your hands in shot

This might sound like a weird one, but showing your hands in your Spectacles video really does make a difference. Without hands it just looks like any old camera, but Spectacles gives brands the ability to create a truly hands-free, point of view video. With your hands in shot you are really showing your viewers that it’s from your perspective and it’s what you are seeing with your own eyes - after all, that’s what makes Spectacles special. So go to those backstage places that a normal smartphone would not allow.

Give users an inside look at your brand. Spectacles offer your followers a behind the scenes view into your company – they allow your viewers to feel like they’re part of the action in a way that no other medium can, it has a more natural and intimate feel, so work this to an advantage and engage your users in your activity.

3. Get creative

The beauty about Spectacles is that brands are still trying to figure out how to use them for advertising purposes – this allows for some exciting experimentation. Hands-free recording and circular video allow for some ‘play-time’ and from the way Spectacles look and function, this encourages a certain informal and jokey trait which brands should definitely embrace.

The circular videos allow fans to twist their phone to see more of the video frame which provides a highly interactive experience in itself. So, think about how you could include circular video in a campaign, have some fun with it, experiment, and you could deliver a true brand impression in no time.

In conclusion, Snap’s Spectacles are one of the best social content investment brands can make right now. So, if you’re a marketer, make sure to get your hands on a pair of Spectacles sooner rather than later because this piece of tech may have more of an effect in marketing over the coming year than anyone may expect.

Tom Ollerton is innovation director at We Are Social

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