„By leveraging content created at events by fans, it provides a natural path to consumption by those not in attendance“ – this is the first and the most important fact about Snapchat that separates it from others.
Snapchat users send 700 million photos/videos per day
Snapchat is a photo and video messaging app, that a group of Stanford University students developed and launched in 2011. It’s uniqueness lies in the fact that all photos and videos only last a brief amount of time before they disappear forever, though users can take a screenshot to save Snaps. The millennial generation is first generation whose members sleep with their cell phones, tablets and laptops. They are between ages of 18 and 34, 93% are active Interner users who are comfortable with new technologies and social media. They are constantly seeking more and more, so Snapchat hit them right in the weak spot. According to November 2014 polling by Cowen and Company, 18 to 29 year-olds accounted for 71% of US internet users who had accessed Snapchat in the past 30 days. Those ages 30 to 44 represented 19% of users. Millennials’ share here was higher than their portion of users for any other social network studied.
Sports and Snapchat mix well together
Snapchat has ambitions to become a dominant mobile media platform. On Sunday, March 22nd 2015, sports fans were able to experience a Liverpool vs Manchester United football game from the comfort of their homes. Back in 2013. , Southampton Football Club has become the first Barclays Premier League team to join the Snapchat. Saints are now using the app to send behind-the-scenes photos and messages to their fans. This is the great addition to their social media portfolio; they are active on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine and Google+ accounts.
How can you say no to this?
Clubs can now, using Snapchat, bring fans closer to the action, behind-the-scenes coverage, activities and personal messages from the players. When you google team accounts on SnapChat across the five major professional leagues, you find interesting data: 12 NFL, 18 MLB, 18 NHL, 21 NBA, and 12 MLS.
The difference between Our Story and Discover
Snaps are meant to make conversation more spontaneous, visual and fun!
They can be viewed for up to 10 seconds, depending on the amount of time the user chooses. Stories, on the other hand, allow users post their photos and videos to a new section of the app where they will stay for 24 hours. There have been quite a few great Snapchat Stories related to sports likely including the March Madness and Liverpool vs Manchester United Stories. Football fans logging into Snapchat in the UK received a surprise as an ‘Our Story’ featuring a Premier League game appeared on the network for the first time. Fans were given the chance to upload photos and videos that were then curated and a two minute Story was produced. On March 24th, 2015 Snapchat users had the opportunity to take in the cricket match that was the talk of Australia. The March Madness Snapchat Story will continue to NBA Playoffs, Final Four and other popular sporting event stories. But, an interesting development will be Snapchat Stories for golf. There won’t be any at The Masters because Augusta National will not let cell phones on the course.
Our Story was launched in July 2014, and it allows Snapchat to mix photo and video messages from willing users, and turn them into a multimedia story available to all users. Every Story revolves around a specific event, and, no surprise there – sporting events are particularly popular. For example, they released a World Cup final game story and several football-related Stories throughout the season last fall, some of which had locker-room footage taken by football players themselves.
This Story development is separate from Snapchat’s media channel Discover, which launched at the end of January and features text, photos and video from media companies such as Comedy Central, ESPN, National Geographic and Vice. Discover allows users to view pieces of news in the form of Snapchat Stories and after 24 hours, the stories self-destruct and new content replaces them.
Snapchat is becoming all in one app that will allow people who are not at the event to feel they are part of it.
Snapchat is a TV network, a publishing network, a social network, an original media creator and an e-commerce platform, all within one app. Snapchat’s made deals with sports leagues and broadcast networks, including the NCAA and Turner, so it can feature live sports in its “Our Story” feature. The plan is to keep Stories entirely user-generated and curated by Snapchat’s own team, but now with the approval of the leagues and broadcast partners. So far, Snapchat has been creating these sports-related Stories guerilla-style, without the explicit permission of the leagues themselves and to avoid any problems, they are trying to legitimize Stories and avoid any media-rights issues.
Sky News and Sky Sports launched Snapchat Discover to provide news and sport to millions of young people who use the service on a daily basis. It is that simple – you just tap on a channel and go through a Daily edition. It has 5-10 Stories, and each one is headlined by a top Snap (a 10 second telling of the story) You swipe up for the long form piece of content. When an edition is completed, the channel colours invert, and when some new contents are available, the logo returns to full colour.
Watching sports is no longer limite with a cable. According to November 2014 polling by Cowen and Company, 18 to 29 year olds accounted for 71% of US internet users who had accessed Snapchat in the past 30 days. About 19 percent of Americans have effectively “cut the cord” and are living without cable. Snapchat brings sports to them in the way that is so simple and effective one can’t help wondering: „Why no one thought of this sooner“.
PHOTOS: Flickr
