Travel Brands Are Missing Out on Snapchat Right Now
Skift Take
Snapchat is utilized by major brands for advertising purposes and as a new way to push content to a younger demographic. Travel brands are deciding if that's a demographic they want to reach and if it makes sense for them to be on Snapchat, which aren't always bad things.
With 100 million active users and seven billion daily video views Snapchat is already seen as a maturing platform by several brands from television networks to lifestyle publications.
But so far most travel brands haven't taken the bait.
Considering 45% of Snapchat's users are aged 18 to 24 years old, the highest percentage for that age bracket compared to any other social network according to comScore, maybe brands are wary of spending time and money with an age demographic that likely won't convert to a lot of bookings.
Instagram and Facebook's user demographics are more distributed in comparison; some 23% of Instagram's users are in the 18 to 24-year-old group and 26% are between 25 to 34 years old, while for Facebook, 18% of users are 18 to 24 years old, 22% are 25 to 34 years old, and 19% are 35 to 44 years old.
Some brands, though, see an opportunity in introducing themselves to these younger audiences and integrating their stories into those of Snapchat influencers they work with, even without an immediate expectation for bookings. Marriott Hotels, a prime example, was one of the first travel brands to join Snapchat last year and worked with four influencers in its first campaign for the platform. The influencers essentially had free reign to tell their stories using Marriott Hotel's channel during their respective portions of the campaign which garnered 24.1 million total views.
"We told our influencers that we didn't want them to integrate our hotel into their stories," said David Beebe, vice president of Marriott International's global creative and content marketing. "Instead, we want the consumer to realize that our hotels enabled the influencers to have the experiences that they had."
"Rather than trying to sell [guests] something or interrupt them at first, we want to give them something that entertains and informs them. We want to build that relationship with them and then ask for that sell. That's when we can say 'hey, we also sell hotel rooms.' We're super excited to [eventually expand Snapchat] across more of our brands."
Courtyard Marriott (the NFL's official hotel sponsor) will run ads on the Super Bowl 50 live Snapchat story this Sunday, though it doesn't have its own Snapchat channel. Courtyard Marriott told Skift the brand wants to learn if these ads will hit the 24 to 35-year-old age demographic.
"One of the reasons why we haven't put all Marriott brands on Snapchat is not only because we want to test and lear
