Snapchat’s AR Evolution for Brands

• Snapchat enhances AR and ML tools for advertisers, streamlining asset creation and offering custom AR ad experiences.
• Snap’s revenue for Q1 2024 increased by 21% year-on-year, driven by improvements in their advertising platform and a surge in small and medium-sized advertisers.

Snapchat recently unveiled several augmented reality (AR) and machine learning (ML) tools designed to assist brands and advertisers reach users through interactive experiences on its social network.

Snapchat announced recently that they’ve invested heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation to streamline AR try-on asset creation for brands. Over recent years, Snapchat has worked with companies like Amazon and Tiffany & Co to give users virtual try-on experiences within its app; more recently they reduced time needed to produce such assets for companies looking to quickly turn more of their 2D product catalogs into 3D try-on experiences on its social network.

Plus, brands can now use generative AI technology to produce custom AR ads with custom Lenses using Snapchat’s Lens Gen technology. Snapchat reported that with this new capability, brands can provide simple text or image prompts in order to generate unique ML models capable of adding realistic face effects onto lenses that they then use as AR ads on Snapchat.

Snapchat recently unveiled AR Extensions, which enable advertisers to embed AR lenses and filters directly into all its ad formats – Dynamic Product Ads, Snap Ads, Collection Ads, Commercials and Spotlight Ads – using Snap’s APIs.

Early adaptor of AR technology, Amazon states that over 300 million people engage with its app each day with AR experiences on average.

Snap announced last week that its revenue for Q1 2024 increased 21% year-on-year to $1.195 million due mainly to improvements made to their advertising platform. Furthermore, they revealed that year-over-year their number of small and medium-sized advertisers on Snapchat has also grown dramatically; up 85% year-on-year.

Snapchat announced Wednesday that they are making substantial investments into their ad business and that demand has skyrocketed since launch of SnapAds. They noted their plans were “encouraged”.

Snap also announced it’s unveiling an unconventional sports channel called the Snap Sports Network within Snapchat that will cover unconventional disciplines, such as dog surfing, extreme ironing and water bottle flipping. User-generated content as well as scripted programs hosted by Snap Stars will all feature on this new network.

Snapchat and Live Nation have extended their partnership by creating the Snap Nation Public Profile that will showcase exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of concerts, plus curate stories about Live Nation concerts and festivals that include public posts by users.