AGENCY BIO

Global users  218 million a day

Regional users
MENA: 34 million unique users/month; KSA: More than 15 million; UAE: More than 1.8 million; Iraq: More than 6 million; Turkey: More than 6 million; Kuwait: More than 1.5 million; Oman: More than 700,000

Description:

Snap Inc. is a camera company. We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world and have fun together.

Primary media on the platform
Full-screen, sound-on, vertical video, with AR Lenses and Filters.

User demographics 
With more than 15 million users in Saudi Arabia, Snapchat reaches 90 per cent of 13-34-year-olds. In the UAE, we reach more than 60 per cent of 13-24-year-olds and our footprint is prominent amongst core advertising audiences, reaching more than one in three 18-34-year-olds.

What do people best know you as?
From a communications perspective, we are known for creating products that have become standards across mobile communication and content including vertical video and Stories. We pioneered ephemeral messages have made privacy a core product principle of Snapchat.

From a creative perspective, we are known for our Augmented Reality (AR) innovation.

What is the biggest misconception about the platform?
That AR is only used for “fun”.

What can you do best for brands?
Snapchat allows brands in the region to tap into a large and highly engaged audience. During Ramadan 2019, GCC Snapchatters spent more than 1 hour every day on Snapchat (more than double the global average). Engagement paired with innovative and effective ad formats enables brands to achieve their objectives.

What features for marketers have you launched in the last year?

• Lenses in Auction – you can easily buy lenses in a biddable environment similar to Snap Ads. You can create and run AR Lenses for any of your brands in any country available in Ads Manager via Auction.
• Unskippable Video – six second commercials running alongside high-quality publisher content.
• New optimisation tools – different goal-based bidding tools to optimise campaigns against app opens, app purchases, app re-purchases and new pixel capabilities.
• Swipe Up to Call or Text – a feature that enables users to swipe up and directly call or text a business.

What new features can we look forward to in the next year?

• Dynamic Ads – will be launched in MENA to help advertisers get further return on advertising spend out of Snapchat, save time in campaign set-up, improve optimisations and decrease resources required to run always-on campaigns focused on prospecting and remarketing.
• Takeover products – prototyping new ad products that will help brands stand out even more on Snapchat during key brand moments.
• Lens Web Builder – the industry’s first web-based AR Lens ad production tool.

Viewpoint

Hussein Freijeh

Regional director, Snap MENA

What’s your favourite brand campaign on your platform?

One of my favourite campaigns is
the recent collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for AlUla to bring the UNESCO Heritage Site Qasr Al-Farid to life. It showcased work from three artists using AR via Snapchat’s first MENA Landmarker. This campaign was a big success locally, regionally and globally.

What have become the campaign clichés on your platform?

Historically advertisers were approaching us for just one big idea and now they are more focused on a 360-degree integrated approach. We’ve seen a shift away from brands purely briefing us for tentpole AR Lens activations, and we are now seeing nearly all of our clients also leverage the power of video on the platform to deliver full-funnel, multi-product campaigns.

What would you like to see brands doing more of?

Snapchat is a partner that can add value and deliver against upper and lower funnel goals throughout an entire campaign. Brands should capitalise on our highly engaged audience, our tools and products to maximise ROI impact, tailoring their campaigns for the region in all ad formats through AR and videos. We also advise reassessing the importance of the mobile screen for big, game-changing ideas.