For all you Snapchat users out there, the NFL has announced their first sponsorship on the app with Skittles candy. The Skittles ad ran successfully during the Live Story last Thursday during the Seattle Seahawks vs. San Francisco 49ers game. Which of course makes sense due to Marshawn Lynch’s sponsorship with the candy.
The 10-second ads were shown on the screen between videos shared by fans in the stadium from the Live Story. Snapchat stories gather more than 10 million views in 24 hours, making it an advantageous ad strategy for the NFL.
The league waited until week seven to run the ads because it wanted to establish a relationship with its fans before throwing ads at them. “The strategy is not to have advertising in the beginning, so you have time to understand what the audience is like,” a source close to a Snapchat Discover Partner comments. “Being able to establish reliable numbers to draw advertisers in with is important.”
Skittles has around $172.1 million worth of sales so far this year, and is ranked second amongst non-chocolate candy brands in the U.S. The candy brand is not new to the NFL. Marshawn Lynch has endorsed Skittles on commercials and many interviews.
According to New Orleans Saints Social Media Manager, Alex Restrepo, Snapchat provides that “personal” touch that other platforms cannot. There are so many options for the use of social media so teams should be socially conscious and strategic with how they utilize the platform to engage fans. In the Saints’ case, they started using Snapchat back in March in their game against the New England Patriots.
Kansas’s Strategic Communications Manager, Kyle Babson, believes that Snapchat delivers a unique content. “The beauty of Snapchat is you don’t have a gameplan for it.” It shows the raw life of sport players and their fans. It creates a dynamic connection between them as well.
It appears that the success of Snapchat’s sponsorship with Skittles and its Live Story feature in the NFL could be a reoccurring pattern in other professional sports advertising.