Advertisers can now buy their own slots on Snapchat Discover for a whole day
- Snap is now letting advertisers pay to place their own stories on Discover for a day at a time.
- The idea behind "Promoted Stories" is for advertisers to produce a custom collection of Snapchat-like content, and give it prime real estate on the app.
- HBO is the first sponsor, promoting shows like "Game of Thrones" and "Insecure."
Advertisers can now buy out their own branded slots on Snapchat Discover for a single day.
Starting on Black Friday, Snapchat will showcase "Promoted Stories," an ad placement which essentially allows marketers to build a Snapchat-esque collection of content that will run in the Discover section for 24 hours.
In fact, the new "Promoted Stories" will reside in the Discover section - with the paying advertisers receiving a 'tile' right alongside publishers that are Snapchat content partners. It'll look and feel just like Discover content from partners such as MTV and Cosmopolitan.
Snapchat is encouraging ad partners to make custom Snapchat content that mirrors what other Discover partners produce on a regular basis. Promoted Story partners can post three to ten "snaps" (full-screen images, videos, animations, etc.) that automatically advance after people click on the tile and ideally tell a complete story.
Given that millions of people check out Discover every day, this represents prime real estate for brands to pitch themselves.
On Friday, HBO is running the first Promoted Story, with a set of custom images promoting why people would be better off staying inside o Black Friday binging shows like "Game of Thrones," "Insecure" and "Westworld" as part of a free trial being offered by the pay TV network.
While Promoted Stories is a new formal product that will be available on a daily basis, it's not the first time Snapchat has sold a full day story-type unit to a single advertiser. Snapchat's first ad was a trailer for the horror movie Ouija that was given prominent placement on the app.
And back in 2005, the James Bond movie "Spectre" ran a full day story on Snapchat Discover.