Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, introduced new ad products and opportunities at IAB’s NewFronts on May 3, after its weak first-quarter earnings led to a fall in the company’s stock. The announcements come at a time when the advertising rebound that had boosted Facebook during Q1 was not yet benefiting the wider social app ecosystem.
The company’s new President of Americas, Rob Wilk, and Chief Creative Officer, Colleen DeCourcy, spoke about the launch of My AI, a new artificial intelligence feature that allows Snap partners to place sponsored links in front of users.
The feature can suggest Lenses, Places from Snap Map, and soon will be able to send a generative Snap back to Snapchat+ subscribers, in addition to having text-based conversations with users. Snap has also started testing sponsored links in conversations with My AI that would connect users with partners relevant to their conversation. The company confirmed that it has begun testing the feature with a local restaurant and a food delivery app.
Snap also announced new ad slots, including the ability to reserve the first video ad seen in Snapchat’s Friend Stories and the ability to advertise within its TikTok-like Spotlight feature. Spotlight ads will initially be served as automatic placements with the service, and advertisers will be able to manage those via the Snapchat Ads Manager.
The company is opening up Spotlight to global advertisers, and Snap says it moderates Spotlight content before it reaches a wider audience, which reduces the chance that marketers’ content would appear alongside hate speech or any harmful content. In addition, Snap introduced a new takeover ad product called “First Story,” which lets advertisers reserve the first Snap Ad, the video ad slot between Friend Stories, that users would see.
These new ad products and opportunities provide Snap with the opportunity to drive revenue increases as it finds more places to insert ads into its mobile app.
The company saw its sales fall for the first time as a public company, despite a 15% year-over-year increase in Snapchat users to 383 million. By opening up new ad products to marketers, Snap hopes to boost its ad revenue and compete with other social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
