“A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.” – David Ogilvy

If Ogilvy is right, then Snapchat’s latest batch of ads is a masterpiece in the making. According to an article on Mashable:

Snapchat announced on Monday three new advertising offerings, including lenses that take advantage of the company’s efforts to move the feature beyond the user’s face. 

Snapchat helped pioneer lenses — computer-generated visuals that augment whatever a user is shooting through their smartphone’s camera — which have primarily been used for things that alter a user’s appearance, such as the famous puppy filter. 

More recently, Snapchat introduced “World Lenses” that can add digital objects to the surroundings. As of Monday, that technology is now available to advertisers in the form of “Sponsored World Lenses.”

Snapchat is also allowing advertisers to begin targeting specific audiences with lenses (advertisers previously had to buy nationwide takeovers). Snapchat is also working on trimming down the time needed to create a lens

Here are two examples shared by Mashable:

What can you take away from this? The first and last lesson you’ll ever need on effective advertising.

David Ogilvy will agree that most forms of advertising are not subtle. Ads interrupt us while we listen to the radio or Pandora or Spotify. We can’t get through more than 20 minutes of TV without a solid 5-10 minutes of ‘this product is all you need to be truly happy’. We have salesmen knocking on the front door to give a spiel about why their insect repellant is the best. We have kiosk employees at the mall aggressively chasing us down in hopes that we will buy their product. Whatever the case may be, advertising is annoying because ads distract us from what we actually want to be doing.

So what is Snapchat doing differently?

Snapchat has created advertisements which are so integrated with the app that people are not even aware that they are viewing advertisements. Not only do the new filters have fantastic visuals and use highly advanced technology to support the “World Lens”, but it is formatted just like the other filters on the app. The advertising is so subtle that most people will not even recognize it for what it is. It does not interrupt the user, and instead offers exciting new updates which can significantly heighten engagement.

The Moral of the Story

Simply put, the best forms of advertising are not loud or obvious. They are the small, subtle product placements which subconsciously inform the consumer. Instead of interrupting the target audience, these ads enhance their experience of their product.

Snapchat’s new advertisements, masquerading as updates, are some of the most innovative marketing concepts out there. We’ll place a bet they will be met with success.