Although the new brand profiles feature is only available to a select group of brands as a closed beta for now, it’s exciting to see the organic space opening up for brands to play in on Snapchat.

We’ve seen advertising on Snapchat deliver excellent cost efficiency for graduate attraction campaigns, and that’s not surprising given that 18-24 year olds’ use of Snapchat accounts for 74% of all minutes spent on the platform (source: ukom.uk.net). It’s also a platform that users check frequently, 68% of Snapchat users ages 18 to 29 say they use the app multiple times per day (source: omnicoreagency.com).

Brand Profiles have the promise of extending successes we’ve seen in advertising, into organic Snapchat content. Brand Profiles will provide a destination for candidates to find out more about an employer within Snapchat, and will encourage employers to communicate their employer brand in the language of Snaps (vertical video and imagery, combined with in-app features like text overlays and filters), increasing the relevancy of their messaging to a Snapchat audience.

For us, the most impactful feature of Brand Profiles is that they bypass the need for a user to add a brand as a friend to access the brand’s posts. In other words, employers will no longer need to drive people to add their profile as a friend to gain access to their branded content.

Brand Profiles are made up of four content areas:

HIGHLIGHTS

A brand’s bread and butter Snapchat content. Here, brands can share selected Snaps (vertical imagery and short-form video) permanently, without the content vanishing after a set amount of time.

We expect Snapchatters will use this space to get to know brands, or to learn more about them. Already you can see Ben & Jerry’s using this space to promote their values, notably their standpoint on Black Lives Matter.

STORY POSTS

Similar to Instagram or Facebook Stories, this space is for brands to share daily updates, up to 1 minute long. It’s best for timely content, like news and behind-the-scenes, as Snaps posted to your story expire after 24 hours.

We can see Talent Attraction teams and Employee Engagement teams running Snapchat Story takeovers on their company’s Brand Profile, bringing the company culture or a specific role to life. To win, these takeovers will have the authentic look and feel of Snaps shared by platform users, they’ll be fun, expressive and in the moment.

AR LENSES

Here brands can showcase augmented reality lenses they have made for Snapchat. These advanced filters track to a user’s face or surroundings, superimposing branded elements. It can be as simple as adding puppy ears to a face, or as complex as displaying a virtual full-size car in an empty parking space.

Employer brands have made use of AR lenses, and they’re jolly good fun. From using them to creatively showcase the individual brands within a brandhouse, through to changing perceptions of a dusty old industry, they can play a useful role in talent attraction.

NATIVE STORE

A shopify-powered store enabling purchases directly within the Snapchat app. Naturally, this feature’s less useful to employer brand.

Of course, Brand Profiles can be subscribed to – or followed – like a traditional social media channel, but we were happy to see that channel managers can also access the demographics and interests of people who view their stories. This means managers can see the audience make up of passing traffic, those users who visit your page and consume your content, but don’t choose to follow your account, perhaps because they got all the information they needed in a single visit.

We’ll be keeping a close eye out for Brand Pages launching to a wider audience outside of beta.