• by Aaron Baar , January 28, 2015

Content on the Internet may last forever in many cases, but AT&T is exploring a new mode of “ephemeral storytelling” with a new scripted series on Snapchat (where content is deleted after a short period of time) later this year. 

“Think about it like when Benny Goodman was on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’” Billy Parks, chief content officer at Astronauts Wanted, which is producing the series, tells Marketing Daily. “You watched it once, and then it was gone.”

The new show, SnapperHero, is the first scripted series for the platform (following AT&T’s reality entry from the past two years, @SummerBreak), telling a superhero story using real-time fan engagement for plot and character development. The brand has enlisted several social media influencers such as Anna Akana (Hello, My Name is Dorris), Freddie Wong (Video Game High School), Harley Morenstein (Epic Meal Time), Jasmeet Singh (JusReign) and Shaun McBride (Shonduras) to appear in the show. Corridor Digital (which has more than 3.2 million YouTube subscribers) will do the effects.

“We’re asking the audience to be co-creators on the show. These influencers are going to reach out to their fans, asking them what their powers will be,” Parks says. “It gives us an opportunity to tell a story on a new and exciting platform.”

The episodes will be built along Snapchat’s parameters, building episodes in 10-second increments that are “backed up” against each other to create one flowing story, Parks says. Episodes will begin with short recaps to catch viewers up, if they’ve missed part of the story. 

“We have some ideas about the structure for the story, but we have many different input points for the audience,” Parks says. “We have a loose structure, but there will be lots of opportunity for audience input.”

AT&T will promote the show with “Brought to you by AT&T” messaging and through behind-the-scenes videos on its social media channels. 

“This will give fans an insight into their influencers’ creative processes, and how mobile and mobility will play into that,” AT&T engagement marketing director Liz Nixon says. 

Building a story that doesn’t last can be a challenge, particularly if it doesn’t catch on right away, Parks says. (Thus the social media stars and their large followings.) But Snapchat’s high engagement rates make the prospect of trying something new hard to resist. (@SummerBreak, for instance, earned 60 million views over two seasons, as well as 30 million social engagements and 16 billion impressions.)

“@SummerBreak was interesting. At the end of the show we saw high engagement when influencers were using the channel,” Nixon says. “There’s a lot of growth with Snapchat and it’s an important place to be experimenting.”