NEW YORK, NY — Snapchat CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel urged publishers at the American Magazine Media Conference 2016 to aggressively expand into video content.
“There is a
huge appetite for this format,” Spiegel told the audience at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at the AMMC, which is run by MPA -- The Association of Magazine Media.
Ken Auletta, a staff writer for
The New Yorker, asked Spiegel how magazine media can grow consumer engagement. The Snapchat CEO stressed the growing desire for “visual storytelling” and creating an interactive
video version of a magazine.
But Spiegel also made it clear that it’s important for brands to remain true to themselves.
“The biggest challenge we’ve come up
against when working with folks is oftentimes people want to change their brand so it appeals to whatever they think a millennial is,” he said.
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Spiegel explained that publishers
don’t have to “dilute” their content to reach out to a younger audience, but should find a way to package their content in “a format that’s easier to access,” such
as video. He also explained that publishers can use Snapchat to reach a greater audience through partnerships with their Discover feature.
He gave the example of Vanity Fair partnering
with Snapchat to feature its coverage of the Oscars.
Spiegel said Snapchat intends to do take on more partnerships to produce different kinds of “video magazine products.”
Right now, Spiegel said the company has partnerships with about 20 publishers.
Just last week, the
International Business Times detailed how those partners-- which range from
128-year-old
National Geographic to 2-year-old
Fusion -- find Snapchat the best way to reach Millennials, with the app garnering video view counts that rival Facebook.
For
example, Cosmopolitan’s Snapchat Discover channel generated, on average, 19 million views per month, Poynter reports. Cosmopolitan.comgenerates 20 million unique visitors per
month, according to its Web site.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti has said views from Snapchat make up 21% of his company’s total traffic.
Some Discover publishers, like
Mashable, have formed specific teams dedicated solely to creating content for their brand’s Snapchat channels.
Reports indicate that Snapchat takes a 30% cut from ads sold by
publishers and a 50% cut when the ads are sold by its own team.