• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Snapchat has made several new announcements ahead of its NewFronts presentation Wednesday night, including the launch of a new location-specific brand campaign, AI campaign solutions, a plethora of advertising updates for brands and creators, and an in-person live music series.

Most notably, Snapchat is adding enhanced functionality to its newest ad product, Sponsored Snaps, which became the company's largest single-day reach product at the end of last year, delivering a 30% increase in reach on average in the U.S.

Since rolling out Sponsored Snaps with major brands like Wendy's last month, Snapchat is looking to expand targeting options for brands and creators running campaigns directly in users' chat inboxes.

Now, the company is rolling out “First Snap,” a first-impression single-day offering that delivers snaps in the chat feed.

These ads can open to a full-screen video, and result in a call-to-action from the advertiser, which the user can then participate in.

Eventually, Snap may allow users to chat directly with the advertiser through this form of Sponsored Snap.

Over the past year, Snap has made more of an effort to link its creator ecosystem with its ad business, most recently launching an Affiliate Program in an effort to compensate and educate advertisers, creators and publishers. As a new extension of Sponsored Snaps, the company has announced another way for creators and brands to connect.

Advertisers can now send a Sponsored Snap directly from a creator's handle to users in the chat feed.

The company says brands can use existing workflows to partner with a creator and send snaps directly to the chat.

Snapchat is also launching new AI-driven campaign solutions. “Smart Bidding,” for example, invites advertisers to set a target cost-per-action (CPA) they wish to achieve so that Snap's AI systems, which automatically adjust bids and budgets, can deliver a CPA “within a reasonable range of that bid.”

“Smart Budget” is another AI-powered tool that allows advertisers to automatically shift spend to the highest performing ad sets within a campaign to help maximize outcomes while reducing time spent on Ads Manager. This solution is currently in the alpha testing phase, but Snap says it is seeing “encouraging performance.”

Looking to compete with other social media platforms vying for emerging music-related content, Snapchat is also launching its own live music series, “Under the Ghost,” hosted at the company's studio in Santa Monica, California.

The series aims to connect music creators with both fans and brands by allowing advertisers to sponsor individual shows via full-funnel media packages, including Sponsored Snaps, creator content, Total Takeover placements and more.

And lastly, Snapchat is launching a new OOH brand campaign called “Say it in a Snap,” which will appear on various billboards across New York City, including in subway stations, Times Square, Citi Field, MSG, as well as JFK and LaGuardia airports.

In June, the company will be rolling out an additional B2B campaign across digital media channels such as podcasts.