Snap Inc. has no chief marketing officer since 2023; until Grace Kao was promoted to the role earlier this year.
It faces a difficult balancing act: keeping the Snapchat flagship as true to its wild messaging roots as possible, but without losing control over advertisers who want to stay relevant to the elusive Gen-Z and ever-younger generations of users. In an interview, Kao says Mint how the California company is taking it forward as it launches its first ever Snapchat brand marketing campaign. Edited excerpts:
Q: Snap now has a CMO after several years. How were the first few months in this role?
I am attending a new employee orientation even though it has been 9-10 months for me in the organization (laughter). But in terms of campaigns, last year was less o social media, more about Snapchat. Now we clearly want to prove that we are different. Last year we said what we are not, this year we have to say what we are. I (Snap) wanted to have a new value proposition and come up with a new brand positioning.
Q: So what is the brand positioning you are aiming for? Especially since your rivals like Instagram have become synonymous with curated online personality.
We are the fastest and easiest way to connect. We have always been about connecting with family and friends. We’re also the only app that opens directly into the camera, and that makes all the difference. It shouldn’t be that hard to express yourself. We want to reconnect with the reason for using Snap. We celebrate the fact that we are different from other platforms.
Q: You’ve emphasized authenticity in your marketing. why is that?
We understand that you want to be flashed and in some cases even overpowered online platform. But you might want to connect, be silly, be yourself and not overdo it and be truly yourself. That’s where Snap comes in.
We’ve seen creators use their snapchat to test their ideas and then scale them to other platforms. We often joke that on other platforms you show your plate of food perfectly prepared and then on snapchat you show your plate of food when it’s done.
Q: How do you reach advertisers while emphasizing the authenticity of the app?
We’re working to get people to open Snapchat much more often. In the chat tab we offer more tabs like sponsored images. Creators can play a different role on this platform. From a branding perspective, this opens up more opportunities. The goal for us is to make brands look more authentic, not distracting. We see users on our platform talking about brands all the time.
We also offer other types of offers to advertisers. The map application is the second most used map application in the world. Even though they are apart, people now want to know where they are. This map is a utility where users can see “oh my friend is visiting Hawaii!”. It’s interesting to see that connection and authenticity go hand in hand. I won’t lie, I keep track of where my kids are.
Now we’ve launched a new product called Promoted Places — wow, you’re only five minutes from this restaurant, meet here! So we’re really seeing brands not getting in the way and actually bringing people together.
Q: How different or unique is the value proposition that Snap offers to users and brands in India?
India is one of our most important markets. It’s an incredibly creative market for us: 90% of our users here are 13-34 year olds. Here you see the huge Gen-Z audience.
Q: But there are concerns about the way Snap is being used, especially by younger people.
Snapchat is a very positive and authentic environment. It’s based on family and friends, it’s not a platform about followers, it’s about people who are close to you. Real friends are needed among Gen-Z. You don’t have to pretend to be someone else, you can see connections and conversations, it doesn’t just have to be one way. There are more two-way conversations on Snap than on any other platform.
