What the UK & Ireland edition of Mashable on Snapchat Discover means for digital content & startups

by Startacus Admin

There is now a UK and Ireland edition of Mashable on Snapchat Discover. 

So what you may say! And that’s perhaps a fair comment.

However any doubts that this is just a pie-in-the-sky collaboration, marketing ploy and clever joint marketing campaign, should be immediately dismissed - this launch could be a further sign that traditional publishing and written digital content is under threat - words perhaps just don’t cut it any more.

The Snapchat / Snap and Mashable collaboration is a partnership that has been in testing for two years. In launching a full edition of Mashable on Snapchat discover, we have to ask what this might mean for digital content and more specifically how startups use digital content to reach relevant audiences. 

This article on Campaign goes some way to explaining the rationale behind Mashable’s Snapchat edition. 

"As one of Snapchat Discover's top performers worldwide, we're very interested in building local audiences," Gregory Gittrich, Chief Content Officer of Mashable is quoted as saying.  

"There are ten million daily Snapchatters in the UK and they represent a young, influential and very hard to reach audience."

Hard-to-reach is obviously the key here. Young people do not necessarily read content - they view it.

So whilst you may counter this by saying that the target customer demographic for your business is not necessarily young people, it’s important to remember that those young people will become older and their viewing and reading habits may not change. If, however your target audience actually is young adults and perhaps folk in their early to late 20’s, using sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram is evidently already very important for that all important reach and influence. 

Every business and startup that uses digital content to reach audience (and that is surely most businesses) will need to consider how they can adapt their marketing strategies to become more snappy, and certainly video and camera friendly.  

Not only is this a further minor pivot for Snapchat, but it’s also a sign that the future of digital content is visually focused. And with approx. 350 odd words written we will leave it at that - enough said!

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Published on: 22nd June 2017