Snapchat - Marriott x Snapchat

Snapchat - Marriott x Snapchat

After gaining notoriety as a means for sending inappropriate photos, Snapchat is quickly becoming a mainstream social platform for those under the age of 35, as ‘Generations Y and Z’ these days are communicating mainly in photos and videos - quickly and instantly.

The smartphone app allows users to send ‘Snaps’ – texts, photos and videos – to each other that appear for up to 10 seconds and then disappear.

The travel industry lends itself naturally to Snapchat due to the industry’s visual nature and the prevalence of sharing travel content.

Last year, Aer Lingus became the first (and to our knowledge still only) airline to create a presence on Snapchat, using Snapchat to promote a playful behind-thescenes view of the company, which earned the arline a nomination for Best Use of an Emerging Platform at the SimpliFlying

The first major hotel chain to experiment with Snapchat in order to reach and engage a younger audience is Marriott. Marriott chose four influencers who will create a two-way conversation with users about what cities the influencers to visit, while working with the Marriott brand during the visits.

For its influencers, Marriott turned to ‘Viner’ Brittany Furlan, ‘YouTubers’ Casey Neistat and Louis Cole, and Snapchatnative star Shaun McBride to share their hotel-stay adventures on the platform in a 3 month storytelling campaign. Neistat, for example, will go to Haiti to showcase the opening of Marriott’s new property there and explore the country’s recovery from the 2010 earthquake.

For more on SnapChat and travel brands see this article on Skift.