Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Mary Meeker: People don’t just tolerate Snapchat ads — they play with them

Snapchat’s face-distorting ads seem to be working.

Snapchat is fun — and so are its advertisements, says Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker.

Meeker shared her annual internet trends report on Wednesday at the Code Conference in Southern California, and among her (many) slides on the current state of the internet were a handful about Snapchat.

One slide in particular stood out: This one, about Snapchat’s sponsored lenses, an ad type that lets brands like Taco Bell or 20th Century Fox pay so users can distort their selfies by putting their face on a taco or transform into a character from “X-Men”:

These ads are growing in popularity, Meeker said, with Snapchat’s recent Taco Bell campaign for Cinco de Mayo generating 224 million views — 36 percent more views than a similar campaign from Gatorade during the Super Bowl.

This line also stands out: The average Snapchatter plays with a sponsored lens for 20 seconds.

You don’t often hear about users, especially teens, “playing” with advertisements. But they do on Snapchat. And that’s one reason brands are lining up to hand Snapchat their marketing dollars, and why Snapchat is telling investors it will be a billion-dollar company in 2017.

Full disclosure: I agree with Mary!

Our signature events sell out quickly. Sign up for our mailing list.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh