Snapchat debuts new ad formats allowing advertisers to post Promoted Stories in Stories tab and AR Trial Ads for placing interactive objects in a camera view
Asos and HBO trial new Snapchat promoted stories … Rebecca Stewart / The Drum : Asos and HBO first to experiment with Snapchat's branded Stories offering Garett Sloane / Ad Age : Snapchat Spends Black Friday Serving HBO Ads to Every User on its Service Todd Spangler / Variety : HBO's Black Friday Buy: A Snapchat Story Telling You to Stream Instead of Shop Mike Shields / Business Insider : Advertisers can now buy their own slots on Snapchat Discover for a whole day Tweets: @omarhuss : @TechCrunch “For the coveted youths age 13 to 24, Snap reaches 47 million people — supposedly 9 million more than Facebook and 15 million more than Instagram's feed.” http://techcrunch.com/... via @techcrunch See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This launch extends a playbook Snap has run since its 2016 rollout of Snap Ads Between Stories and the Ads API, which turned Snapchat's feed into programmable inventory. The [[a:872664|NYT's account of how Snap grew its ad business by persuading brands to test untested formats]] explains why Asos and HBO are the named first movers: Snap sells novelty to advertisers willing to experiment, then productizes what works.
The timing matters too — HBO's Black Friday buy, served to every user with a full-day Discover slot, is a stress test of whether broadcast-style reach buying works inside a Stories-native surface rather than a feed.
First-order effects
- Asos and HBO get first access to the Stories tab as branded real estate, while any advertiser can now guarantee a full day of Discover placement — a reach product that competes with TV-style upfront buys rather than auctioned feed ads.
Second-order effects
- Instagram and Facebook face pressure to match interactive camera placements, since AR Trial Ads put a try-the-product format directly in Snapchat's camera where rival platforms have no equivalent surface.
- Agencies that built workflows on Snap's 2016 Ads API gain two new purchasable units, shifting budget conversations from 'should we test Snapchat' to which of its formats earns renewal.
Third-order effects
- AR Trial Ads prefigure Snap's later ads inside Snappables AR games and the eventual extension of its ad platform beyond its own app via App Stories and the Snap Audience Network — a path toward the camera itself becoming standardized ad inventory.
- If Promoted Stories hold engagement, the Stories format stops being a product feature and becomes a cross-platform ad category, which is the logic behind Snap later sharing mid-roll Stories revenue with creators.
The trend: Snap is systematically converting every surface it owns — Stories tab, Discover, and the camera itself — into packaged ad inventory, using marquee brand trials to de-risk each new format before scaling it.