Snapchat announced its first global marketing campaign called “Real Friends” to showcase 70 Snapchatters from 12 countries and the backstories of their friendships. To introduce the campaign, the company released a 38-second teaser spot showing real snaps that best friends or partners have sent to each other as their voice-overs play in the background. 

“Real Friends” marks Snapchat’s first global integrated marketing campaign since the appointment of its first chief marketing officer, Kenny Mitchell, earlier this year. The campaign, which includes 26 additional 31-second video spots featuring friendship duos from all over the world, will extend to cinema, broadcast, print and digital in the US, Australia and India. The campaign will come to the UK, France, Germany and Spain later this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88RVU08_3SY

Ahead of the campaign launch, Snapchat tested the campaign for two weeks via out-of-home, print and streaming services with quotes on friendship from notable figures, Campaign Live reported. Messaging like, “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself,” will appear on Facebook and Twitter as a subtle swipe. 

Among the 5,000 Snapchat users across 12 countries selected to participate, Snapchat interviewed 313 best friend pairings and landed on the final 37 duos for the “Real Friends” campaign. Snapchat launched the integrated campaign just in time for the United Nations’ International Day of Friendship which falls on July 31.

In 2018, Snapchat introduced Friendship Profile, a place for images, videos and messages that friends have saved in Chat. Each Friendship Profile is only visible to the user and their friend on Snapchat.