AEG Live And Snapchat Ink Deal for ‘Live Stories’
AEG Live, the world's second largest promoter and producer of many of the most successful festivals in the world, has cut a multi-year agreement with Snapchat whereby the hugely popular social media…
AEG Live, the world’s second largest promoter and producer of many of the most successful festivals in the world, has cut a multi-year agreement with Snapchat whereby the hugely popular social media site will cover AEG Live-affiliated festivals via Snapchat Live Stories.
Among the first festivals to be featured are the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif., New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Panorama in New York, Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., and FYF Fest in Los Angeles.
Under the terms of the deal, Snapchat will sell advertising around Live Stories at select festivals, which will create additional opportunities for brand partners to reach audiences through video ads interspersed between user-generated Snaps. According to the partners, demand from brands has been high to date, with AEG Live and Snapchat having sold all available Live Story inventory for 2016.
Malibu Rum is one example of a brand integrated into the Live Story festival coverage, with vertical video ads (Snapchat has remained vehement about the vertical orientation of its videos) featuring spots around the spirit running alongside Snapchatters’ content as part of the Hangout Festival Live Story. The campaign aligned the brand’s creative, hands in the air and festival-like music with the Stories’ theme, promoting the brand’s #BECAUSESUMMER campaign.
Live Stories allows Snapchatters to contribute their unique experiences at festivals through video and photo Snaps to one collective Story, straight from the people actually attending the event. A team at Snapchat then curates the thousands of submitted Snaps and repackages them into a brief video that can be broadcast globally on phones or other devices. The Stories covered to date have received tens of millions of views, according to a release that will announce the deal. Snapchat also creates custom festival-branded “geofilters” that can be added to Snaps, which are only available to attendees located within or near the festival grounds. At each festival, a variety of unique filters will be available for Snapchatters to engage with.
In a statement announcing the partnership, Andrew Klein, senior vice president, AEG Global Partnerships says the partnership is, “unlocking the capability for our concertgoers to not only share their favorite moments with their fellow attendees, but also with music fans around the world.”
“Partnering with AEG Live helps us capture thousands of unique perspectives from the event, allowing our community to dive in to the story and feel like they are actually there – from backstage to the front row,” adds Ben Schwerin, director of partnerships at Snapchat. “This deal also provides a great opportunity for brands to align with music content and reach our audience.”
Snapchat also unveiled a significant redesign in the last day that highlights its Discover tab, a collection of media brands which post digests of “snackable” content each day. Discover is invite-only — Warner Music Group was removed from the section last year, not long after its launch. Between Live Stories and the Discover tab the company has a double-cynlinder revenue engine, as the AEG Live deal illustrates.
A report released today by eMarketer predicts that Snapchat will surpass both Twitter and Pinterest’s user bases this year, hitting 58.6 million users.
Additional reporting by Andrew Flanagan.
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