The Snapchat strategy of The Economist
“We’re talking mainly to 14-17-year-olds, but we don’t dumb any of our content down.”
The Economist was founded in 1843. It’s a very long tradition that can be felt throughout all its articles and what it publishes.
This media, seen as serious and “adult” is currently having great success on Snapchat thanks to a strategy and an approach to content that was well thought out, leveraging the Discover section of the platform, the one that allows its users to discover new high-quality content and relevant publishers.
“Snapchat Discover has led to the single biggest step change in our readership since we were founded in 1843 – it’s extremely exciting for us to be put in front of an audience this age,” says Lucy Rohr, in charge of Snapchat at The Economist.
What they are doing extremely well, is to follow the path of a media that covers deep and important issues, but by adapting them to a 14 to 17 year-old audience, without oversimplifying or dumbing down the content.
I always like to keep an eye on what media and publishers (big or small) do. I fundamentally believe that there is something to learn, for brands, from the strategies that these organizations put in place. Let’s be honest, if there is one segment of the content industry that needs to use content tools and capabilities at peak level, it is the media. Brands will survive if they don’t use content to its full potential but the media, for them, it’s a whole other story.
To learn more about The Economist’s Snapchat Strategy, head over to Journalism.co.uk for a great article that recaps a recent talk by Lucy Rohr.