Be a Platinum Event Sponsor for Under $100 with Snapchat Geofilters
By: Clayton Carroll
Tags: Snapchat, Social Media, Snapchat Marketing, Snapchat Geofilters, Digital Marketing

Has someone ever called and said, “We have a great opportunity for your business to be a gold, platinum or diamond medallion sponsor”?

Trade show or event sponsorships can range from $500 — $50,000.

They are normally great opportunities but there may be a less expensive way to get a similar amount of exposure with Snapchat Geofilters.

Article Summary

What are Snapchat Geofilters? Three business use cases where very little money resulted in massive exposure. How your business can create a custom geofilter for any event.

Snapchat Geofilters?

Snapchat is a phone only app that allows businesses to share photos or videos (more information on Snapchat here). Snapchat’s technology allows any user to overlay a design on a picture or video (Snapchat Geofilters).

Once a Snapchat user takes a picture or video, depending on their location, they swipe left or right on the screen to access all available filters.

Since I live in Holland, MI, I have access to several Holland / Lake Michigan inspired geofilters. These are not available in other locations because Snapchat tracks your location when using the app.

Those that follow me on Snapchat see this geofilter quite a bit:

There are community geofilters (like the one above) and custom business geofilters.

Business Snapchat Geofilters

Businesses can design and share to all Snapchat users custom geofilters with their logo / branding. If a user is in a location where a company’s geofilter is available, they can lay it overtop their photo or video and share to their followers.

By sharing to their followers, a Snapchat user advertised on behalf of a business.

These business geofilters cost money to publish (starts as low as $5) and Snapchat charges the business when a user shares the geofilter with their followers.

People Pay Attention to Snapchat Geofilters

Ads are very easy to ignore. This research suggests people can be exposed 3,000–20,000 times a day to different brand’s logos, messaging or advertising.

However, people really pay attention to whatever shows up in their Snapchat feed. Not only does Snapchat take up the whole screen but any content consumed (including ads) comes from a trusted source.

Meaning, the user will give Snapchat their complete attention and trust advertisements shared by someone they follow.

Three Events and Three Snapchat Geofilters with Big League Results

Event 1: Gary Vaynerchuk Book Launch Party in Austin, TX

Gary Vaynerchuk Snapchat Geofilters from different events

At an #AskGaryVee book launch party, Gary Vaynerchuk targeted the event’s location for five hours with his custom geofilter. Here were the results:

Filter uses: 176 (someone took a picture or video with the filter and shared it with their audience).

Views: 229,713 (number of Snapchat users that saw the filter)

Cost: $62.98

Event 2: Kanye West Pablo Popup Shop Event

At 21 different worldwide locations, Kanye West’s Pablo clothing stores opened simultaneously to sell his merchandise.

Alex Kehr placed a Snapchat Geofilter at a popup store in Los Angeles with his business’ name at the bottom and promoted the geofilter on reddit.com/r/kayne. These were the results:

Filter uses: 1,001 (someone took a picture or video with the filter and shared it with their audience).

Views: 214,257 (number of Snapchat users that saw the filter)

Cost: $15.33

Event 3: Tulip Time in Holland, MI

Dutch Dancing in downtown Holland

I live in Holland, MI which is nationally known for the Tulip Time Festival.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Holland from around the world.

A realtor put out several custom geofilters to promote his business during Tulip Time. This geofilter was put out four hours during the peak time of a parade and these were the results:

Filter uses: N/A (someone took a picture or video with the filter and shared it with their audience).

Views: 9,928 (number of Snapchat users that saw the filter)

Cost: $30.23

How Your Business Can Create and Share Custom Snapchat Geofilters

Find an event (or any place people will gather) to target with a Snapchat Geofilter. Develop an idea for a geofilter relevant to the event (if you were the user, what image would make you want to use the filter on your picture or video?). See two examples above. Find a designer on Fiverr.com (starts as low as $5) to design your custom geofilter or use your own designer. Make sure to include your company’s logo / branding. After creating a custom Snapchat Geofilter, login with your Snapchat account to their Geofilters section. Follow Snapchat’s four steps: Upload your filter, choose the date(s) and times the filter will be live, select the geographic area where the filter will be available and submit with your payment information.

Give it a try and let me know if it works!