How To Cleverly Market on Messaging Apps? (from Mobrulers.com)

Last week media was abuzz with the news of Snapchat rejecting a bounty offer from Facebook for $3 Billion in cash. A 23 year old CEO with a 2 and half year company with no revenue welcomed mixed response. So what was Evan Spiegel’s motivation and conviction about the messaging app ecosystem that lead to this decision? Is the messaging app the new social network? Can messaging apps attract marketing dollars the way search and social networks do?

Here is a snapshot of the reach messaging apps have!

If you are are a marketer looking to milk the messaging apps ecosystem, here are some tested ways with cases to back:

• Sponsored Content – Stickers, Themes & Wallpapers

Messaging apps are private chat rooms where users are constantly trying to impress and outdo each other. Content that is remarkable will get the viral quotient and its for marketers to determine what and how. Stickers, themes & wallpapers -  branded or with relevant messages could get attention. Despicable Me (Universal Pictures) – with its funny Yellow Minions hit Facebook messenger which generated an incredible

•  Official Account & Engagement

While stickers could suit premium brands, brands with more transactional goals have an option to initiate personal conversation with branded official accounts. Starbucks, for instance, ran a campaign withWeChat, which has almost 250 Million users, with exclusive QR code that lets you add Starbucks as a contact; and then by sending an emoticon to consent to getting messages from the coffee retail chain. Line, another Asian messaging giant, with close to 240 Million users enables brands to send upto 30 messages per user for a fixed free of around $5000.

• App Download campaigns – Games Rule!

If you are a game developer, look no further as messaging apps might prove to be more cost effective than even ad networks. Whether it is the epic story of the game Costume Party, which used KiK as a launch platform and hit 1 Million downloads in 21 hours, or the story of Kakao Talk with 100 Million users., that generated an impressive $311 Million in the first half of 2013, through game downloads, it is clear that messaging apps as game download platforms are grossly understated.