Real Friends — Snap Inc.’s first-ever global integrated marketing campaign — aimed to drive relevance, as well as raise awareness of Snapchat's core product value: communication between close friends. Through the voices of luminaries and over 70 Snapchatters from around the world, Real Friends put a spotlight on the value and importance of the people who love you exactly the way you are. Our goal for the social portion of the Real Friends campaign was to inspire millions of people through the words of luminaries — all while clearly articulating what Snapchat is and what it stands for.
As we scoured the world for arresting and powerful quotes on true friendship, we were often struck by their popularity on social media. And to mark the end of our "Words on Friendship" tease campaign, we partnered with over 70 of Instagram's most-followed quote/inspiration accounts (we call them "Quotefluencers") to post our "Words on Friendship" creative at the exact same time. At 9am on July 29th, 2019 — the day before the official launch of Real Friends — all of our partnered quotefluencers posted our creative to their respective Instagram accounts. In just a few minutes, the iconic Snapchat yellow and Ghost logo dominated the #RealFriends hashtag on a platform known for fans, influencers, and followers.
Moments after our coordinated #RealFriends takeover, the internet and media took notice. And while there was plenty of conversation around Snapchat's "taking over" of Instagram, the buzz rising to the top was about how Snapchat was making it clear what it stands for: real friendship. In total, we generated 10 million organic IG impressions while spending $0 in Instagram ad spend.
