Brands are already being forced to go extra miles for their advertising efforts, such as developing YouTube miniseries, which extend past traditional means of marketing. With the high expectations and low attention spans of younger generations, Snapchat?s call for creativity will require brands to respond to both.

"As Snapchat ads will be featured within the Stories section of the app, it leaves brands with more room to maneuver and get creative,? said Esha Shah, manager of mobile strategy and innovation at Fetch and resident Snapchat advertising expert, San Francisco. ?Since users are given the option to opt-in to receive ads, the content must be entertaining and engaging enough for users to want to receive it, and stay away from the old banner ad approach that is no longer effective. 

?The ad format is not limited to static advertising as the Story feature can use a combination of video, images, filters and anything else they think of, which is a proven method to gain more eye balls and longer engagement from today?s consumers. As the ads will be untargeted, companies focused on branding will likely be the first movers, following Taco Bell and Grub Hub, while targeted advertisements are more focused on driving actions and downloads." 

Snapchat?s user base in undoubtedly young and are often deterred from traditional banner ads that are disruptive.

While ads will generate revenue for Snapchat, they will need to be entertaining to attract its young demographic.

?Like all free services, Snapchat needs to monetize their platform,? said Sheryl Kingstone, director at Yankee Group, Toronto. ?It will be interesting to see how they compete with the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Google.

 

?What is interesting is their heritage in rich media communication such as video sharing,? she said. ?The key is to make it an art form. 

?While they say it won?t be fancy, it will be important to the brand to be able to create highly targeted ads in order to remain relevant to their customers or prospects and not blanket with generic messages. Personalization is incredibly important for mobile marketing. 

?We just hope they get to that quickly. We also have to understand the impact on the network as more businesses create more rich media advertising initiatives.?

Since ads will run on Stories or Our Stories, users will be able to skip the ads. It is sure that Snapchat will have to experiment with the display of ads to see what is best for its platform.

While native advertising seems like the best strategy, it is also convenient for Snapchat that its audience is prevalently younger. 

?We see a ton of success with native ads on Facebook and Twitter,? said Tony Vlismas, head of market strategy at Polar, Toronto. ?Pinterest and Tumblr got into the game, and it?s inevitable that Snapchat has its turn. 

?Since their user base skews younger, and this demo isn?t a fan of banner ads or other intrusive ads, Snapchat will have a leg up,? he said.

A Snapchat executive at the Mobile Marketing Association?s SM2 Innovation Summit said that communicating through content, rather than around it, has lent success to the mobile-first company that at the time shrugged at the question of implementing advertising. 

The Snapchat executive?s ?How Snapchat Changed the Way People Communicate? interview with a Mashable reporter looked at how conveniently mobile has created a space for a photo and video messaging app that rethinks traditional conversations. Snapchat executives plan to continue innovation that will provide experiences to its users that enhance the mobile world (see story).

A recent report that mobile photo-sharing application Snapchat has been in talks to begin serving ads to users has some mobile marketing experts scratching their heads.

Snapchat displays visual media for a few brief seconds and has been primarily favored by teenage users. Targeting ads to people in that environment presents numerous challenges for marketers seeking to get consumers to interact with their brands (see story). 

It is assumed that since ads will appear in users? Stories section, they will click on the ad. However, if users start to see ads that are not relevant to them, they may become less interested over time.

?Since Snapchat won?t be targeting the ads, I wonder how relevant it will be to the user,? Mr. Vlismas said. ?They might in fact find them to be intrusive, and with similar apps popping up, including features built right into iOS 8?s iMessage, users may look to alternatives. 

?Bravo to them for making the ads opt-in, which can counter users leaving for alternatives, but if too many users have it turned off and sponsors aren?t getting the impressions or engagement they want, Snapchat may choose to force the ads which may interfere with the experience.?