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Seventeen?s new app features Aviary?s photo-editing tool for selfie addicts

Hearst Corporation?s Seventeen Magazine has released a mobile application to provide editorial content alongside a virtual photo booth, created by photo-editing app Aviary, to transforms ordinary selfies into magazine covers.

Fans can become Seventeen cover stars using Aviary?s custom stickers. By implementing this tool into the app, Seventeen fits in with its audience of young female consumers who are constantly taking selfies on their smartphones and sharing them.

"A younger, female audience is predominately leading the mobile photography craze, and Seventeen knew supporting these behaviors was a necessary component in its app,? said Carmel Hagen, vice president of brand strategy and revenue at Aviary, New York. ?Part of Seventeen's strategy was to give the app's users the ability to do creative things with their selfies and other pictures. 

?It's a great mechanism for audience engagement.?

Say cheese
Aviary?s tool is interchangeable, and Seventeen will be able to implement additional stickers depending on the campaigns it wishes to run.

Seventeen is currently using the photo booth to host a contest that requests user submissions of magazine cover creations using the September issue.


Being a brand that thrives on user generated content, Seventeen bases its content on the everyday activities of its audience, aiming to relate to their young age. 

The app serves as a convenient location to push editorial content along with offering a fun and social experience for users including selfies and photo filters.

The app is available for free download on iOS.

The Aviary platform powers fan-generated photo editing across a network of more than 7,000 apps, including the self-titled Aviary app, and was used to edit a whopping 10 billion photos in 2013.

Social photography
TV network Bravo?s pageant show Game of Crowns virtualized the experience for fans with Botox-inspired filters, jewelry stickers and false eyelashes on photo-editing mobile application Aviary. 

Brands of all genres, such as Sephora and Suave, have utilized the app to build a customized experience based on their own needs and target audience. Rather than centering on social media trends, such as hashtags or brand logos, and solely encouraging social activity among its users, Aviary?s strategy prioritizes brand engagement and the consumer experience (see story).

In February, Universal Pictures also leveraged Aviary to target a specific audience of younger females for its movie "Endless Love," and the campaign resulted in more than seven million engagements and more than 10,000 hours of total brand-engagement time.

The romantic drama particularly appealed to the segment of consumers who use photo-sharing apps, so Universal leveraged the Aviary app to hit the right audience. The app let users edit photos, and for this campaign users could add Endless Love themed stickers, frames and filters to their photos (see story).

Not all brands have the possibility to make their app last, but Seventeen is likely a brand with a fitting age group to rope in permanent downloads and constant usage of the app. 

?Brands introducing mobile apps must make a big splash to help their apps succeed in a crowded market,? Ms. Hagen said. ?Seventeen is already an established brand and can reach its readers through the Web site and magazine to encourage them to try the app. 

?Furthermore, they can use the app to deliver more editorial content."

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer, New York