E! network?s new drama series The Royals is the first show to host its recap series right where its key demographic is spending much of its time, on Snapchat.  

The Royal Hangover, named after the show's continual partying theme, features images and music from the show, Twitter questions and answers and social media contests. Users may add the username theroyalsone on Snapchat, as the recap show is released on the mobile application's Stories feature, where viewers will see pictures and clips relative to the show in six-second bursts. 

"Fans of E!?s The Royals, lovingly called 'the Loyals' skews younger, primarily women aged 18-34, so Snapchat is a perfect platform where we can connect directly with the millennial audience that is so active there," said Erin Doyle, senior director of marketing at E! "Rather than do a large-scale production of a recap post-show, we hit upon the concept of a live post-show recap we could bring to our viewers where they already are--on Snapchat."

"E?s The Royals has already built a substantial fan base across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with passionate viewers who closely follow the series," she said. "We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for them find us and follow us on Snapchat. 

"That is why we employed the strategy of using Snapchat?s Snaptag functionality on the posts we placed across our other channels, which allows users to simply scan the code and instantly follow an account. With organic discoverability on Snapchat being slightly limited, cross-platform promotion helps to ensure our viewers will be able to find and enjoy The Royal Hangover on Snapchat each week."

This type of marketing is a small-scale, effective way for E! to connect to its demographic. It prompts engagement with multiple contests and creates a consistent image throughout all social media platforms. 

Cross-promoting the Snapchat series on other platforms is essential to the campaign's success. This allows the show to reach all possible potential viewers. 

Content featured in the Royal Hangover spans over all mobile platforms. Clips of songs are showcased in the Snapchat series, while an entire playlist of music from the series is featured on Spotify. 

A contest on Twitter, promoted through the Royal Hangover, plays into the demographic?s interest in emojis. The snap encourages users to leverage one of the chosen emojis in an image uploaded to Twitter, with the hashtag #TheRoyalHangover. 

Many of these posts will be shared on The Royals' official Twitter page, as well as posts from another contest prompting users to share favorite shirtless photos from the show.  

Snapchat is a platform marketers should pay attention to, especially any media brands. 

Other brands such as Sephora, Mountain Dew and March Madness are connecting to fans through their own Snapchat accounts while publications such as Vice, Cosmopolitan, ESPN and Comedy Central are leveraging the Discover feature of the application. 

For instance, Mountain Dew jumpstarted excitement for two new flavors of Mtn Dew Kickstart by using a real-time, consumer-driven Snapchat story, proving that the social messaging application continues to gain traction as a bridge to build personal connections between brands and customers (see more).

Also, while Twitter typically dominates social media marketing around live sports events, marketers for this year's NCAA March Madness tournament paid closer attention to Snapchat, as the mobile messaging application's standing continues to grow (see more). 

The popularity of brands using the photo-sharing app is growing, and it serves as a beneficial tool to take advantage of in the marketing world. The Royals sees the potential in this, and knows to continually drive awareness with a cross-promotion strategy. 

?Our ?Loyals? are already extremely passionate about the series,? Ms. Doyle said. ?They live-tweet along with us every Sunday when a new episode airs at 10/9c, and they spend Mondays on social media discussing the biggest moments from the previous episode. 

?With The Royal Hangover, our goal is to centralize this conversation and increase engagement on Twitter by intertwining our efforts on Snapchat and on Twitter,? she said. ?With the Royal Hangover, we are gamifying a traditional episodic recap so our fans can participate and present it in a way that feels fun, different and harness, and amplifies, the energy that is growing for the show across our social networks.?