Lane Bryant makes a splash on Sports Illustrated's Snapchat story for swimsuit edition
Retailer Lane Bryant is sponsoring Sports Illustrated?s Live Story on Snapchat to take advantage of the viral sensation following the announcement that a plus-size model had been chosen for the highly anticipated swimsuit edition.
Sports Illustrated took to Snapchat this week to celebrate the 2016 launch of its highly publicized swimsuit edition with a Live Story labeled Swimsuit Models in New York that features various models at promotional events. Advertisements for Lane Bryant appear with curvy model Ashley Graham throughout the story to further celebrate and tie the retailer's brand image to the news of her being featured on the publication's cover.
"Lane Bryant's Sports Illustrated sponsorship is a more authentic take on fashion and beauty today," said Matt Rednor, Founder and CEO of Decoded Advertising. "They are trying to break stereotype and redefine modern beauty by showing that it's not only unattainable super models that can look like they are having fun in bathing suits.
"Choosing Snapchat as a showcase for the campaign supports that too as content there is seen as more real and authentic versus Instagram that is carefully curated to show our highlights and fantasies," he said.
Snapchat celebration
Lane Bryant is attempting to get the hashtag #thisbody trending with the idea that women discuss what makes their bodies powerful and to celebrate all body types. The video ads showcase Ms. Graham posing for a photo shoot in Lane Bryant clothing while discussing what her body is meant for, along with the text #thisbody.
The campaign with Ms. Graham fits in well with this issue of Sports Illustrated as she has been selected as one of the cover models, which is being labeled a momentous occasion as she is considered to be a plus-size model, a large leap from Sports Illustrated?s past choices. The Live Story on Snapchat is giving users a look into what it is like from the model?s perspective and an inside look at various promotional events, such as the red carpet and closing bell ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange.
Social media promotion
The plus-sized brand also in the past rolled out a new social media campaign to celebrate equality for all body types, and is leveraging a photo application to stand out among the abundance of empowerment messaging (see more).
Schick also sponsored Sports Illustrated?s popular swimsuit issue and introduced a mobile-first campaign that targets both of the marketers' respective audiences (see more).
"Sponsoring a story is the most native way to integrate ads into Snapchat," Mr. Rednor said. "The ad unit is going to put the onus on the marketer to create content that feels organic to the story that it is being stitched together with now, or risk standing out for the wrong reasons and being ignored since it's easier to skip content on Snapchat than other platforms.
"The Lane Bryant ads feel a little too overly produced for the raw, run and gun feel of the native stories they're interrupting," he said.