Credit: Snapchat
Impressions are not the same as attention.
That was the message from Snapchat at a recent Snap Champions session at Snap HQ, where the platform told agency professionals that platforms built for scrolling are producing a sea of sameness and running out of road with younger audiences.
Recent data from Fujifilm's latest Forecast Trends Report revealed 53% of Australians now scroll on their devices out of habit rather than genuine interest, with nearly half saying they retain very little of what they consume.
Snapchat's argument is that brands chasing reach on those platforms are increasingly buying impressions without engagement.
Snapchat's Senior Creative Strategist for Australia and New Zealand, Jess Gilliland, said the platform is built around the opposite behaviour to a typical feed.
“Snapchat really is a lean-in platform,” she said.
The app opens directly to the camera, content disappears rather than accumulates, and sharing defaults to private rather than public.
The average Australian user opens the app 40 times a day - not to broadcast, but to connect with friends and family. That depth of habitual engagement is what Snapchat says sets the stage for its attention formula, built across four key product areas: Chat, Camera, Content and Map.
Chat is where commerce, creators and community collide, and where brands become the conversation through Sponsored Snaps. Coupled with creator collabs, Sponsored Snaps sent via a creator deliver, on average, a 2.3 times higher open rate and almost two times higher click rate than the same content sent from a brand's own profile.
On Camera, users spend 15 seconds or more engaging with a branded AR lens - capturing five times more active attention than in-feed video - against a few seconds typical of other platforms' camera features, with 75% of users engaging with AR daily.
On Map, Promoted Places is being used to drive foot traffic, including a recent campaign with Coles that used 3D icons to highlight store locations.
Authenticity has become the deciding factor in creator partnerships - audiences can tell the difference between a genuine recommendation and a transactional one, and brands that treat creator deals as one-off activations are leaving impact on the table. It's a view shared by Snapchat creator and SSKIN co-founder Emilee Hembrow, who joined a panel at the Sydney session.
She pointed to campaigns that gave her true creative license, saying audiences respond better when a brand mention feels like an established part of a creator's life.
"As a brand owner, when I bring influencers into SSKIN and have them work with platforms like Snapchat, the long-term approach always works better," she said. “Long term builds that trust and shows the audience that they love the brand and use it all the time.”
Speaking at a Snap Champions session in Melbourne, renowned make-up artist and Snapchat Creator Nikkia Joy, said she has turned down deals that fall outside her values, describing her filter in simple terms.
"My authenticity filter could be described as, 'Would I recommend this to my mum?'" Joy said.
She pointed to overly scripted briefs as one of the biggest pitfalls in brand partnerships. "One of the biggest mistakes creators can make is following a scripted brief verbatim. Gen Z can immediately spot when something is branded and switch off."
Gilliland also pushed back on the idea that Gen Z is a single, uniform audience.
She pointed to a group she called “neo-hedonists”, people who prioritise fun and social experiences over long-term planning, that she put at about 40% of the Gen Z population, and said is often overlooked by broad youth targeting.
“There's always an audience somewhere,” she said.
Snap Champions is Snapchat's professional development program for agency staff from planner and buyer level through to directors. Building on last year's program, it is designed to help agency leaders understand changing media and consumer behaviour.
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