Snapchat Celebrates International Friendship Day with First-Ever Global Integrated Campaign

To celebrate International Friendship Day today, Snapchat has launched its first-ever global integrated marketing campaign – 'Real friends'. The campaign was developed in-house by Snap Inc.’s internal creative team. The goal was simple: put a spotlight on the value and importance of the people who love you exactly the way you are.

A tease campaign highlighting quotes on friendship from luminaries and famous figures ran starting on July 15th across out of home, print media, music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, JioSaavn and Gaana.

This was followed by a first of its kind Instagram campaign that took place on July 29th. Snap partnered with dozens of 'Quotefluencers' to dominate popular hashtags #realfriends and #friendshipquotes without ever creating an account. The posts turned the hashtags yellow to spread Snap’s message of friendship.

Following the tease was the launch of the full campaign on July 30th, the United Nations’ International Day of Friendship, featuring the voices and real Snaps of real friends from across the world. The campaign is truly global, with friendship pairs selected from 12 countries including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Spain, UK, and the US.

Snap Inc. worked closely with its creative and production partner SpecialGuest, a communications and arts company based out of Brooklyn, NY to develop and produce the video creative.

SpecialGuest and Snap Inc. interviewed 313 real friend pairings — selected from over 5,000 Snapchatters — from 12 different countries. All real friends were asked each about who they were, how they met, and the many idiosyncrasies that make their respective friendships unique. 37 real friend pairs are reflected in the final campaign.

Upon launch, paid media will begin running across cinema, broadcast, print and digital channels in countries including the US, India, and Australia and continuing through the autumn in European markets.

Snap’s CMO Kenny Mitchell says: “Snapchat is for real friends, so today we’re launching a celebration of the friends who share, laugh, love and connect with each other using our platform. Featuring more than 70 Snapchatters from 12 different countries, ‘Real friends’ shares the stories behind real friendships around the world.”