A look at the landscape of messaging apps and how brands can make the most of them.

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Messaging apps & Brands
New opportunities to engage with consumers
June 2014
Confidential © 2014

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contents
§ Messaging Apps 101
§ What are they?
§ Why do they matter for brands?
§ Current landscape
§ How are brands using Messaging Apps?
§ Case Studies
§ Potential Applications
§ Considerations

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What are
messaging
apps?
• Primarily, they are one-to-one,
private communication tools
• They differ from social
networks, which are more of a
one-to-many, public
community.

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Why do they
matter for
brands?
• As consumers become more concerned with
their online privacy, the growth in mobile
messaging apps continues to grow quickly, in
particular among younger audiences–
representing a new opportunity to engage
consumers
• While teens and young adults lead the
growth, messaging apps aren’t limited to Gen
Y–growth is picking up among older users
as well.
• There is an opportunity for brands to
integrate themselves even more into
consumers’ mobile activity by using 1:1
communication platforms as an alternative
distribution channel and a way to deepen
their relationships with consumers.

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App
Brand
Friendliness
Global
Users
Demo
Largest
Presence
Chat
Video
Calling
Video
Message
Stickers
Media
Sharing
Gaming
Key Feature(s)
WhatsApp
★
450M
Brazil, UK, Europe,
Latin America
✓
✓
✓
✓
Large scale. Potential future ad
targeting opportunity (owned by
Facebook))
WeChat
★★★★★
355M
20-30
China
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
QR code and payment functions.
Pending integration of merchant
networks
LINE
★★★★
400M
Japan
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Partnership with Salesforce, has
a family of apps that range from
photo apps to gaming
Viber
★★★
280M
Japan
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Owned by Japan’s Rakuten.
ecommerce integration pending
Tango
★★★★
200M
18-44
China, Japan 30%
of users are US
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Mobile Ads, Partners with Spotify
and AOL
KakaoTalk
★★★
130M
South Korea
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
‘Plus Friend’ Brand Profiles
Kik
★★★★★
120M
Teens
Canada
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Web Browsing & Sharing
Linked to usernames not phone
numbers
FB Messenger
★★★
n/a
US
✓
✓
✓
1:1 customer service
Snapchat
★★★★
50M
US
✓
✓
✓
Ephemerality can help drive
urgency.
The messaging app landscape:
*Brand Friendliness is our way of rating how easily brands could integrate themselves into the existing platform

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How are brands using
Messaging Apps?

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Snapchat &
16 Handles:
Discounts and
coupons
What they did? 16 Handles, a frozen yogurt chain,
exchanged discount coupon codes for selfies of
customers and/or their friends eating 16 Handles
frozen yogurt.
What were the results? Within a few days, 1,400+
images were exchanged as 16 Handles built a user list
to which they could send future promotional material.
Why did it work? Froyo consumers and Snapchat users
are ubiquitous.The campaign tapped in to the existing
selfie insight and was easy to participate in. Coupon
snaps not only reward customers, they provide
incentive to bring them back for more.

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WeChat &
Burberry:
providing
exclusive access
What they did? Burberry gave followers virtual
VIP access to its London Fashion Week Women
swear show, along with personalized digital
versions, audio content explaining the inspiration
behind the collection and behind-the-scene
images, video and audio tracks from the show.
What were the results? WeChat allowed the
brand to deepen its relationship with consumers
and tell an interactive story they could share.

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Line &
The Walking dead:
Building awareness
What they did? Prior to its premiere,The Walking
Dead (TWD) released zombie stickers, allowing
fans to disseminate the apocalypse and building
hype for the show. After every show,TWD had
“On Air” sessions via Line, allowing the brand to
engage 1-on-1 with its consumers.
What were the results? More than 30,000 fans
attended the On Air sessions and the campaign
allowed the brand to gauge popularity of the
series’ storyline. Consumers were able to control
the path they wanted to take when talking to the
brand.

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Kik & One Direction:
Creating a
Community of
advocates
What they did: Knowing that Milennials spend
more time on messaging platforms and that they
use the apps to connect with people with common
interests, and interact and share content with their
Peers, One Direction and Sony Entertainment
created a content hub specific for their fans on Kik.
By downloading the “ID Kik Card”, fans were able to
access the band’s social platforms, exclusive photos
and videos, connect with other ID fans and
purchase the album to unlock even more exclusive
content all in one place.
What were the results:. In less than two months,
the One Direction Kik card had 1.6 million visits and
over 850,000 installations. Over 215,000 pieces of
content (not inclusive of chat messages) were
shared from fans around the world, and sales
thresholds increased significantly.

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Snapchat & Taco
Bell:
offer exclusive
reveals & perks
• What they did: Taco Bell exclusively
announced the return of the Beefy
Crunch Burrito.They used their other
social media channels to spread the
word of its Snapchat profile
• What were the results? They created
hype and awareness around the
product, since they were the first
major brand to use the Stories feature
- a series of eight photos and videos
that told the story of a group of
friends’ journey to the fast food chain.

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§ Creating a deeper and more meaningful brand story
§ Launching a new product to “insiders” and fans
§ Creating hype around a movie/TV premiere
§ Providing exclusive, behind-the-scenes access for advocates/influencers
§ Creating a content hub
§ Building awareness with stickers
§ Providing additional utility for consumers
§ Driving to app downloads
Key opportunity areas

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§ Who is your target and what are their current behaviors?
• Consumers can also be flighty when using apps, changing their app choice somewhat frequently.
• Their usage on apps varies too, so ensure the one you choose has the right capabilities that will make the
largest impact.
§ Where is your target? Which app are they currently on?
• App usage varies from country to country, be sure to not only consider where your target is, but which apps
are emerging in that country/area.
§ What do you want your user to do?
• Each app has different capabilities so depending on the user actions or goals you want, your app choice
should vary.
§ What do you want to measure?
• Most of the apps do have not engagement metrics or lack metrics completely.
Brand considerations before diving in:

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THANKS!
Questions? Thoughts?
Emily Canan, Social Strategist
Emily.Canan@iris-worldwide.com
Amy Brown, Social Strategy Director
Amy.Brown@iris-worldwide.com