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Warner Bros. teases new film with short snippet on Snapchat

Reflecting the growing opportunities to reach millennials with super short native engagements on mobile, Warner Bros. is showcasing its new film, Central Intelligence, on Snapchat with a quick teaser in the platform's Now This video news channel. 

Now This recaps the news in short videos, making a quick teaser ad a better fit than longer format ads. Users also have an option to natively view the full trailer. 

"With the short length of Snapchat videos it is important for advertisers to understand the model and be able to deliver a sequence of shorts that follow a path to give users a story about the advertised item," said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis. 

Millennials on mobile 
Warner Bros. freshened up the ad experience on Snapchat by launching the ad in the same week the official trailer dropped, but also gave users a short snippet to entice them to view more. Cognizant of the pull of short videos on mobile, Warner Bros. is hoping to attract potential fans through a hard-hitting comedic moment formatted in vertical, as Snapchat sees nine times more completion rates than horizontal video views. 

Central Intelligence is a new action comedy featuring well-known actors Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The first full trailer was released last week and Warner Bros. immediately took to Snapchat to make a lasting impression on millennials. 

The vertical video ad appears within the Now This Discover channel, which is focused on serving short news pieces through video and images and directly targets millennials.




The short videos are roughly 15 seconds long and show an eye-popping moment from the film such as Mr. Johnson appearing in a fat suit, while singing in the shower. 

The funny moments catch users? attentions and leave them wanting more, which Warner Bros. provides if they are interested. For instance, users can swipe up or click a small icon in the left hand corner of other slides for the full trailer. 

While the short advertisement clip appears vertical, once users complete the action to view the trailer in its entirety the format switches to a horizontal experience for better quality viewing. Consumers who are invested enough to complete an action to view more are likely to engage with and enjoy the horizontal experience for a higher performance experience. 

The film clips appear in various places within the Now This channel, such as when users first open it, as well as after multiple slides within it. The videos are paired with text related to the moment from the film. 

For instance, one clip reads ?are you ready to save the world,? and then shows a clip of Mr. Johnson?s character asking Mr. Hart?s character ?the bottom line, are you in or are you out.? The video will continue to play on a loop until the user completes an action such as swiping on the view more content from the Now This channel, or swiping up to view the entire trailer.


Small text at the bottom of the screen encourages users to swipe up the reads ?watch? with an arrow facing up above it. 

Snapchat socializing
The Hershey Company?s Reese?s brand similarly took over MTV?s Discover channel on Snapchat as part of its sponsorship of the Woodies awards, leveraging relevant new ads as well as a dedicated hashtag for the event (see more).

Also, Hollister Co. is sponsored Snapchat?s Spring Break live story with millennial-centric video snippets that play into a larger narrative, featuring two male friends trying to impress the same girl (see more).

"When users swipe up on the ad they can then deliver a longer dialogue for further detail," Ms. Troutman said. "Advertisers and users need to understand when they are creating a video spot for Snapchat there should be availability for breaks in the ad (story they are telling) allowing them to break up the ad into sections for the varying options."