If we have to pick some of human beings’ most valuable skills, one we cannot ignore is our ability to build upon our previous achievements. We stitch together the lessons from our various pursuits, therefore birthing something more significant than what we have ever seen before. This fact alone is responsible for some of the world’s greatest milestones, and that, of course, includes technology. From a distance, technology certainly appears as one solid creation capable of dealing with every imaginable aspect, but the reality is slightly different. When you look up close, you can observe how the creation actually functions on highly fragmented basis. Each one of its component is inspired by a different idea, and it shows up during the execution too. You see, often times, we mistake it as technology catering to our needs with whatever it has got in the tank, while there is only one concerned element running the show. A more concrete example of such a system can be found within the burgeoning advertising industry. Technology didn’t elevate advertising as much as refining our view of communications did. Now, it’s not to say the creation had no part in powering this fresh view into existence, but a lot of it happened on a granular level. Even after establishing a new meaning for communications, and consequentially, advertising, we continue to tinker with its core elements in a bid to discover better versions. By looking at Snapchat’s latest feature, it can be said that the approach has us in the right direction.
Snapchat is diversifying things big time on the advertising frontier with its new Multi-Format ad delivery system. The system allows you to bundle up varying formats into one ad set, thus enabling the user in terms of streamlining their advertising efforts and derive a better ROI. While Snapchat already deploys machine learning technology to gauge best ad inventory within the defined parameters like goal, target audience, format etc, it is also planning to launch self-serve augmented reality formats by 2022.
“We have made Multi-Format delivery as simple as an advertiser giving us creative assets for all ad products, optimizing against their goal, and delivering superior results,” said Peter Naylor, Snapchat’s vice president of sales.
The feature seems heavily motivated by Facebook and Google’s decision to lean more towards automated marketing, which does have its benefits, but they don’t come without a price. For instance, Snapchat’s Multi-Format delivery system will be maximizing your ad campaigns at an expense of user control; hence one can argue that we are putting too much power in technology’s hands. Nevertheless, for now, the upsides are outnumbering the drawbacks.