It’s almost Fright Night again for everybody. What better way to celebrate the coming of Halloween than with the release of a couple of new Halloween-themed features! Snapchat has recently announced new ‘Spooky’ updates, including themed lenses, Bitmoji costumes, and an updated Snap Map display all to welcome October 31. Halloween is indeed a fun time dotted with sweets and surprises, but remember that it is also a well-celebrated occasion, meaning that marketing activity also sees a seasonal spike nearing the final week of October.
Oh Snap!(chat)
Want to get your scary on? Well say no more! As part of Snapchat’s Halloween haul, AR lenses is getting a couple of new themes. Besides offering fun new ways for users to capture Snaps, the new themes also promote Snap’s progressive brand content tools. Snapchat has also partnered with several brands, including Walmart and Home Depot, to produce a series of custom Hallowen lenses.
Among the various options, Walmarts actually offers a new Halloween costume AR experience in the form of Mars-Wrigley’s ‘Haunted House Portal’. The AR costume utilizes advanced 3D body tracking, meaning that the AR-generated image is able to accurately mimic the host’s real-life movements, allowing for some next-level engagement and immersion. Alternatively, Home Depot features a new 12-foot skeleton Lens.
The new augments to Lenses act as subconscious showcases of Snap’s evolving AR tools which, especially for brands, offer new levels of engagement in line with seasonal events and holidays (in this case Halloween). Snap will obviously use this for its future AR brand pitches, highlighting the potential of AR as a viable and efficient campaign tool.
Going on further, Snapchat has also partnered with various AR creators to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Frankenstein, coming up with a range of themed Lenses for the iconic monster and made available to the app. To add, Snapchat has also developed a new Werewolf Lens, utilizing its advanced ‘body mesh’ technology to give life to another, equally legendary creature.
To quote Snap:
“[Body mesh] applies personalized effects to the body that automatically fit each individual Snapchatter, while body morphing tech transforms a Snapchatter’s body into a specific character’s shape.”
Additional Halloween-themed Lenses from Snapchat also feature some of its other revolutionary AR formats, such as ‘upper garment segmentation’ and ‘world transformation’ which digitally alters upper body clothing and applies realistic changes to surrounding objects and environments respectively. Even if you isolate the Halloween factor, the technical prowess behind these AR effects say something about Snapchat’s dedication and credibility as being the leading platform for AR development and connectivity.
Lastly, Snap’s also adding a range of new Bitmoji costumes to dress up your in-app avatars, along with a complete ‘Spooky’ overhaul of the Snap Map.
The Wrap
With all these developments and the easing of COVID restrictions, Halloween this year looks to be a big celebration indeed. In fact, with the prospect of somewhat being able to go back to traditional approaches, it’s estimated that 77% of Snapchatters plan on using the app during Halloween, stamping the strategic value of this update – more enjoyment for users and more marketing opportunities for brands and businesses.
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