Snapchat is Sorry, Not Sory

Welcome to the wizarding world of Snapchat! You know those fun little filters, geotags and ads that appear when you swipe right? Well, you can  now customize them for special events. Everyone please give the Snapchat developers some snaps! This is going to be a game changer for so many in the industry. We literally can't wait to see what marketing comes forth with this ingenious idea!

The company is rolling out the new "on-demand" geofilter which allows people and businesses to pay for custom filters that will temporarily appear within the app. Magical! Though Snapchat has offered sponsored geofilters for some time, on-demand filters will cover much smaller geographic areas and will cost significantly less, with prices ranging from $5 to several thousand dollars--meaning us average Snapchat users can have a moment of glory we never thought we'd have! You can use the company's new online tool to experiment with prices and locations to make sure it fits your budget.

While a large number of Snapchat's geofilters have always been user-generated, the company's guidelines prevented businesses and people from creating specialized filters but is now finding that this is the market they need to move towards to continue to grow. Businesses and people will now be able to design their filter (Snapchat offers some templates for use and for inspiration), map out the specific area they want the filter to appear in, and for how long to ramp up marketing. Weddings, bar mitzvahs, the Olympics and Market Basket can all have geofilters now. Who would've thought? Now all of your Snapchat followers will know exactly where you are and what you are doing (if they didn't already).

Buyers have some flexibility in arranging the details, though the on-demand filters aren't nearly as far-reaching as the app's sponsored ones, which can sometimes cover the entire country, like the Black History Month geofilter for example. The on-demand geofilters can cover anywhere from 20,000 square feet (part of a city block) to 5,000,000 square feet (several city blocks) and can last for an hour or a month. The price will depend on both of those factors. I can't wait to be driving through Boston one day and end up with someone's 50th birthday geofilter. Or can you imagine one for the Bruins? How about one for your local high school? Or your favorite sushi restaurant? Can't wait for all of the fun to be had with these!

The on-demand filters are available now to users in the U.S., UK and Canada, and the company says it will roll the feature out to more locations soon. As with other user-generated geofilters, the new paid filters will require Snapchat's approval before they are pushed into the app. The company estimates that approval process should take about one business day. They are really on it! 100% smart to approve the geofilters prior to being used. We can see this taking a political turn real quick. Hopefully we are invited to some events soon where we can try this out! Or we may just even create one of our own. Keep an eye out for our geofilter and devour the details with the help of Snapchat at your next event!