The augmented reality’s interactive lenses on Snapchat social network as a tool for recruiting potential employees to commercial brands and expanding their target audience

The article has reviewed specific features of the application of all types of augmented reality lenses on Snapchat social network, which are used by commercial brands to expand their target audience and recruit potential employees. The author has delimitated and defined notions of ‘AR-stickers’, ‘AR-masks’, ‘AR-geofilters’, ‘AR- and MR-lenses’, ‘AR-bitmoji’, ‘AR-frendmoji’, as well as of the term ‘branded AR-stickers’.

The article argues that the main advantage of all of the aforementioned varieties of augmented reality lenses is ensuring consumers’ intercommunion with branded content primarily through the dark social channels, which for commercial companies are very difficult to access through traditional TTL tools. So, it is no wonder that AR-stickers, AR-masks, AR-geofilters, AR- and MR-lenses, AR-bitmoji and AR-frendmoji are getting more and more popularity on Snapchat every year and are also being used by companies to promote the distribution of goods and services, raising awareness of commercial brands and enhancing their image. The number of unique consumers, as well as the aggregatory time of their interaction with augmented reality lenses, which have been placed for just one day, are simply astounding and can sometimes be measured by decades.

Therefore, branded AR-stickers and AR-geofilters are now a popular promotional tool not only from a communication point of view but also from an economic point of view. With that, all types of brand’s AR-lenses for social networks are a cross-promotion tool.

Thanks to associations to the geolocation system, branded interactive AR-geofilters are more effective on Snapchat than other types of AR-lenses in terms of target groups’ segmentation. While AR-bitmoji and AR-frendmoji allow one to immediately identify brand fans because Snapchat users create personalized avatars with corporate attri­bu­tes or content. At the same time, AR-stickers, AR-masks, and MR-lenses are first and fo­remost AR-advergaming tools.

The empirical basis for the study encompassed AR-cases of the Snapchat social network itself and other commercial brands such as Goldman Sachs, Gatorade, JPMor­gan Chase, Taco Bell and The Game of Thrones.

Keywords: augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), AR-stickers, AR-masks, AR-geofilters, AR- and MR-lenses, AR-bitmoji, AR-friendmoji.

doi: 10.32403/0554-4866-2019-2-78-96-106