Custom Snapchat lenses have become incredibly popular for big advertisers, from movie release press to cosmetic companies to giant coffee retailer Starbucks. But prices can climb to $600,00 for single-day takeovers, and even up to $750,000 on holidays. Even so, large advertisers have been more than willing to pay, even purchasing days months in advance as popular days begin to fill up. What’s causing so much interest?

How does it work?

Snapchat

If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, it’s a mobile app that encourages users take selfies (pictures of themselves) or short videos, called ‘snapchats’. Once they take a snapchat they like, they can send it to other users that they’re connected to, who can view the snapchat twice, or publish it to their ‘story’, a public collection of snapchats that can be viewed many times for 24 hours. Other than taking a screenshot, there’s currently no way to save images received.

Lenses

One of the more fun features of Snapchat is the use of lenses. When taking a selfie, users can tap their face in the image and then choose from a variety of lenses, which add real time special effects and/or sounds to their image or video. Options include adding dog ears and tongue, heart eyes that ‘pop’ when a user opens their mouth, or even switching the faces of two users taking a picture together. Users can also add filters after they’ve taken the snapchat(like an overlay of the weather or time), and ‘geofilters’ (free, community-created, logo-less lenses) are available for some locations.

One of the newer developments allows companies to create their own lenses and purchase a slot for a day for Snapchat users to use their particular lens. These usually function as advertisements, displaying the brand name or movie name (most notably the Peanuts movie in fall 2015), and the effects in the lens are brand-specific (Urban Decay, a cosmetic brand, features lipstick-painted lips that would overlay the user’s). These single-day lenses are being sought after by advertisers, at incredibly high prices.

But why are advertisers so willing to pay for a lens that lasts only a day?

1. Snapchat is incredibly popular

As far as mobile apps goes, Snapchat is incredibly popular. Not only is Snapchat used by 100 to 200 million users daily, but the advertising lenses are often viewed millions of times by millions of users. The prices of lenses are going up but so are the views, making the advertising promise an economically viable purchasing choice for large companies. As the lens is used, users are essentially doing the work of advertising for the company, through sending direct snapchats or publishing snapchats to their story.

2. Snapchats can go viral

Along with the option to download an image or video before sending, users can also take screenshots of snapchats they receive, and in this way the images and videos can be shared on various social media platforms. This has allowed the use of particular lenses to go viral, raising the brand awareness without users feeling like they’re being bombarded by advertisements.

3. Celebrity Snapchats

Snapchat is not just for millions of nameless users - countless famous individuals, including 16 heads of state/government and celebrity personalities (notably Kim Kardashian), use Snapchat. Having a famous personality who’s followed by millions of users post a snapchat with a company’s custom lens can act as a seal of approval without the company spending extra for endorsements. As more advertisers realize the potential in custom Snapchat filters, we can expect to see custom lenses more often in the future.