The National Football League (NFL) became the first sports league to have a presence on Snapchat’s “Discover” platform. The NFL and Snapchat first partnered in 2015, and more than 70 million people viewed Snapchat’s Live Stories of NFL games and events. This extended partnership will include Live Stories for every NFL game, 32 NFL geofilters for every NFL team, and offer opportunities for NFL advertising in the stories.
The NFL release stated: “The launch of the NFL on Discover will provide a key touch point to follow storylines throughout the week, and the expansion of Live Stories will provide fans with a unique perspective of the excitement in and around our stadiums at every game all season-long.” This seems to be the newest targeted advertising partnership to hone in on the NFL’s ever increasing popularity in the United States. Snapchat already has a variety of other Discover partners, including BuzzFeed, Vox Media, ESPN, and The Wall Street Journal. According to Snapchat, the Discover stories result in approximately “70 million unique viewers a month.”
The partnership will feature all 256 regular-season games, and the playoffs. However, it will most likely only include fan-capture footage and “behind-the-scenes” footage from the sidelines and players. Further, the NFL and Snapchat will sells ads to outsiders and split the profits. For Snapchat, the company will benefit much in terms of revenue and its attempt to break from being a simple messaging app for friends. For the NFL, this partnership offers the ability for the NFL to reach a younger, more tech savvy audience.