Snapchat is urging advertisers to frame their video ads vertically rather than the traditional widescreen format, as consumers move toward mobile usage.
According to a report in AdWeek, the popular messaging app is encouraging marketers and media companies to shoot ads vertically, a clear departure from the common practice of using wide-angle landscape shots.
Snapchat notes that such videos are viewed to the end nine times more frequently than their horizontal counterparts.
“We’re starting to meet with the top creatives at agencies and CMOs, and in terms of education, shooting vertical is in that conversation,” a Snapchat rep told AdWeek.
Snapchat said the best-performing shows and ads are those that are shot vertically; ads are viewed to the end nine times more frequently than horizontal ones, it added.
AdWeek used the example of Cosmo, which refreshes its Snapchat channel daily and sells sponsorships to brands like Sperry and Victoria’s Secret.
The magazine often repurposes landscape-formatted video for its own content, which must run on other platforms, but it encourages the brands to shoot vertically with specially created commercials.