August was a very busy month for my family. Between a vacation on an island in northern Michigan and visits to colleges in Ohio and Virginia, we put in some serious hours on road, air and over lakes. Out of all the means of travel, which included multiple car, plane, ferry and horse-drawn taxi rides, I was most apprehensive about a nine hour car trip with 2 teen girls. My worries were unfounded as they both immediately plugged in and seemed for the most part, entertaining themselves. With access to a charger, they were never at a loss for music or texting. While they still had data left, they were watching videos and checking their favorite social sites.
It was a quiet ride for us, the parents, we could actually talk or listen to our music. Quite the treat actually. Whenever we arrived at a rest stop, hotel, the airport or any other prominent location during our summer trips, the girls would exclaim with excitement, “ I got a new filter.” My girls were documenting their travel time through Snapchat with geofilters. Snapchat Inc., the favored social media app among teens and tweens, found a way to let users personalize their snaps with geofilters, a special location-based overlay. For example, if you snap a picture in Ohio, you’ll have access to different geofilters compared to if you were in Virginia. My college bound daughter was excited to snap herself with a pretty cool geofilter on the grounds of her first choice college. My tween was delighted with the airport’s cool vibe filter she used in a video.
Introduced more than a year ago, these digital stickers are being used on a million snaps a day. When Snapchat later announced that anyone can propose and design a geofilter in their hometown or place of interest, millions took up the challenge. All images must be original artwork and approved by Snapchat. What a cool way to get your tiny hometown, school, or local event on the map, right?
Beyond serving as a highly popular, free location bragging tool, Snapchat is hoping to turn geofilters into revenue by encouraging businesses to make their own filters — for a fee, of course. McDonald’s has already signed on, becoming the first corporation-sponsored geofilter. Stop in any restaurant in the U.S. and you can embellish your snap with a double cheeseburger and fries as well as other filter options. Snapchat and advertisers hope that geofilters will be an effective and less intrusive way to advertise. In a social world where we are bombarded with advertising at every click, isn’t a quirky, fun new way to look at advertising an unexpected treat.
