It was already happening before the pandemic. And Snap, COVID accelerated its adoption almost overnight. Mastering social media is more than another tool of the marketing toolkit in retail. It's table-stakes.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
It was already happening before the pandemic. And Snap, COVID accelerated its adoption almost overnight. Mastering social media is more than another tool of the marketing toolkit in retail. It's table-stakes.
On this episode of The Voice of Retail, I'm joined by Sr. Paid Media Specialist at Groupe Dynamite Michael Regina and Snap's Retail Vertical Lead Matt Bolivar, who take us through both the evolution of social media in retail and dive deep into the strategy and tactics behind using Snap's powerful consumer engagement tools to reach and interact with their nine million Canadian active users.
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.
I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!
Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and the all new Conversations with CommerceNext podcast.
Last but not least, check out my new YouTube cooking show, Last Request Barbecue!
You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host, Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
It was already happening before the pandemic. And Snap, COVID accelerated its adoption almost overnight. Mastering social media is more than another tool in the marketing toolkit in retail. It's table-stakes. On this episode of The Voice of Retail, I'm joined by Senior Paid Media Specialist at Groupe Dynamite Michael Regina and Snap's Retail Vertical Lead Matt Bolivar, who will take us through both the evolution of social media and retail and dive deep into the strategy and tactics behind using Snap’s powerful consumer engagement tools to reach and interact with our nine million Canadian users.
Matt Bolivar 00:43
The celebration cycle is essentially what we call that full shopping journey on, on Snapchat. And, and what we're, what we're trying to do is help you know partners like Groupe Dynamite, and many other retailers meet Snapchatter’s in that early inspiration phase all the way down to that, that eventual purchase and then sharing that out with the community. So, it's a very unique piece of Snapchat’s platform being a communication tool and camera at the end of the day.
Michael LeBlanc 01:07
Interesting. Michael let's talk about Snap and Snapchat specifically in your social media strategy.
Let's listen in now. Matt? Michael, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you both doing today? Michael, you're in the beautiful city of Montreal, correct?
Michael Regina 01:23
Correct. I'm on the west part, western part of the islands. So, I'm enjoying the suburbs as best I can.
Michael LeBlanc 01:28
Alright, and Matt, I hear you're a Habs fan. So, I don't mean to call you out in public. But I thinking you live in Montreal. Where, where are we finding you today?
Matt Bolivar 01:35
I, I told you that in confidence. I definitely cheered for them during the playoffs last year after my, my lovely Toronto team got beaten out by them very graciously. But yes, in Toronto and loving it. That's for sure.
Michael LeBlanc 01:50
All right that, that's, that was the sequence. All right. Well, we will make sure the listeners understand. All right, once, once the Leafs are eliminated, it was all Habs.
All right. Well, listen both, both of you. Welcome to the podcast. Let's jump in by having you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your respective organization, what do you do for your respective organizations? Matt, let's start with you.
Matt Bolivar 02:10
For sure. Well, thank you, Michael. Thanks for having both of us. And certainly, thank you for, for having me today. I am excited to be here, and certainly an exciting time at Snap as well. So, like you, like you said, my name is Matt, I lead the retail business here for Snapchat, in Canada. I've been here for the better part of four years and, and owning retail and leading retail for the better part of the last three. That, what that kind of includes is essentially looking after our Omni channel, big box retailers as well as apparel retailers as well. Companies like Groupe Dynamite, like we have here today. And many others as we try to help them achieve their business objectives as well as media objectives that they set out before us.
And both Michael and Groupe Dynamite have been great partners of Snap over the last few years. So, I'm really excited to, to have both of us on, on today to highlight the amazing partnership that we've, that we've built together.
Michael LeBlanc 03:05
Yeah, fantastic. Michael, tell us about yourself looks like steeped in social media and all things digital marketing. But tell us more.
Michael Regina 03:12
Yeah, thank you. Yes, thank you, Michael for having me. Yes, I've, I've been doing this, I would say before there was even a name and a term for, for digital marketing, or digital promotion, since the late 90's. Essentially, building websites and marketing and promotion. Really got into the paid sphere of things as the platform's matured, and businesses started to, you know, take a marketing, digital marketing a lot more seriously. I've been only at Groupe Dynamic for about a year now. But I've had plenty of experiences working on the agency side working with large and small agencies across Canada and really love it in the retail sphere that I'm in right now.
Michael LeBlanc 03:53
Oh, fantastic. Matt, I've had the pleasure of talking to the other Matt, Matt McGowan, GM of Snap. Last year on the podcast but for the benefit of those maybe who didn't hear the that full length feature interview or know, you know, many would know of Snap but may not know of it's scope and scale. And just tell me about, tell me all about Snap.
Matt Bolivar 04:10
Well, I'm sure you heard from, from the other Matt, that first and foremost, Snap for those that might not know, we filed as a camera company and we continue to build, build our core proficiency and platform around that. Really, we, we believe that reinventing the camera represents that the really the greatest opportunity to improve how we live and how we communicate with each other as, as, as humans and as people. And, and really, we feel that we do that by helping people express themselves. Helping them live in the moment, learn more about the world around them and have fun together across many different utilities that are available within the platform from our Snap map that exists on the left-hand side of your, your action bar. Through our publisher and original content that's on Discover and even Spotlight which is a new platform for Snap. Where Snapchatters can create and watch the most popular snaps and pieces of creative that their, their community posts towards that side of the platform.
And what we've learned over the now 10 years, that Snapchat being, being a platform that people use every day is that really the community has, has bought in and is, is really enjoying what we're, what we're building in terms of utility. They're still visiting 30 times a day on the platform every single day. And,
Michael LeBlanc 05:37
30, 30 times a day. Just to be correct.
Matt Bolivar 05:40
Yes. Correct. Yes.
Michael LeBlanc 05:41
30, three, three, zero. Now how many Canadians are on subscribe. What would you describe as Snap affectinado. What's the size of your, let's say addressable audience for, for folks like Michael?
Matt Bolivar 05:52
Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. Globally, where Snap is still continuing to grow. We're at 306 million daily active users, that's people visiting the service every single day. And in Canada, specifically, we're over 9 million monthly Snapchatters here. And what might be interesting to, to the listeners today as well is that 75% of Snapchat’s audience, or 75% of Canada's population, 13 to 34, is on Snapchat today. And over half of the audience here in Canada is actually above the age of 25. So, we're seeing that gradual aging up.
Michael LeBlanc 06:26
Yeah.
Matt Bolivar 06:27
If you will of, of the audience.
Michael LeBlanc 06:29
And I imagine you saw like many platforms, an acceleration of some kind over the COVID era, there's a lot of use of social media. What, what, how did it impact your business? How did it, or actually the engagement with your platform, did you guys also come up with new features? Were they already in the works? Just tell me a little bit about, you know, the past 18 months and, and your whirlwind of a life?
Matt Bolivar 06:51
Yeah, absolutely. I think similar to probably the rest of you know, social and many other digital platforms that benefited from, from tailwinds of people having more time on their hands. We certainly saw increases in engagement across the platform. Namely, we saw, you know, increases in, in people reaching out to their friends and family through things like group chats, group calling features using lenses on, on group calls, and even spending time, more time with AR as well as part of their day. So, we've definitely seen some growth in some of the, the outer pieces of, of Snapchat that we've built years ahead or years before, sorry. And I would say to other areas that we've started to see pick up as the world starts to reopen is, is things like the Snap map as well. Other features now while maybe not being so prevalent in day to day over the course of lockdown, let's say are starting to really pick up pace that we've been investing in for, for years.
Michael LeBlanc 07:53
Michael, certainly my audience would know of, of Groupe Dynamite, as a retailer. But as is often the case they may not know the full scope and scale and all the details around the business. Tell us more about Groupe Dynamite, the banners, what you do, who your audiences are, and a little bit more of the business for the audience?
Michael Regina 08:15
Absolutely. So, Groupe Dynamite consists of two core banners, Dynamite and, and Garage. To combine, we have 300 retail locations across North America. And really, it's, it's splits right down the middle. So, our Garage banner is focused on the young adults, the 18's to 24's, heading to college, heading to university, perhaps starting a new job and caters to the, to that mindset. Dynamite caters to slightly older demographic, women between, you know 25 and 35. So, definitely more going to work, going out, going to weddings, these types of different activities. So, we've really catered to both across, across North America. And we're actually starting international shipping as well. So, this is pretty interesting. We've opened up the UK, and France and Australia for international shipping.
Michael LeBlanc 09:16
Right.
Michael Regina 09:17
Really what Dynamite, Groupe Dynamite does is try to cater to that mindset of women who really want to be independent. Want to have a mindset of their own, and really want to be creative. So, that's really the, the core essence of the banners, you be yourself, be you, be proud of who you are. And we really tried to make sure we get that messaging across.
Michael LeBlanc 09:44
And so, just from an eCommerce perspective, both sites are eCommerce enabled. Do they ship, you mentioned North America a couple times is it a North American business now? You said you decided to ship internationally and for your stores. I guess the predominance of those would be in shopping malls but are some standalone locations, right?
Michael Regina 10:02
We do have some standalone locations, we have a new pop up actually in Toronto, that's going to be ready early next month. So, this is in downtown Toronto, but they are predominantly in malls in North America. eComm does cater to, you know, coast to coast to coast for North America. And like I mentioned, just you know just introduced international shipping as well. So, we're pretty excited about that.
Michael LeBlanc 10:27
That's an exciting journey. And let's talk about and let's broaden the lens, so to speak. And let's talk about your social media strategy at a high level, you know, when I visit your site, lots of logos up there, it looks like you would have a very fulsome social media strategy. Of course, given your audience of a, of women from you know, 18 to 30, whatever that is, that's not a surprise.
But you know, just step back a little bit and talk about what role social media plays and where I'm trying to, to, you know, I often talk to marketers now and they they're starting to think about a transition, I don't know, maybe, maybe this was the case for, for Dynamite. The initially, social media kind of started as customer service. And then it became, hey, let's, let's get direct response involved. And then they became content and just talk about how social media fits broadly into the in the marketing strategy for you guys.
Michael Regina 11:16
You're absolutely right. So, historically, the Dynamite brands have been exactly that same journey from customer service to direct response to sales. And now we're starting, it's been more than a year now that we're starting to cater more to creating content that tells a story, being able to drive the essence of whatever story that is, into whatever catalog or, or drops, that we're selling at the present moment to make sure that there's actually a human sort of interaction with that. So, it's much less if at all, sale, sale, sale it's much more of telling a story, getting people inspired, getting people to really want to engage with us more than just once or twice purchase.
Michael LeBlanc 12:02
And, and I guess that's going to inform now, and in the future, the people you hire, because I, I talked to brands and, and they think about, and many would say that they're, you know doubling down their investment in, in social media, and they're starting to think about, you know, things like do I, do I get a, an individual dedicated per platform, and what kind of people do I hire? Do I hire storytellers? Like writers, like people, are you having some of those same thoughts and discussions within your four walls?
Michael Regina 12:30
Yes, essentially, to put it down? Yes. We, I've always been driven by numbers and data, where I'm seeing what's happening more and more is that storytelling aspect and getting into the gist of, of what type of story we want to tell. How we're going to tell it, what's it going to look like? In tandem with the day to day black and white of the numbers. So, yes, I am seeing that creativity, like sort of seep into what I'm doing on a daily basis and making sure that everything we do is.
Michael LeBlanc 13:02
Yeah.
Michael Regina 13:02
It makes sense to the customer, it makes sense to, to for us as a brand to move forward with.
Michael LeBlanc 13:07
And I guess it makes sense for the platform, so Matt talk about that a bit, you're at the full, the fulcrum of the focal point of hearing from a lot of retails’ use of your platform. And you know, each platform has got its own idiosyncratic elements to it. And, and some things work better in some programs or some platforms. Talk about that what you're hearing, you know, from a, from a used perspective, from retailers and from consumers and, and how you're thinking about, you know, how you thinking about your platform, about Snap in the, in the post COVID customer journey, which has probably been changed in ways we don't quite yet understand. But what are you hearing?
Matt Bolivar 13:44
Yeah, absolutely. And we're definitely seeing a huge shift over the last couple years, I think a lot of this has to do with the lockdown in place and, and maybe consumer behaviors having to, to adapt along with not being able to, to shop in store, I think a focus of Snaps, specifically has been really helping meet the consumer. So, the Snapchatter, to where they're at, essentially to help them shop when and where they would want to whether that's through an organic channel, by a brand profile, or by seeing some of the amazing stories that Groupe Dynamite might be putting together to talk about a drop that's coming up through paid mediums. We focused on building tools that can just help drive that efficiency and lower the barrier between consideration to the actual purchase itself.
When it comes to, when it comes to actual new adoptions in behavior. Something very interesting that we're seeing from Snapchatters is a growth in AR and AR being a commerce tool. Since the pandemic, we've heard from Snapchatters that they're actually three times more likely to use AR try on, try on things like shoes, jackets, pants, etc., using the camera and inverse and along with that we've heard from, from our retail partners that have, that have tapped into these types of experiences, they're, they're seeing 20% decreases in return rates as well.
Michael LeBlanc 13:59
Oh wow.
Matt Bolivar 14:08
It's speaking to the confidence, not only in, in AR's capabilities, but also just the confidence that they feel in a product when seeing it through, through the camera that they have in their pocket itself. But I would say the, the celebration cycle is essentially what we call that full shopping journey on, on Snapchat. And, and what we're, what we're trying to do is help, you know, partners, like Groupe Dynamite, and many other retailers meet Snapchatters in that early inspiration phase, all the way down to that that eventual purchase, and then sharing that out with the community. So, it's a very unique piece of Snapchat’s platform being a communication tool and camera at the end of the day.
Michael LeBlanc 15:46
Interesting. Michael, let's talk about Snap, and Snapchat, specifically in your social media strategy. I Imagine, you know, I imagine a whiteboard virtual or real, where you've got, you know, here's the social media strategy, and let's talk about Snap. What do you do different to unique or custom? Or do you approach it differently? Talk just unpack that a little bit for us. You know, Matt's talking about some of the unique features. Are those the things you take advantage of it? Why do you have, why do you use snap? And what do you do, if anything different with it?
Michael Regina 16:16
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. So, like I said, I'm, I'm deep into the data on a regular basis. And we're looking at, you know, our customer, and we're looking at her as when we split it out between two banners. We're looking at her, you know, as, as a human being and saying, ‘Okay what, what are they what is she doing on a daily basis? Where is she spending a lot of her time? Where is she spending a lot of her downtime, or second screen time? You know, when she's on the go’, of course, COVID, notwithstanding.
Michael LeBlanc 16:43
Yeah.
Michael Regina 16:43
So, we took a look at, at Snap as really something that we know, our Garage banner would be really heavily influenced by, and our Dynamite Banner as well, it's been a really, really great surprise that when we do some, we mirror some activities on Dynamite, that we've done on Garage, we see some great responses as well.
But we've done things like story ads, or collection ads, very fairly standard stuff, but what we've managed to do is to drive a lot of this newness, towards the customer with story ads, where we tell them, hey, we have a new drop, this is a this is a great new thing. This is, this is how it looks. Why don't you come check us out, this type of thing. And we find that, that, that newness is really what drives customers to you know swipe and, and, and, and take a look at the ad and then visit us and, and potentially purchase. So, that's, that's really where we look at, okay, where can we, where can we maximize the, the eyeballs in the right place at the right time. Be disruptive, but not too disruptive. Make sure that we're in the flow of what, what her day to day is. And we know she spends a lot of time on Snap. So, that's where we were we leveraged that.
Michael LeBlanc 17:54
Matt, Mike was doing a great job of kind of laying out the strategy. Talk to us and the listeners, and not all of whom may have the same audience or the same, it'd be in the same category. But let's assume the retailer's, what's the playbook here?
Matt Bolivar 18:07
In terms of best practices on Snap, and how retailers broadly can see success, I think maybe they may not be in the same space as Groupe Dynamite. But I think Groupe Dynamite is a, is a shining example of, of a lot of what we would say are, would be best practices to approaching the platform. But I would say you know, thinking about vertical video, like Michael is saying around storytelling and telling you the brand story or the story behind a particular drop or creating excitement, or even just educating on certain features and benefits of a product. The Snapchat audience in particular, finds vertical video more personalized to them, and they also find it more immersive. And if research that, that we've done also finds that the Snapchat generation picks up on things like brand awareness and messaging in, in video creative a lot faster than some of the older generations, maybe.
Michael LeBlanc 19:02
You know when you're saying vertical, when you are saying vertical video are you meaning literally vertical video is that or is that a, a format? Talk about, talk about that feature a bit more.
Matt Bolivar 19:11
Absolutely. So, vertical video being the, the way that, A) the video is cut, but, B) It is how it is also consumed. And so, understanding that Snapchat itself is a, is a vertical platform in that when you hold your phone.
Michael LeBlanc 19:25
Right.
Matt Bolivar 19:25
And you visit the, the platform itself, that's the, the best and main way that you engage with it.
Michael LeBlanc 19:31
Consume it. Right on, I am on it now.
Matt Bolivar 19:32
Right. That's right, Exactly.
Michael LeBlanc 19:33
I'm on it now, yeah
Matt Bolivar 19:35
Yeah. So, now when so, the best way to approach the, the audiences would be taking that into, into account and, and natively having that, that video cut in a way that is that fits the plat the platform best, essentially.
Michael LeBlanc 19:48
Now you talk about natively kind of a marketing term. So, you know for those less steeped in native versus paid. Are there, are there paid promotional opportunities that can be leveraged in your product? And where and how do you envision directly, if you do, connecting commerce with your platform?
Matt Bolivar 20:06
Yes, absolutely. There are from a paid perspective, that's definitely where Michael, Groupe Dynamite and myself, partner, partner best together and partner really well. right now. We have many different formats from content to camera collection ads and story ads are two of the formats that Groupe Dynamite has seen success with.
We have a few more, but forced view video commercials, as well as Snap ads that, that can drive results up and down the funnel for, for a business. And then we also have paid, paid promotions as well available within the camera, creating essentially post photo or post video overlays. Those are our filter products. And then augmented reality is at the core of the business. Talking about that a little bit earlier, you can have those sponsored opportunities there as well.
And, and from a native side, you're definitely seeing an evolution in that area. Right now, you can have a Shopify feed connected to your brand's profile that can, that can live on, on the platform itself, and likely to be more innovations coming in that area soon, too.
Michael LeBlanc 21:09
All right, Michael, big question. Tough question. Imagine a world where I took Snap away from you. You can't have it, it's not yours, it's gone, how would you react? What, how would it impact your overall strategy? It's, it's, it's unique, how would you, could you refigure? Could you claim it in a different way? Or how, how do you think about that?
Michael Regina 21:29
Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely unique. And, you know, one of the, it, it, it's really one of the, the benchmarks, and one of the, what I am trying to say? One of the pillars of, of a marketing tools, right. So, I think we would definitely be at a loss if we weren't able to leverage Snap, or just, you know, cease to exist.
Michael LeBlanc 21:49
Yeah.
Michael Regina 21:49
Mainly because of the sheer volume, like Matt was saying, you know, lots of, lots of activations, lots of views per day.
Michael Regina 21:56
Lots of clicking, so that activation and, and especially a lot of the work we do organically as well, with our influencers with, with our team or our organic team as well. So, something that we don't put money behind, but it's just to generate content, to generate buzz and to really engage with, with the audience. If all of that went away, I think we could definitely, definitely would be on a less firmer ground in terms of our digital marketing and, and we'd be poor for it.
Michael LeBlanc 22:24
Yeah. There's a good testament for the product. And let me, let me chase one thing up pull on one thread you mentioned there influencers. So, tell me about how influencers connect into your social media and into Snap? So, is that a, is that a fulsome part? Is that an ancillary? Like I guess I, I would see it in my mind is; A) you create content, B) you work with influencers who create content, with or former in conjunction, and then, 3) there’s paid and, you know, promotional elements. Is that the way you think of it as well, he's kind of, you know, the trica of, of three opportunities.
Michael Regina 22:57
Yeah, and you but you're missing one, you're missing the surprise element. And when I say surprise, I mean, our organic team regularly monitors, you know, our hashtags, our mentions any, any availability, anything that we can do to track the brand on the platform. And there are occasions where just general consumers who are fans of our product will tag us, will mention us, and this will go quote, unquote, viral for whatever reason it is. And so those are very happy surprises. When I get an email saying, Hey, we saw a spike, I think it on from Snap, can you find out please, and I go into and dig, and we find it. So, that's the fourth element that, that you didn't mention.
But all in all, those four really come together to drive a really great brand opportunity where we're not just pushing sale, sale, sale, buy, buy, buy. We're pushing really sort of a community, a place for people to come and explore and share their love of the product, and but also to hear from some of these influencers. And we do have, we have open calls for influencers, people can, can sign up and register to become one. And, you know, it's, it's, it's great fun for everyone involved. And, and, yeah, I think it's a it's a great opportunity. And it's, it's working wonderful on the platform.
Michael LeBlanc 24:13
Well, it's the new world of marketing, we all imagined in our marketing roles, that the ability to do this, but sometimes we just lacked the proper platform. So, last words to you, Matt, you know, as folks have been listening to this, and I can put all kinds of links into the show notes. Where would you know, listeners go if they know less and want to learn more after this about, about Snap and you know case studies to tips, tricks, tools, and how do they get in touch with you?
Matt Bolivar 24:38
Absolutely. Thanks, Michael. If anybody listening today is looking to, to learn more about Snap. The easiest way to, to find out more is to go to forbusiness.snapchat.com. There you'll find a ton of case study material, success stories, more links to our ad formats. And it'll give you a pretty, pretty good digest on what Snapchat is doing as of late in the paid media and advertising world. And then if you would like to explore some options with you know, the holiday season, the holiday season right now is on top of all of our minds, you can reach out to myself at mattbolivar@snap.com that's m a t t b o l i v a r @snap.com. And we're excited to hear from you. And thank you again, Michael, for, for taking or letting us take the time to connect with you today.
Michael LeBlanc 25:26
Yeah, you know, it was a great discussion. And I'll put all those links into the show notes so for our folks can just go into the show notes and click on them and get in touch at.
Michael, Matt, thanks so much for joining me on The Voice of Retail it's a great discussion, very timely. It's certainly I have a lot of questions. When I, I talked to retail leaders from across Canada, they all say the same thing, ‘More not less into social media’. More measurement, though. More strategy and it sounds like the both of you are doing a fantastic job. So, you really put on a, a masterclass here, so thank you both for taking the time out of your day to chat with me on The Voice of Retail.
Michael Regina 26:05
Thanks Michael.
Matt Bolivar 26:05
Thanks Michael.
Matt Bolivar 26:06
Thanks for tuning into today's episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure and follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you enjoy podcasts. So, you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps us grow so that we continue to get amazing guests onto the show.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. And if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website at meleblanc.co.
Until next time, stay safe. Have a great week.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Snap, Groupe, platform, Dynamite, Michael, Matt, retail, people, audience, hear, Snapchat, starting, social media, international shipping, business, absolutely, talk, brand, tool, banners