Snap Inc. (SNAP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone, to the Snap Partner Summit, we find ourselves together in a new world, still yet to be defined. And amidst the many challenges we face, including the global pandemic and the scourge of racial violence and injustice. We all share a desire to uplift our global community through the love we have for one another. Thank you all for being together with us today. Even though we can't be here in person, we wanted to celebrate our partners and all of the amazing work you have been doing. We've got a lot of fun stuff to share with you today, including a few surprises. But before we get started, we wanted to share a bit more about how our community is using Snapchat during this time. So we asked Snapchatters if they'd be willing to talk about their experience. [Presentation]

We have been so impressed by the way our partners have supported the Snapchat community. Working hard to create timely, accurate content, providing resources for those who need help and finding innovative ways to entertain people. It's clear how deeply you all care about making a difference, and we are so grateful to partner with all of you. We know this is a difficult and uncertain time so we've rolled out new products and features to support the well-being of Snapchatters. We want to make a positive difference. Close friendships are the first-line of defense during times of stress, anxiety and depression. So Snapchat has an important role to play. We launched here for you, a feature that provides expert resources when Snapchatters search topics related to their emotional and physical well-being. Our initial partners include organizations like Crisis Text Line, Active Minds, The Samaritans, Young Minds, and The National Network to End Domestic Violence. We also introduced our first Snap original focused on mental health. Over 12 million Snapchatters watched Mind Yourself, which offered an honest look at 10 young people and their journey with mental health. Today, we're announcing a new partnership with Headspace, the global leader in meditation and well-being. Soon, directly in Snapchat, Headspace will offer meditations and tools that help Snapchatters check in with their friends and family and stay healthy. And none of this would be possible without your partnership. The Snapchat community is bigger now than it's ever been, over 229 million daily active users on average in the first quarter of this year, reaching over 100 million people in the U.S. alone. And based on publicly available data, we reach more people in the U.S. than Twitter and TikTok combines. And in Q1, we reached more 13 to 34 year olds in the U.S. than Facebook or Instagram. We're seeing strong growth around the world in places like the U.K., France, Canada and Australia. And we're growing even faster in markets like India, where we've seen over 120% growth in daily active users over the past year. We are so inspired to be a part of the Snapchat generation. We want to create a better future. We care deeply about health and well-being. We make the time to invest in our real friendships. And Snapchatters are 50% more likely to do community service than non-Snapchatters. So thank you all for helping out. It's an honor to serve the Snapchat community. We've made it easier to navigate Snapchat with our new action bar. The action bar provides top-level navigation so you can get all of your favorite things in one tap. It changes contextually based on what you're doing or watching. And this makes it easier to access the Snap Map, which already reaches more than 200 million people every month. In an effort to help out local businesses, we're rolling out places on the Snap Map, highlighting places that are popular with our community and easily allowing the places we love to let people know that they are open for business. The place listing feature stories, hours, reviews and delivery options through Postmates, DoorDash and Uber Eats. We're also offering a new easy-to-use interface in ad manager and free ad credits for local businesses to get started. Around the world, more people are beginning to venture from their homes and safely reenter the community. In Oslo, mobility dipped during quarantine, but people were out and about by April. And in Paris, Snapchatters sheltered in place, but in recent weeks, mobility bounced back to near-normal levels as restrictions were relaxed. Whether you're out and about or watching from home, the new action bar also makes it easier to access premium content on Snapchat. Time spent watching shows has more than doubled year-over-year in Q1 with more than 60 shows reaching monthly audiences of over 10 million viewers. And of course, we're continuing to evolve Our Stories product. Our community creates over 4 billion Snaps every day. And contributes over 3 million Snaps per day to Our Story to share their perspective with the broader community. We're rolling out topic stickers to help people build communities around things that they love. Submit your Snap to a community topic and use topic pages to explore Snaps based on what you care about most. We've also made it easier for Snap Stars to build relationships with their community using Story Replies. Story Replies allows subscribers to send private messages and have conversations with the Snap Stars they follow. We filter for bullying, hate speech and other unwanted content so that Snap Stars feel the love from their fans without nasty surprises. Of course, none of this would be possible without the creativity of our community, and it all starts in our camera. To share more about our augmented reality platform, I'd like to introduce my dear friend and Snap Co-Founder, Bobby Murphy.

Thanks, Evan. Cameras are powerful tools capable of far more than documenting special moments. They're becoming faster and smarter, unlocking new ways to retrieve information and display content. And through augmented reality, cameras give us a way to render digital experiences in the most natural way possible, directly out in the world. Today, on Snapchat, augmented reality isn't just an experiment. Over 170 million Snapchatters engaged with AR daily, nearly 30 times every day. The most innovative companies, creators and developers are building augmented reality experiences for the Snapchat community that stretch our imagination. And in the process, they're shaping how we experience the world around us. Let's take a look at what you created over the past year. [Presentation]

Snapchatters can find these and thousands more in Lens Explorer, our library of community and Snap made lenses. Now check out our new category of music lenses so you can always find the perfect song to express yourself and send a friends in a Snap. [Presentation]

We are in awe of the augmented reality experiences you've created for Snapchat, and they all start with Lens Studio. Nearly 3 years ago, we took the same powerful tool that our design team uses to make air lenses for hundreds of millions of Snapchatters and made it available for anyone in the world to use. Today, there are tens of thousands of creators using Lens Studio and they've made over 1 million lenses. Snapchatters are engaging with lenses made by our community more than ever before, with top-performing community lenses reaching billions of views on Snapchat. Over the past year, we introduced new capabilities to help you take your creations even further. We launched 25 new Landmarkers around the world and released 11 new templates, including 3D face mesh and skeletal tracking. We launched Material Editor, a powerful visual programming tool for making completely custom 3D effects. Creators have already made some unbelievable new experiences like this liquid metal mask. We've also brought the power of Lens to give you Spectacles, seamlessly integrating our software and hardware for the first time. From California creator, Clay Weishaar to London's Clara Bacou, artists, filmmakers and storytellers are starting to design and share special lenses that enhance the 3D content to capture with Spectacles. This year, we're giving creators access to even more advanced capabilities. There are so many pioneering scientists, engineers and computer vision experts out in the world who are using machine learning to enable cameras to do amazing new things. We want to help our broader creator community join in the fun. Starting today, you can bring own machine learning models directly into Lens Studio to power your lenses. We call it Snap ML, and we can't wait to see what you'll create. Take a look. [Presentation]

Today, augmented reality is changing how we talk with our friends. But in the future, we'll use it to see the world in all new ways. Last year, we introduced Landmarkers, bringing the magic of AR to some of our favorite places. This year, we're taking it a step further. By enabling shared and persistent augmented reality in much larger areas. So you can experience AR with your friends at the same time across entire city blocks. Today, we're excited to announce local Lenses. Let's check it out. [Presentation]

Augmented reality is even better together, and we know you'll enjoy shaping the world around you with the help of your friends. Next, I'd like to welcome Carolina Arguelles, to share more on how our partners are growing their businesses with the Snapchat account.

Thanks Bobby. With over 1 million AR Lenses on our platform, Snapchatters need a simple, intuitive way to find the best lens, depending on where they are and what they're doing. From finding a fun lens that perfectly expresses your mood, to figuring out what song is playing, shopping a product or even learning how to solve a math problem. Our camera is a starting point to help Snapchatters express themselves and learn about the world. Last year, we partnered with companies like Shazam, Amazon and Photomath and brought their knowledge and experiences to Snapchatters worldwide. Thanks to a growing network of partner experiences, the Snapchat camera just keeps getting smarter. Today, we're thrilled to announce new partners bringing their expertise to our Scan platform. PlantSnap developed the ability to identify 90% of all known plants entries, with more than 600,000 types in their database. So when you see a plant you think would look great in your living room, you can use our camera to learn the name, it's origin and even how to take care of it. We're also working with dog scanner, which can identify almost 400 breeds for when you need to know the exact breed of that irresistible pup walking by. It works on people, too. So you can even figure out what dog you most resemble. I'm a corgi, and proud, short stout and very regal. They are both available today in the Snapchat camera. And there's more on the way over the coming months. When you're on a health kick, you'll be able to use nutrition scanners powered by Yuka, to get a rating on the quality of ingredients in many packaged foods. And some of the most iconic logos in the world are scannable everywhere. Soon, you'll be able to scan Louis Vuitton's Monogram and be transported to a virtual installation, which is displaying their classic trunks and latest collection. And now everyone can get involved with Scan using Lens Studio. Last year, we launched Marker Lenses so you could tie your AR creations to real-world images. Now when someone scans the image associated with your Marker lens, we'll automatically surface it without requiring a code. It makes it easier for people to find what you've made when they're scanning the world around them. For example, Too Faced cosmetics connected their virtual try on lens featuring the Born This Way Eyeshadow Palette to their product packaging. So now when people scan their eyeshadows, whether it's in their store or on their bathroom vanity, they're connected to step-by-step tutorials on exactly how to use the shades within their palette. You can also get involved with scan tags. If you've got a lens that puts AR creations into the sky, simply tag sky when you submit in Lens Studio. Using our computer vision capabilities, anytime someone scans the sky, your lens will appear. Visual Search is just one tag away. Let's get us a new way to point at something and ask a question about it. And while scan today helps you learn more about what you're seeing in front of you, tomorrow, scan will give you results based on what you're saying, thanks to our partnership with SoundHound. Say hello to voice scan. When you're looking for just the right lens, just open the lens carousel and say things like, "Hey, Snapchat, make my hair pink." It's the ultimate virtual makeover. Or my personal favorite, "Hey, Snapchat, give me a hug." It's the fastest way to a warm and fuzzy feeling. It also works with world-facing lenses. So anything you can imagine or anywhere you want to be transported to can happen right on your command. Try, "Hey, Snapchat, take me to the moon." It's rolling out in English starting today. Next, I'll welcome Sean Mills to share more on Discover.

It's wonderful to share this moment with so many of our partners. The most creative people have always embraced constraints, using them as fuel for inspiration. We saw this firsthand when our partners began making content that was truly native to mobile. Where others saw limitations, a smaller screen in a vertical frame, we found opportunities for innovation. Together, we pioneered new forms of mobile storytelling, turning Discover into a one of a kind destination for hundreds of millions of Snapchatters. Now in a moment that has brought new constraints, our partners have shown that same optimism, imagination and ingenuity. From quickly adapting to remote production, to launching new series like Will Smith's wildly creative talk show, Will From Home, which has been watched by more than 35 million Snapchatters. So partnering with creators like Alicia Keys on a show to help keep students reading outside the classroom. We aim to be the best platform partner for media companies and storytellers to develop compelling content, reach our unique community and build strong businesses, and we're making tremendous progress. In the last year, time spent watching Discover content has grown by 35%. And in the first quarter of this year, time spent watching shows on Snapchat has doubled. This is due to the hard work and creativity, of our content partners, a group that now includes 350 partners across 15 countries. And these relationships continue to grow in size and scope. Today, I'm proud to announce expanded multiyear content partnerships with Disney, ESPN, NBC, ViacomCBS, the NBA and the NFL. These will bring new shows, up-to-the-minute highlights and continue hugely successful franchises like SportsCenter on Snapchat, Teen Code and E!'s The Rundown, which just celebrated its 500th episode. Our longest-standing partners continue to grow on Snapchat. Hirst now reaches nearly 50 million Snapchatters each month across all their channels. Newer digital native companies are growing as well, both Wave and Barcroft Studios, top creators of sports and lifestyle content, now reach monthly audiences of more than 45 million people. We're seeing this partner growth around the world. Outside the U.S., we've expanded our programming with Channel 4 in the U.K., Le Figaro in France and Rotana, who now reaches an average of 10 million Snapchatters in the Middle East each month. We're working closely with our partners to build their businesses on Snapchat. In 2019, we paid out 60% more revenue to our partners than the year before. While Discover continues to grow, our approach remains the same. We're a curated platform. We embrace editorial selectivity. We believe the best way to serve our community is by working with a select set of partners who share our passion for creating mobile content in new ways. It's these same partners that our community has relied on to provide trusted information about the ongoing pandemic. In the past 3 months, over 80 million Snapchatters have viewed special coverage from over 100 partners, including NBC News, the Guardian and Le Monde. More than 125 million people have watched new stories on Snapchat this year alone. This surge in interest demonstrates that when something happens in the world, the first screen our community turns to is the one in their hand. And while they can go in-depth with our shows and publisher stories, sometimes they just want to catch up quickly. With that in mind, earlier this year, we began to roll out Happening Now, a dedicated news product, offering Snapchatters the fastest way to find out what's going on in the world, up to the minute at any time. We've worked with incredible partners like the Washington Post, ESPN and Buzzfeed to turn updates on the biggest stories into single Snaps, creating a new format designed for the fast and frequent way Snapchatters view news on mobile. You'll even get a personalized weather update, featuring our Bitmoji as well as horoscopes from our partner, Sanctuary. Every day Snapchatters use our camera to capture events that happen around them. Some of the most impactful new Snaps in Happening Now will come from the perspective of our community, who are experiencing these moments firsthand. Today, we're proud to announce that Happening Now is available to everyone in the U.S., and we look forward to rolling out to more of the world in the next year. While Happening Now is a new way for our community to stay informed, we're also inventing new ways for them to be entertained. Snap has always led the way in augmented reality. And we believe in the future where we don't just watch stories, we live them, where our living room is the stage, and we are written into the script. In the upcoming season of our hit franchise Face Forward from our partner, NBC, Snapchatters can become part of the show, with their very own AR makeover that mirrors the one happening on screen. AR also heightens the action in Fake Up from Mission Control, where viewers can try on custom lenses that bring the show's illusions to life. In Move It, AR transforms the way some of the world's best dancers teach you the latest moves, with motion tracking lenses that are visually arresting and keep up with you step by step. In the next year, AR will help invite millions of Snapchatters into our shows and bring our shows into the world around them. We're excited to continue building on these innovations with our newest Snap Originals, which in just a short time, have been hugely successful in creating lasting franchises, loyal fans and showing that big things can happen on the small screen. [Presentation]

Snap Originals have now been watched by more than half of the Gen Z population in the United States, and we're just getting started. To share more about our new Snap Originals. Here is Vanessa Guthrie.

Made-for-mobile shows began with Snap Originals, giving our creative partners a whole new way to connect with our audience. And we don't need to guess what Snapchatters want to see. They tell us millions of times a day, though the stories they watch and the personalities that move them. Over 22 million Snapchatters watched our new series, Nikita Unfiltered, produced by Sirens Media, making it an instant hit and one of our most watched docuseries ever. And over 70% of people who completed Season 1 of Dead of Night, a zombie thriller produced by Bazelevs, did so within 48 hours of starting it. The era of binge watching mobile shows is here. We're excited to announce that both Nikita Unfiltered and Dead of Night will be returning for new seasons later this year. Tens of millions of viewers watched our coverage of Conor McGregor's last UFC fight. So we wanted to go deeper. For the second season of our documentary series, Vs The World, our partners at Complex will help tell the personal story of Conor McGregor, one of the most notorious stars in sports. Listening to our audience is what fuels Snap Originals, and it's what led us to each of our 4 new docuseries. [Presentation]

Beyond big personalities, we love to bring Snapchatters more from the worlds we know excite them, and our scripted shows do exactly that. In Frogtown, award-winning Director, Catherine Hardwicke, brings us the story of an all-female skate crew in East LA. Our latest thriller invites us into the e-sports under world. Part gambling scheme, part coming-of-age story, Action Royale explores the extreme lengths we'll go to protect our family. And in our comedy, Total Badass Wrestling, we tell the story of a very enthusiastic amateur wrestler who becomes an instant hit when a video of him jumping into the ring goes viral. The imagination of our partners continues to captivate our audience on the most important screen in their lives. In First Person, journalist Yusuf Omar reimagines the documentary format by using Snapchat Spectacles to show the world through the eyes of extraordinary people, creating change in remarkable ways. And as part of our commitment to Snapchatters' wellbeing, we've partnered with Laugh Out Loud and Coach Kev, starring Kevin Hart as your mentor, coach and best friend, all rolled into one, sharing positivity and wisdom on how to live your best life. Thanks to the strength and creativity of our partners, there's so much to look forward to, and I can't wait to see what we'll create together next. Please welcome Ben Schwerin to share more about the way we're supporting our partners with Snap Kit.

Thanks, Vanessa. Snap Kit makes it possible for developers to easily build with Snapchat, bringing engaging experiences to our growing community. Our platform was founded on creativity and self-expression, with a privacy centric approach. Today, more than 800 apps have integrated with Snap Kit and nearly 150 million Snapchatters are engaging with these integrations every month. Let's take a look at a few of our favorites. Login Kit is helping developers drive adoption and engagement. Hily saw a 20% uplift in sign-ups after adding a log in with Snapchat button to their app. Bitmoji is bringing fun personalized avatars to platforms, including Samsung's keyboard on their latest Galaxy smartphones. And Creative Kit is making it easier than ever to share content from Spotify, Reddit and Adobe Spark directly into Snapchat. Our latest Creative Kit partner is SoundCloud. Soon, you'll be able to share your favorite tracks, albums and playlists right to your Snaps. We're also expanding creative kit to include AR. New dynamic lenses allow developers to bring real-time information from their app into Snapchat lenses, making it the easiest way for any company to build AR experiences. Soon, you can share our custom lens on Snapchat to invite your friends to your virtual group hangs on Houseparty. Rally Road is an app that lets you purchase shares in the rarest automotive assets on the planet. Soon, you can share your classic car investment in a 3D model lens. Later this year, Yahoo! Fantasy sports will make it a lot more fun to keep track of your favorite teams together on Snapchat. And Nike is exploring dynamic lenses as part of an innovative new wellness app designed to power daily challenges that promote healthy habits like sending love, setting intentions and smiling. Snap Kit products are adding value for both start-ups and some of the biggest companies in the world. infltr is a U.K.-based photo editing app that offers their community more than 7 million unique photo and video filters. After integrating with Snap Kit, infltr subscription sales quintupled and Snapchat shares up to 500,000 per day in the Middle East, a market where they had very little presence before. And for some, like YOLO, Snap Kit was the foundation of their product from the very beginning. YOLO is an app for asking your Snapchat friends for honest messages. Within a week of launch, YOLO became the #1 app in the U.S. app store and is consistently ranked among the top 10 social apps. With 10 million downloads in a single month, YOLO's growth was entirely organic, driven by shares to Snapchat. Today, breaking through with a new app is tough. But last month, more than 20 apps created by our partners were in the top 100 of the iOS app store and Google Play store. Snap Kit is the way we share the best of Snap technology with partners. Last year, we announced Ad Kit to make monetizing apps easy by integrating Snap ads. We also introduced app stories, so people could easily add snaps to their profiles and other apps. Today, we are bringing the power of the Snapchat camera to your apps. Introducing Camera Kit. We built one of the world's most powerful AR cameras so you don't have to. With Camera Kit, any developer can leverage our 8-year investment in the Snapchat camera, bringing our AR capabilities right into their apps. Here's a look at what we're working on. On Triller, you can create your own music videos and share your lip-synching skills with the world. Camera Kit takes videos to the next level with special Snapchat lenses inspired by your favorite artists and songs. With Squad, you can hang out live with your closest friends while screen sharing your favorite apps. Soon, thanks to Camera Kit, you'll be able to add fun Snapchat lenses while you browse, chat, shop and watch videos together. Nike will also be using Camera Kit to bring Snapchat lenses to their new wellness app, so you can create fun video responses in duets with your favorite creators. And finally, through MLB's Ballpark app, fans will be able to interact with their favorite teams and mascots in AR and celebrate home runs together. Teams will have unique lenses for their fans at the game and at home. We're thrilled that now everything you build in Lens Studio can live in our app and yours. Reach out to us to get started. Next up, here's John Imah to talk about Games.

Thanks, Ben. I'm thrilled to be here today to share the latest on Bitmoji for games and Snap Games. First, let's jump into how developers can personalize the player experience with Bitmoji for Games. Snapchatters know it's more fun and personal when you're playing as your own Bitmoji. And developers love that Bitmoji literally puts players in their games. With Bitmoji for Games, we built the ultimate platform avatar for gaming. On mobile, console, PC and beyond, Bitmoji for Games puts players and their friends right into the action. And soon, console game developers can use our new 3D Bitmoji avatars leveling up the rich, vibrant look of Bitmoji for high fidelity gaming. Let's take a look. [Presentation]

With Bitmoji for Games, players become the stars in both new and existing games from our partners this year. To learn more, go to bitmoji.com. Now let's talk about Snap Games. Last year, we introduced Snap Games, a new way to play games on mobile. With our platform, it's never been easier for developers to make games for real friends around the world. By putting games right in Snapchat and weaving the communication into the core game experience, we've created a place where Snapchatters feel like they're hanging out, sitting side-by-side, even when they're apart. And now more than ever before, friends are seeking experiences just like this to connect in a creative way. In just 1 year, more than 100 million Snapchatters have played our games. But it's not just the number of players that excites us. It's the level at which they're using Snap Games to engage with their friends. For example, in our very own title, Bitmoji Party, where friends compete in quick 30-second mini games, an average of 20 minutes are played per player every day. Or take Ready Chef Go from Mojiworks, where friends frantically run a restaurant kitchen together. In just 6 months, more than 25 million unique Snapchatters have played the game. And when friends join in, Snapchatters on average play twice as long as solo players. This early traction tells us that our community has a real appetite to play these games with their friends on Snapchat. We're eager to continue building on this momentum alongside these returning partners, they've demonstrated incredible creativity and adaptability while developing their first games. And we can't wait to see what they'll do with their second. We're also happy to share that we are welcoming a select group of new partners to help us bring the best possible mobile gaming experiences to our global Snapchat community. Together, we'll be rolling out a brand-new slate of Snap Games over the next few months. Let's take a closer look. [Presentation]

We can't wait for Snapchatters to try your new games. But it doesn't stop there. We want to give you a sneak peek at a new game made by our very own Snap Game Studios. Bitmoji Paint is a global canvas where millions of players in the Snapchat community come together simultaneously to contribute to one massive collage. Travel the globe, team up with friends, let your imagination run free, simple scribbles, fun messages or even giant landscapes are all possible in Bitmoji Paint. We're so excited to see what our community creates to shape the future of this new artistic world. But our players are not the only community that will benefit from the work we are doing with Bitmoji Paint. An all-new infrastructure service will power this game. And we want to work with developers who can use this new tool to achieve their own creative vision, leveraging our unique audience and platform services. We are excited to collaborate on games that are simply not possible anywhere but Snapchat. So that's Snap Games, 1 year in. We're just scratching the surface, and we're so excited to continue working with partners to shape the way that friends play together. Now please welcome Will Wu to introduce one small thing.

Hi, everyone. We're thrilled with the early success we've seen with Snap Games. Snap Games uses the power of HTML5 web technology to fundamentally change the way we play games on mobile. With Snap Games, we simply bring games to where you and your friends already are, in Snapchat where conversations take place every day. But this foundation we built can be used for so much more. Today, we're unveiling a brand-new product built on the same core principles and technologies as Snap Games. We call them Snap Minis. [Presentation]

Snap Minis are bite-size utilities tailor-made for friends. They're incredibly easy to develop, and they work for all Snapchatters on Android and iOS with no installation required. You can find them in chat right alongside games. We've carefully designed Minis to deeply integrate within your conversations. So coordinating with friends is faster than ever. We've partnered with some amazing developers to bring the first Minis to life. Here are a few Minis to show you what's possible. To kick things off, we decided to make a mini of our own it's called, Let's Do It, and it's the ultimate antidote to decision paralysis. So when you and your friends need to decide what to watch and you're between the latest psychological thriller and the oldest video saved in your camera roll, Let's Do It, will help you pick your next move. Atom Tickets is reinventing the moviegoing process with their own mini, making it easier than ever for friends to plan a night at the box office. If you think about it, the traditional moviegoing process is complicated. Between watching trailers, choosing the movie, picking seats together and then splitting the cost, we have to switch between a bunch of different apps, while also messaging back and forth. With the Atom Mini, this whole process can happen right in one place. Stream the latest movie trailers and share them with friends, choose the show time at your favorite local theater, select the best seats together and individually pay for tickets to see the show. Next, we have Prediction Master from Mammoth Media, with timely questions on everything from the stock market to sneaker drops. You can find out which of your friends is a true psychic. Saturn has created a mini that helps students share and compare their class schedules. So you and your friend can find out what classes you have together? Or find your next open time block to hang out. Finally, building on our close partnership with Headspace, we're launching a Headspace Mini. Kick back with quick meditations or check in with your friends by snapping how you feel. All of these experiences and more will live right within Snapchat, and they begin rolling out next month. We can't wait to work with more partners and see how they'll bring new minis to life for friends on Snapchat. And now I'll hand it back over to Evan to wrap up.

All right. Thank you all so much for joining us. There are so many exciting things for us to build together. And an amazing community to serve. We are so grateful to enter this new era together with our partners. In this time of remarkable change and new beginnings, we believe that the Snapchat generation will help create a world built on real friendship, shared success, positivity and possibility. Putting people, the environment and our values first, we are all kind, smart and creative, and we will build a brighter future together. Thank you.

Today, we'll talk to some of the world's best AR creators and developers. We'll hear about some of the tools they're using within the Snap AR ecosystem to push the creativity and their business from machine learning to wearables. With 170 million people interacting with AR daily on Snapchat, we've got one of the largest AR communities in the world and have all the Snaps set on a daily basis with the lens. 30% of those lenses were actually made by the community and many the creators will speak with today are part of that. I lead marketing for Snap Lab, which is the hardware division at Snap, Inc. And I have the absolute privilege of working with the creator community on a daily basis and really exploring this feature together. First, I'd love to introduce you to Kimberly, a colleague of mine who works closely with the AR community on a daily basis. Hi, Kimberlee. Thank so much for joining us today.

Thanks, Katie.

So you lead marketing for Snap AR. Would love to hear from you a little bit more about your favorite type of AR.

I'm really in love with the beauty lens. That whole category amazes me. Whether you're just having fun or trying on new products. It's something that I think that really is going to change the game when it comes to online shopping for beauty products.

Can you talk a little bit about your role and what it's like to work with the community?

Sure. My role at Snap is to accelerate adoption for AR. I work with the creator community to introduce new technology to them, help them to innovate in the space and create lens AR experiences for our Snapchatters.

And can you talk a little bit about the tools and how you've seen them evolve over the years? Also, how the AR creator skill set has evolved?

It's exciting to see the advancement in technology from machine learning as we just introduced Snap and Mount, to spatial depth within the mobile [ firm ], all the way to the new wearables like Spectacles. It really challenges the creators to come outside of their box and come up with new concepts that take advantage of spatial computing.

What keeps you motivated?

What keeps me motivated is to see new people coming to the space. There's a lot of excitement around the use cases, and therefore, we're attracting all kinds of new people to the ecosystem, which is super exciting. The fact that we've started out with very light hearted use cases with filters that really help people to express their joy and their passion. And we'll evolve into so much more valuable experiences that help us with everyday life that fills gaps that we currently have.

Kimberly, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Katie, for having me.

I'd love to introduce you to Anrick Bregman, who's been a part of the Snap fam for a long time and a legend in AR. We'll hear a little bit more about his creative process, the tools he's using and his vision for the future of computing. Anrick, so happy to have you here today. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me. Pleasure.

So you've been part of the Snap fam for quite some time now. You're part of our official lens creator program. So would love to hear from you a little bit about your favorite lenses and digital experiences that you've created so far?

Yes. Well, it's been an amazing journey to be a part of the official lens creator program. My daily work revolves around Lens Studio with regard to lenses and augmented realities. So that's really one of the key tools. I started to play with Lens Studio really a few months after it initially came out, and it was quickly my favorite tool to experiment and try stuff out. So it became a place where I try and push kind of ideas forward or mess about because it's a tool that is easy to use. And so it allows me as a thinking process, as a brainstorming process to see what I'm maybe trying to make. And so with that in mind, I think one of the projects that really exemplifies that process and that made use of so many of Lens Studios' early features is a series of puzzles I call Drift. And they are these iridescent purple blue geometric shapes. I have a pyramid and a sphere and a cube. And they're puzzles that require you to interact and touch and move around to unlock that initial geometric shape. I'm using Spectacles a lot right now. I'm really interested in how we can bring augmented realty into the world that extends out from your eyes. And what's interesting, I think, about the Snapchat app itself is it has become a big part of that process also. Testing lenses with my teams means beaming a lens to my phone wirelessly to test it out, downloading a video of myself using it, and then sending that to my team through the chat section of Snapchat.

Can you go deeper on some of the technology within Lens studio that you're tapping into to create the more immersive stories?

Some of the earlier lenses -- I think, in particular, what was really fun about them is using some of the simpler visual effects that had already been packed into the very first version of Lens Studio. So blend modes on objects and packing an element inside of another element. Rather than 1 interaction being your trigger, we were looking at ways in which we could create a series of interactions.

I'd love to you hear a little bit about how you got started in AR and the tools and technology that have allowed you to further your experiences?

I was doing huge amounts of virtual reality work 5, 6 years ago, I still do virtual reality work on a very regular basis, it's a big part of my workflow. And so I see the tools that we have now in terms of spatial computing, in terms of game engine technology and in terms of the tools like Lens Studio as really changing radically what creators can make and how accessible these kind of processes are to people. That's amazing. I'm seeing unbelievably creative, interesting inspiring work happening all the time. I'm a big part of the official Lens creative community. It's an amazing vibrant bunch of people that are in touch every single day. I love to think of my journey into augmented reality through Lens Studio brought me into this community, and that community is now also maybe inspired to experiment and try other things.

Well, thank you so much for joining us, Anrick. It was such a pleasure to chitchat with you.

Thank you, Katie. It's been a pleasure.

I'm so excited to talk to 2 leaders in machine learning. We have, Sergey, who is a big part of our deliver program. He's the CEO and founder of WANNABY; and Trevor, who is part of the Snap team working hard behind the scenes on Snap ML announced today. Trevor, we'd love to start with you and hear a little bit about your background and about Snap ML, which was announced in the keynote.

Sure. So I'm an engineering manager in the camera platform group. What's really setting about Snap ML is that it's actually a gateway for other people to add their own tools. So we're really just excited to see what other people come up with.

Sergey, thank you so much for joining us today. We'd love to hear from you a little bit about yourself, your background and how you started working with Snap?

So I'm Sergey. I'm CEO of WANNABY. We are developers of course in the world shoes "try on" technology, and we are very excited that with the launch of Snap ML and their data platform, we are able to bring the experience that we developed to the Snapchatters.

Can you talk a little bit about how you've been using machine learning in your business today? And how Snap ML will continue to help you innovate?

ML is in the heart of our product. So we run -- on every frame, we run the neural networks, which help us to define where the feet are positioned. And we put just the rendered shoes on top of them, so that when you move it, you really, like, get the feeling that you wear them. And Snap ML is crucial because the pipeline we have in our technology is very complicated so we need access to the full power of neural networks.

Trevor, you were critical in building Snap ML. Talk a little bit about how you see it benefiting creators and developers?

Yes. So I think Snap ML or ML, in general, can feel daunting to people. And so like every feature that we build and integrate into Lens Studio, we want to really reduce that barrier eventually for folks. And so we're going to have a bunch of templates that are ready to go. We're really excited to see how we can match up some of the ML experts out there, who like train these amazing models like Sergey and the Wanna Kicks model and partner them up with some -- like our really creative folks and just see what they can build.

Have you noticed any shifts in behavior on demand for this product or this type of online shopping experience within the last couple of months?

Yes, absolutely. Because there is, like, was only channel sales before, but now it's omnichannel, and this channel is online. And we've got a lot of interest, both from the end consumers and from the brands and retailers for the technology like ours.

And you've been on Snap for quite some time now. So we'd love to hear from you a little bit about the evolution of the community and from a creative perspective, how you're seeing the tools really enhance the type of outfit?

1 of the things that, like, I've really seen start to happen with recent releases is just this combination of features. There's, like, natural synergies between, like, features that we launch. And I'm just looking forward to seeing more of that from our community. They'll be taking all of these templates we provide in these, like, machine learning models and combining them in ways that we can't even really anticipate.

Trevor, with Snap ML available today, we'd like to hear from you a little bit more around how creators around the world, developers can start to utilize and use the new technology?

Yes. The idea with Snap ML is just to empower creators to be able to bring any idea they have into Lens Studio and build lens with this. If it's a visual effect or maybe you'll do a little scripting. And then that's basically it. We've tried to make this as simple as possible without sacrificing the tools and the complexity and the flexibility.

All right. Thank you, guys, so much for joining us today. Great conversation.

That was a lot of fun. Thank you.

Thank you, both.

Now we'll talk to Pedro Cruz. He's been an Official Lens Creator for quite some time. He's found incredible ways to use AR and machine learning, and we'll hear a little bit about his vision for the future of computing. Pedro, you've been a part of the Snap family as an OLC for quite some time. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you got started in augmented reality?

Definitely. Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. So I started first in VR. Virtual reality really brought me into AR. And the reason is because of Snapchat. For me, it was very -- very great experience when the filters started coming out. And the day that Lens Studio was launched, I actually downloaded the software right away, and I just created my first lens. And then from there, I was invited to the Official Lens Creator program.

Tell us a little bit more about what it's like to be an Official Lens Creator, what's it like to be a part of that community?

It's been amazing to be part of a group of creative individuals, everyone from developers to artists, 3D modelers, everyone's focused on creating the future of augmented reality. And that's really kind of the sense I get from the Official Lens Creator community is that everyone is here to move the industry forward. This community really is passionate about, not only making the bleeding edge in AR, but also teaching people how to make the difference and how we can use augmented reality for good.

And can you talk a little bit about the specific tools you've been seeing in the Snap ecosystem to help push your creativity?

Yes, definitely. So when I first got started in Lens Studio, it was very easy to get started because of the templates. I think that was probably 1 of the best features at Lens Studio when it started. These templates allowed you to quickly create something and launch it in Lens.

Pedro, you're such a creative guy. Can you walk us through your creative process and how you go from concept to creation to execution?

Try to look for inspiration from your world. Try to look for inspiration from your daily life, whether you're stuck in quarantine and you're just visualizing and daydreaming about fairies or something, I don't know, or if you prefer to go outside and visualize the clouds in a different way. Lens Studio allows you to do that. Personally, I love Lens Studio because it has many segmentation features. I can segment the sky. I can segment people's faces, hair. 1 of my first popular lenses was to change eye color. I think this was before the lens, the eye color template came out or something. Thanks to all these new features, I've been able to become a more creative person.

Such a great chat. Thanks for joining us today. It was great to have you.

Definitely, thank you so much for having me. Thank you, everyone. Stay safe.

We've brought the magic of Lens Studio to Spectacles, allowing creators around the world to create and design 3D and AR with hardware in mind. Here to talk a little bit about that today are Christie and Chris from PITCH STUDIOS. You both were very involved in the launch of Spectacles 3 last year. Can you talk a little bit about your creative process and how you concept for designing and hardware and what that looks like for you spatially?

Yes, absolutely. I think as -- I think to start off with something that was maybe slightly different for us because we tend to stare at screens all day is it gave us an opportunity to step out into the real world and really experience things through your eyes and reality and the physical space, which to start with is sort of a different way of approaching our work. A lot of our process with Spectacles specifically was thinking about, like, what content we were shooting as well as kind of the end result of the lens. Something that we explore quite a lot is this idea of these digital spaces, which is sort of a mix between digital and physical, and how we can kind of, like, form up -- or in new realities in these spaces.

Chris, we'd love to hear a little bit more from you about your experience building and designing AR with Spectacles and the hardware in mind?

We'll start in a 3D software like Cinema 4D and kind of start thinking about our ideas, it's fun to kind of see how you can take an idea and kind of synthesize it into a different program.

A lot of your work is really focused on self-expression. We'd love to hear what you think that will have to do with the future of computing and integration of AR into our daily lives?

It's going to really be interesting to see how AR kind of, I think, intersects in the bigger picture of all the other new elements that are kind of popping up everywhere.

Augmented reality is in such an early stage of its life. It gives us an opportunity through community as well to build communities in spaces we haven't been able to before.

Christie and Chris, thank you so much for joining us today. It was awesome to chat with you.

Great. Thanks so much for having us.

Yes. Thanks, again.

Before we wrap up today, we'd love to hear from everyone 1 last question. What excites you most about the future of AR?

What excites me most is the opportunity for AR to become as ubiquitous as it is on mobile today, and for the new use cases that we don't even know about or haven't even thought up yet.

I think what's really exciting is people are getting used to it and are beginning to expect and anticipate augmented reality being a part of their day, being a part of their image, being a part of their, as I said earlier, entertainment landscape. And I'm excited about this medium being taken from where it is now to the next level.

I think what is really exciting is how AR, in general, can change the fashion industry and how can it bring fashion to the hands of all people in the world virtually.

With Snapchat released our baby lens, I was blown away. And I think a lot of people were. And that, like, moment of what ML can do just for creativity, for lenses, for expression was really eye opening. I'm just excited for all these firsts. Like, I'm excited that I don't know what's going to happen. But I know that baby lens and shoe tracking are just the beginning.

I'm very excited about integrating machine learning into my workflow as a creator. And when the day comes when we finally have our inner glasses, using my lenses or creating new lenses that will be able to remix our reality.

Obviously, the integration part, how that's going to continue to integrate in our lives and our spaces. But also, I think also that the graphic fidelity, I think it's going to get way more immersive. So that's, like, super exciting.

The beauty of AR is that it is layered and there's many layers to humans. So for us, it's a chance for all of us to explore identities to express ourselves creatively, spiritually, consciously in all different ways. It's a chance for us to explore our bodies and how we can perhaps stay performative in some aspects of our lives.

A look at how Snapchat partners who have leveraged new technologies to innovate storytelling for mobile devices. How the zombies took over to discover feed? The first show shot on Spectacles, a makeover show starring any of our 229 million users and what we're doing to stay timely and topical, this is your Snapchat Partner Summit 2020 breakout on state-of-the-art storytelling. I'm Peter Hamby coming to you from Los Angeles. Let's meet the creators that we're talking to today.

I'm Shaun.

I'm Andrew, and we're the showrunners for the Snap Original, Dead of Night, and we're currently here in Norway.

Oslo, Norway.

Hey, it's Yusuf Omar. I'm the creator of the Snap Original, First Person and Hashtag Our Stories, and I'm in Durban, South Africa.

Hey, I'm Alex Levis. I'm a Senior Manager of Development for NBCUniversal Digital Lab, and I am in Santa Monica, California.

Hi, I am Christina Cocca. I am the Editorial Director for NowThis News, and I am in New York City.

Today, we're going to start with the Higton brothers. We're going to talk about their unconventional format and storytelling and share some of the challenges and learnings they've had with their hit show, Dead of Night. Hey guys, thanks for joining us. First, I want to ask you, what led you to the decision that the entire narrative should be confined to the protagonist's phone?

We spend so much time on our phones. We're basically being told stories on our phone the whole time. We can see what our friends are doing, what our family is doing and then what people are doing on the other side of the world. We saw what could be an interesting twist on the Zombie genre, something that we haven't seen before. And it just kind of like clicked when it was -- when we thought, hey, let's put social media plus zombies.

How did this confinement lead to some creative ways of expanding the world of the show?

We could make this world as big as we want without actually having to shoot all of it. When we understood that, it helped us to push the story where we wanted it. It's basically a discipline. You say, I'm not allowed to move the perspective out of the phone, and what that does is immediately, it challenges you to come up with a unique story moment.

There are a ton of other creators in the audience today. Can you describe your creative process for making Dead of Night?

We wrote the script, and whilst we were writing it, we would edit a version of it. And then it would inform us what we would have to shoot. It was kind of evolving the whole ways -- the whole film process was pretty fluid.

How did you approach Dead of Night differently than you would have approached a project for, like, film or television?

We're always fighting against that hovering thumb because they're quick, they just move on. And what was cool about using it on screen like this was we were always able to send in another message. Get in something else and always keep them, like, oh, what's that? Oh, what's this?

We'd come back to that key episode, which was the first episode. That was the episode that unlocked the entire season for us because that was sort of the keystone for how everything would work. And once we could -- once we've unlocked to ourselves the structure and the pacing and the whole feeling of episode 1, now we understand what we're actually creating.

How do you think this show leaned into innovation in a way that could only be done on mobile?

So in order to give you the feeling of this actually happening, we had to really try to emulate how someone would use their phone. So we would just use the access tools to drive the story the way we wanted it to and make it exciting.

The name of this panel is state-of-the-art storytelling. What does that mean to you?

To me, state-of-the-art storytelling is about opportunity, about trying to see the opportunity in technology and how that can help you tell a compelling story.

Next, I'm very excited to talk to Yusuf Omar, the founder of Hashtag Our Stories. We're going to talk to him about how he shot much of this new Snap Original on Spectacles, and how that impacted the kind of stories he can tell. Yusuf, are you already wearing Spectacles?

I am wearing Spectacles, Peter. And I've been wearing them every day of my life since 2016. I'm filming you right now.

So Yusuf, you are a huge Snap evangelist. Can you talk about the different ways that you've told stories on Snapchat?

Yes. For sure, Peter. So I have been a mojo, a mobile journalist since 2010. In 2012, I strapped a camera onto my head and I went to Congo and this ammunitions depot exploded in the middle of the civil population. 2014, I was smuggled into Syria and covered the Syrian civil war. And we have broadcast equipment but are still using a phone and wearable devices. So I've always been fascinated by where mobile phones and the likes fit into the content spectrum. I then moved to India in 2016, and I was the mobile editor at the Hindustan Times. And we had 750 journalists across 27 offices, and my job was to train them all how to tell stories with phones. And their phones ranged from like an iPhone like 7 or 8 at that time right down to like a Freedom 251, like, a $4 smartphone. And I had to get all of these phones to create good quality content. So people could film in the field and they could, like, create amazing stories. And what we found was that Snapchat was an amazing content management system that people could be filming in the field, and I would be able to watch their stories in real-time and give them feedback as to what was working and what wasn't working. Everything they needed to tell a story was in 1 app. I then moved to CNN in London and I was on CNN's social media team, and I was working on Snapchat specifically. We had the Champs-Elysees attack. We had the Grenfell Tower on fire, we had the Vegas attack. And time and time again, before broadcast cameras could be deployed, what did we find? We saw people on the ground were snapping content as it was happening and us as journalists, we were able to verify and make sense of it all. Jumping into 2018, I left CNN and we launched Hashtag Our Stories.

So how did you come to make a Snap Original with Spectacles? How did that come about?

I think the best and most important story that we told on Spectacles that really opened my eyes to the potential to create empathy through wearable technology was we looked at 3 young kids in America who had limb differences and we got the opportunity to tell the stories through their eyes. The idea that we could not just have them film but leave cameras with them, leave the Spectacles with them and go away and come back in 2 days. And the stuff that they got when we were away was the best content of the entire documentary, the stuff that they capture when they're on their own.

What were some of the opportunities that Spectacles created for you when you're making the show?

Things have gotten really interesting, Peter, with this third version, the V3s, because they have 2 cameras, 1 on either side. So they capture 3D video, which means that, 1, we can put them into a headset and have potentially the most immersive experience I've ever had as a journalist, where it literally feels like I'm there again, where I'm looking back through my eyes, through my perspective, the cyclic age of memories. I think the challenge is when we look at, like, wearable journalism and Spectacles-based storytelling, is frankly that there's no rulebook. And that is scary to some people that there's no guides of, like, what is a frame and what is the right way to create a story. It's a blank canvas. And I don't see it as a challenge as much as an opportunity to rewrite the rules on what storytelling involves.

So what does this totally new technology unlock for you in terms of storytelling?

So when you start thinking about, like, point of view or first person-based storytelling, it's like a whole new storytelling grammar. A whole new language to explore. We can completely rethink the way we think about storytelling. And to be honest, a lot of those things slowed us down. Like, why setup a tripod? It was so contrived, why put a lapel mic on somebody. It takes so long and then they're suddenly in this, like, static interview set. What I do know is that it creates empathy in a way that we've never seen before either. You really start to see the world from somebody else's vantage point. And that's 1 of the big issues I see in the world today is that, we don't have enough ways to really consider or understand how other people view the world and if we do do that, you have more perspectives, and we can understand them and we can empathize better with their stories.

The journalist in me is very excited right now to bring in Christina Cocca, the Editorial Director of NowThis, 1 of our launch partners for Happening Now. She'll discuss the process of determining how to best use the format to break news on Snapchat and how it capitalizes on existing user behavior? So Christina, tell us about your experience working with Happening Now, why did you decide to work with us on this?

Yes. It's great to be an early partner with Snap as they introduce new products constantly. Snapchat has always been a great partner for us. It's a great place to speak directly to young people. And we're really excited to see how users engage with something that is so different from the way the regular news feed, as we know it, functions.

So back up for a second, both of us are journalists, Christina, a lot of people, though, in our universe still don't quite understand the opportunity of putting news on Snap. Tell me why you think it's important?

Sure. I mean NowThis has always delivered news directly to people kind of where they are. We meet them where they are on social. And obviously, they're on Snap. And the biggest opportunity for us is the user base, period. The audience is big. They're young, they're engaged. We look at it as a way to potentially get a group of people that might not be incentivized to sort of participate in politics or society in a meaningful way to do that. And we're thankful for that.

So what about creating news content for Snapchat has been unique for NowThis?

With Snap we really had to keep balance in mind. Within just 1 daily publisher story that we put up, someone could be watching a story that exposes police brutality to the latest on the health crisis that we're currently in to something really uplifting. We kind of look at it like vegetables and bubblegum, if you will. You kind of have to give people what they want, and what they need. The great thing, too, about our existence on the platform is we have multiple outlets. We have our publisher story that's kind of like the best playlist of news for the day, if you will. We have a pop-up channel just for breaking news, called Now Breaking. Obviously, Happening Now, we have curated stories. And so we really try to take advantage of all those avenues to reach people. We've asked them directly what they want to know more about, and they tell us. And we really live inside of the analytics to understand what's resonating with this group of people while also juggling that with just the constant changing news cycle every day.

In terms of engagement, what have you learned about Snap users specifically and how they consume the news?

We've learned that Snapchat users are really active. They're proactive. They swipe up to register to vote when we prompt them, just as 1 example. I challenge my writers to do this, like, how would you explain this new story if you were telling it to your friend? If you were sending it in a text message, how would you tell them what happened? We just try to talk to them like their people.

How is working on Snap content pushed you guys to think about new formats generally?

With the success we've had on Snap, we've got our producers and our reporters actively thinking about it while they're making a story versus it being an afterthought, whether that's making sure they have a really good sound bite that fits within 10 seconds to shooting vertical-friendly video to my personal favorite, which is when they send curated snaps and while they are in the field reporting. So we're excited to see where it goes.

Next, I'm going to invite Alex Levis into this virtual conversation. She is going to walk us through how NBC use Snap's AR capabilities to allow viewers of Face Forward, a beauty makeover Snap Original, to try on the look in every episode of the latest season. That actually work for people in the audience who might have no idea.

So during each episode, there will be at least 1 of potentially multiple beats where the host is going to prompt viewers to swipe up to a front-facing camera lens. And in this lens, you'll see a custom make-over content play out in the lower portion of the screen, while that same makeup is applied simultaneously to your face via AR technology.

So what opportunity do you think this technology unlocked for your audience and fans of Face Forward?

So in an increasingly noisy media landscape, it's hard to feel like any show is just for you. So this new AR-enabled version of Face Forward leapfrogs that problem by personalizing each episode for anyone of Snapshot's 229 million users.

Snap has a real ability to pull people into the stories and add like a shareability element to it. It's pretty cool.

You can't do that with linear television or really anywhere else. It's unique to Snap.

What do you think the next evolution of storytelling with AR will be?

You always need to be asking yourself why is someone watching your show, and you can make that answer very obvious when you make a show about the viewer, especially in times like today where we're all at home and probably not looking or feeling our best. There's something really rewarding about being able to tap into a show on Snap and see yourself in that show. And have the show help you look and feel your best. Face Forward evolving into a show that really plants its flag in that space is exciting for all of us here at NBCUniversal.

What's 1 takeaway, 1 piece of advice you would give to people making content for Snap today and the next-generation of creators. Let's start with Christina.

Snapchat's short-form is really, we're talking a matter of seconds here that you have to get people engaged. So you really have to work on kind of perfecting that art of capturing people's attention. Any news that you make, any content that you make for any platform, you've got to consume what you're producing. You can't just make it. You have to be a user, too.

My advice to creators is never rest on your laurels, always innovate, always experiment, push the boundaries and pivot when necessary.

I think the big thing that's going to take place in 2020 and beyond with Snapchat content creation is this integration of consuming content and creating intertwined, where you'll be watching a piece of content and you'll swipe up to a lens, and then you'll suddenly have an experience where either you're part of that story or you're encouraged to submit something to that story or you're encouraged to create something about that show, which you then share with your friends, which drives people back to your story. So I would definitely be paying attention to the camera, both in terms of you shooting, but in terms of enabling other people to create and share content through augmented reality experiences, which lend themselves and fit into your content.

You got to dare to be crazy and try something that's a little bit out there because you never know, that might be the thing that works.

We're covering everything, from how our camera can help you expand your business to how to work with some of Snap's most talented creators and how ultimately, all of these developments are helping the Snap generation on the road to economic recovery. Thank you for joining us, and I'll see you at the next 1.

Today, a discussion with Snap Minis product leads and some of its new partners. How are Minis different from Snapchat apps for Games and how do you build them. Welcome to the Snapchat 2020 Partner Summit breakout session all about Minis, the next small thing. I'm Danny Trinh in New York. Let's meet some of the panelists we'll talk to today.

Hi. So I'm Alice Nathoo. I'm Head of Brand Experiences and Social Impact at Headspace. And I'm in LA.

Hi. I'm Dylan Eirinberg. I'm a product designer at Snapchat, and I am currently in Santa Monica, California.

I'm Matthew Bakal, Chairman of Atom Tickets. I'm in Los Angeles.

I'm Patrick Mandia. I'm a Product Manager at Snapchat, and I'm outside of New York City right now.

To kick things off and give us a better understanding of Minis, we have Dylan Eirinberg and Patrick Mandia here from the product team. They're going to talk about some of the motivations behind why Minis are built. Some of the powerful feature sets now available, and how you can bring your own Minis to life on the Snapchat platform. Welcome, Dylan and Patrick. How are you?

I'm good.

I'm good.

The most important question before we get started, what's your favorite lens and why?

Favorite Snapchat lens is the microwave and pizza. I love to cook, and it throws people off every time they receive it.

My favorite is this 1 that's called Fruity that puts a lot of tropical fruits around your head.

So Dylan, what are Minis?

Well, Minis are bite-sized utilities made for Snapchat. They're made in HTML5, which means they work cross-platform on Android and IOS, no installation required. They live next to Games and our chat drawer, which means that all you need to do is tap 1 to open it. And because Minis live inside Snapchat, partners can directly integrate friends into the experience. And we're really excited about the possibilities that this opens up.

It sounds like a Mini could be anything.

Yes. So Snapchat is about being in a moment, and we think the same principles will apply to Minis. The specific and actionable use-cases will work best in things like ticketing or health and fitness with Adam and Headspace. We think a lot of utilities like school schedules or citizen initiatives like voter registration will work really well on the platform.

Wow. So why is the friends integration such a big deal for Minis?

Well, when we first started looking into the space 3-or-so years ago, we realized that despite everyone being connected on their phones nearly 24/7, there weren't a lot of experiences that brought friends closer together. Most mobile Games today are these single player isolated experiences, something that I would play on the airplane. And on the flip side, there are utility apps something like making a dinner reservation. And even though this should be social because you make a dinner reservation often with friends, what ends up happening is 1 person makes the reservation themselves and then sends the reservation out after the fact. And we really think that this could be much more social than it is today. And we think that Snapchat has a lot to offer.

There are so many companies out there as we build Minis. What types of companies do Minis sense for it?

I think all sizes. Yolo started out with the 2 founders in the south of France, and it had major success. But at the same time, we've been able to work with other major Internet companies like Spotify and Reddit. So we're really hoping to get the same diversity with Minis. And we really think the best partners will be those whose products really revolve around shared activities. So if you want to make a dinner reservation or study for a test together, something that you're doing with other people. Since your best friends are already on Snapchat, we really think the Minis can benefit from those friendships and communication that's already happening there.

What other things should developers know about?

Well, a lot of developers already know this, but it's really hard to make iOS and Android apps. And if you want to have a cross-platform, you have to build the same thing twice. So we think that HTML5 provides a lot of advantages. It's also really hard to get distribution. And because this is a new platform, and we're working with select partners to start, we think that there's a lot of opportunities here. Once 1 user starts using your Mini, it's really easy for them to get their friends into the experience. Notably, we have 2 features, share the camera and share the chat, which lets any developer share content from their Mini into the Snapchat camera as a sticker or into a chat message, something that we're really excited about, and this is for both Games and Minis, have this bottom bar at the bottom of the screen. And then this brings Snapchat features directly into Minis and Games.

Well, and I know this going to be really exciting to see Minis coming to platform. And you've seen like -- teams like Yolo invent brand new formats on top of it. What are you expecting to see from developers and our partners as they build Minis?

Yes. So we're hoping to see a lot of the continued success that we've already seen with Snap Kit and Games. I'm personally really excited about the new surface areas that people will be able to create. So for example, is Prediction Master, 1 of our launch Minis. Snapchatters are able to keep track of what's going on in the world through a new prediction format. And it just creates a new way and new reason to speak to your closest friends. I also think new social behaviors. So with Yolo, for example, we've seen people change how they post to stories to reflect the conversations they're trying to have with their friends. And at the end of the day, we're just excited to see the creativity from our developer community.

Thank you so much for sharing with us and letting us know a little more about Minis.

My pleasure. This is a lot of fun.

Of course, thanks, Danny.

Next, I'm excited to introduce Headspace's Head of Brand Experiences and Social Impact, Alice Nathoo. So just talk about how they use Headspace Mini to create safe spaces among friends. What it was like working with Snap. And helping Snapchatters find their inner calm. All right. Well, I'm really excited to be talking with you today, Alice. What is Headspace?

In terms of Headspace itself, we have been established for 10 years now. So our mission is to improve the health and happiness of the world, no small task, and we're the most sites-backed meditation app on the market. And we really just teach mindfulness. So that's the ability to be present, with a kind heart and open mind and really to help improve not only your own health and happiness but those around you.

Yes. I know that I've been using Headspace since its early days, and I absolutely love the product, and I know so many more people will. So we have some really interesting exciting stuff to talk about today because there's the Headspace Mini, which is built with the Snapchat team here. Can you tell us what is the Headspace Mini?

Sure. So really it's the way for Snapchatters to get some Headspace within Snap. It's a collection of short audio meditations, some advice and stickers, and all of that content can be shared within the camera or within chat. But really more than that, it's a way for friends to really support each other in their mental health. Leads the way for real trends to really check-in. In fact, we call it the vibe check.

Well, I love the vibe there and so I think it definitely passes the vibe check. So taking a step back, Headspace has so many folks they could build with. Why Snapchat?

So for us, it presents us an amazing opportunity to really meet people where they are. It's something we've always done as a meditation app. And with Snap -- there are these millions of young people who are talking to their friends every day. We conducted some research and we saw a great need in this for the younger generation. I mean, really, for all of us right now to help support our mental health a bit more to the point that 4 out of 5 young people interviewed cited stress, anxiety and depression as a major problem. And so we just thought it was an amazing opportunity to bring our content and tools to a platform where young people are talking to each other, and doing that in a way that they could do it responsibly to support their mental health.

Well, could you say more? I've heard about this white paper and all this research that you've been doing with Snapchat?

In the research specifically, we really looked into what those things were the Snapchatters wanted help with. And then we were able to take those exact topics and map it to our content. So we were able to see, for example, that they needed help to alleviate anxiety. So we've got the kick the panic exercise. We saw that they were stressed out, so we've got breathing exercises. We saw their issues around self-esteem, and so we put in exercises to help people be a bit kinder to themselves.

Can you talk a little bit about why you're excited about this partnership in general?

Sure. Well, it really came from the top. Evan, the founder of Snap and that with Rich, our co-founder, and they really realized they had this shared mission to really be looking out for the mental health of this younger generation. And for us, we see the skill of mindful meditation really is an amazing preventative measure. And this is particularly important in this younger age group. Just because when we're in our late teens and early 20s, we're still doing all of our social emotional learning that's really going to help establish, really, healthy relationships in later life. So we were just really excited to be able to do this with a partner where that was equally as important, to create tools that can really help their users.

Well, that's all very exciting. Well, thank you so much for -- Alice for giving us a peak behind the scenes, building the Headspace Mini and also sharing a vision for the future.

Thank you very much.

Next, I'm excited to talk to one of our Minis partners, Matthew Bakal, the CEO of Atom Tickets. We'll be discussing the process of building the Atom Mini, how they engage the Snap audience and look ahead to the future. It's really nice to be with you today. I know that I use Atom, but for the folks that don't know Atom, for the very few that don't know what Atom is, what is Atom?

So we're the most social convenient movie ticketing platform. We have about 95 different theater chains who sell tickets via Atom. And we let you invite your friends, we let you preorder your concessions, skip all the lines and get to your movie quickly.

I'm very curious. So you have an Atom Tickets App, and now you're going to have this Atom Mini that sits inside Snapchat and makes it super accessible to the massive global Snapchat community. In your eyes, how does the Atom Mini fit alongside the Atom Tickets app?

At Atom, we've always been about social moviegoing. We think movies are better experienced on the big screen, with your friends, with your family. So we always wanted to make it easy to invite your friends. But of course, where are all your friends already hanging out, they're on Snapchat. So we think of it as sort of as an extension of Atom. And then the extension of Snap sort of back on to Atom, when we use Login Kit and Creative Kit to enjoy some of the Snap features on top of Atom. And whether you start your purchase experience and Discovery on Snapchat itself and then finish there, fantastic. Whether you start on Atom and then post it back to your Snap story, fantastic. We just want to make it as convenient as possible however you start your day.

One thing I really love was seeing the little Bitmojis show up on the movie ticket seats. I think everyone at home will love to learn a little more about that experience of building a Mini. And what were you expecting going in? So can you share?

Yes. So listen, we're thrilled to be the first-class of Minis with Snap, people having the conversation natively about what they want to see, about what they're doing Friday night with their friends. So for us, let's bring that ticketing experience, that sort of closed-loop e-commerce right into Snapchat. But to have access to the Snapchat audience, again, who's natively already there and already movie lovers, over 50% of tickets are bought by the Snapchat consumers, that's just an unparalleled opportunity.

So for some of our partners and some of the folks who are considering building their own Mini, can you give us your third-party perspective behind the scenes what your team felt going through the experience working with our -- like Dylan and Patrick and the team?

We have great engineers, we have great product folks, we have great designers at Atom, and so does Snap. And I think that when people look at it, they're going to see, it's hard to say what's Atom and what's Snapchat. It's so tightly coupled and integrated, and it's really seamless. So that was what we were going for. And I think it turned out better than many of us thought it could at the beginning.

One area that I love to dive into is look at this call we're in right now, you're at home, I'm at home. And I'm certain the entertainment industry has been absolutely crushed and it will probably emerge a little different after COVID. How do you see this Mini slotting into how Atom, in a larger way, is going to help the industry get back on its feet?

So look, I mean the entertainment industry, like almost every other industry, has been hit hard by COVID. And it's going to be some slow steps back, taken safety into account, health and safety first, of course. But the movie theaters have been preparing for the last couple of months, new procedures for keeping everything clean, keeping everything safe, keeping the seats a little bit distant from one another. And when you pull up those seat maps inside of Snapchat, inside of the Atom Mini, what you'll see is social distanced seating, you'll be able to put your Bitmoji in your seat and invite your friend to sit beside you or 2 spaces over from you, whatever you prefer. And when you look at the slate that's coming out, whether it's Wonder Woman 1984, Top Gun, James Bond, the Black Widow. There are so many great movies coming. And we already know that Snapchat users account for over 50% of movie tickets in the U.S. So again, this is where the consumers are. Let's make it as easy for them to make that plan and go out with their friends. And I'm really excited about going back to the movies, and I think a lot of people are, right? We've all been in our homes. We can consume a lot of great content on your TVs. But at the end of the day, I think there's a real hunger and passion to meet up with your friends, meet up with your family and go share an experience together. Last year, only about 1/3 of moviegoers bought tickets digitally. I think that's going to change really rapidly so people don't need to pull up their wallets, don't need to touch kiosks, can do it all on their own phones. And I think that the movie tickets by Atom Mini is going to be a big part of that accelerating the sort of digital future for movie ticketing.

Well, I'm excited for it. Thank you for sharing, Matthew.

Thank you.

One last question I'd like to pose to everyone. Where do you Snap Minis going in the future?

Well, it's still early days. We only have a few Minis to start, and we really think that we're just scratching the surface. We think that Minis can be almost anything. I'm particularly really excited about co-viewing and co-listening, and I can't wait to see where Minis goes.

Looking a year or 2 years from now, having a Snap Mini to extend a lot of the amazing apps on your phone and bring the best parts of these other products into Snapchat would be amazing. We think the Minis are condensed, they're small and will really feel at home when you're already chatting with your best friends on Snapchat.

I mean the future of Minis is so expansive. There's so many other fun things to think about. When you think about getting together with your friends, going out for a night, sharing an experience, buying a t-shirt to wear on that experience, going to dinner before the movie. How many things can I just plan and execute right inside Snapchat.

I think bigger picture, the real opportunity is to create a space for vulnerable and genuine one-to-one conversations between friends. And if we could help this younger generation somewhat shift from maybe having never experienced mindfulness and meditation before to really seeing it as part of something they can have in their daily routine, that will really sort of set them up for later life. And I think to be able to do that with the Snap community is incredible.

That wraps up our discussion on Snap Minis, the next small thing. Make sure you tune in for the rest of the Snap Partner Summit conversations. We're covering everything from the Snap Camera, some of our top creators as well as the Snap generation. Thanks for joining. Take care.

Today, we're going to look at Snap Kit platform, it's evolution of our time and some of its most successful stories. Snap Kit was built on the idea that developer tools can enable amazing product experiences while maintaining the security and privacy of its users. My name is Greg Henrion, and I'm delighted for being at this year's Virtual Snap Partner Summit. Now let's meet the panelists.

My name is Alston Cheek. I'm Director of Platform Partnerships at Snap from Los Angeles, California.

I'm Esther Crawford, CEO of Squad, and I'm at home in San Francisco, California.

Hi. My name is Philippe Levieux. I'm a co-founder at infltr, and I'm currently in Brussels, Belgium.

My name is Seema Hari, and I head Partner Engineering at Snapchat, and I am in Venice, California.

But before we talk to our panelists, let me tell you more about myself. My name is Greg. I'm the CEO of Yolo, one of Snap's biggest partner on Snap Kit. Yolo is an anonymous Q&A app on Snapchat. We started as an experimentation a little more than a year ago. And over time, we grew our partnership with Snap in a more deeper and meaningful way. So now that you know a little more about me, I'm super excited to join Esther Crawford, CEO of Squad, and we'll be discussing our inspiration for the very popular screen-sharing app, and how Snap Kit helped her to make it possible. Hi, Esther.

Hey.

How are you?

I'm great. Thanks for having me.

We are super happy for you to be here. Maybe just before we start, let's -- I would let you choose 1 of your favorite Snap Lens that you feel resonates the most with you, and we'll go from there.

Yes. My go-to is definitely the underwater camera, where you've got, like, your snorkel on and fish floating by. I think it just creates the sense of presence and, like, escape in another world.

Maybe to start, it would be great if you could tell us a bit more about the Squad background, how the idea came up and what's the mission behind it?

So I grew up in a small town in Oregon and strangely enough, I actually grew up in a cult. But I discovered the Internet when I was in high school and started spending a lot of time in chat rooms and making friends outside of the bubble that I was growing up in. So that's really what brought me to building Squad is having experienced the magic of social connections and how much it changed my life. The idea for Squad originally came from a conversation with my daughter, Emma. She was 13 years old and had been on a video chat with a friend and was real super annoyed with the fact that she couldn't see what her friend was seeing at the same time. And so they were doing this thing, sending each other screen shots and links. And so that was really the idea for Squad. The mission is around reducing loneliness and helping people feel more authentically connected. And just like in the real world, the way you hang out with your friends is you sit and you chat and you also usually do something, maybe that's watch a show, listen to music, go to an event. Those are all of the things that we're enabling you to do inside of Squad today. So sort of think of it as video chat plus a shared experience.

What was the idea behind integrating with Snap?

I mean pretty early on, we were excited about the opportunity to partner with Snap because of the demographic overlap. And also just like the overlap in terms of ideas, for us, as a new platform, we really take seriously how people perceive their own privacy, what happens when you're interacting with your friends. And so as a result of that, we felt like Snap is a great ideological partner in addition to having the right tools that we were looking for to accelerate things like our log-in experience or now enhance our camera experience.

Can you tell us more about what was the first product of Snap Kit you used. How you started the integration? And basically, what was the first step of this process and why?

We first started with the Snap Login Kit. And we were curious -- to be honest, we weren't entirely sure what the outcome would be. So when you log in, there are 2 options. You can either choose just to log in with your phone number or you can use Snapchat's log in, and 70% of our users choose the Snapchat log in. It was also a better experience for them because then they brought their Bitmoji in and their name. And so there were a couple of steps that they got to skip in onboarding, which is always great for us to be able to know that, hey, we're going to get you in to have that magical moment in the app faster, which is what the Snap log in enabled us to do.

So Esther, you moved on from Login, can you tell us a bit more about the other products, camera and story that you integrated in Squad?

Yes. The next thing that we used was Creative Kit. And for us, we really saw that as a distribution opportunity. How it works is a user in Squad can select a custom sticker that they then share on Snapchat and then friends can see that they're available to hang out, watch movies, whatever the case may be. And then those users are able to come and join them in Squad. After that, we added app stories. And for us, the exciting thing about app stories as people inside of Snapchat can actually send their snaps to Squad, and that enables them to then co-watch snaps together. The last thing that we've added is Camera Kit, and given that we're a video-centric platform, it made a ton of sense to be able to leverage Snapchat's amazing AR capabilities. And so we're able to design and develop our own lenses through Lens Studio and bring that straight into Squad and what we hope over the long time is just like Snap has developed a community of creators who are building lenses on top of their platform, we'd love to see the same kind of excitement and creative expression happening on Squad.

So Esther, thank you so much for your time. We all appreciate it.

Yes. Thanks for having me.

So next, I'm going to invite Philippe Levieux in this conversation, CEO of infltr, a Snap Kit-made photo app that was Infinite Filters. We'll be talking about the process of building the app, adding integrations and why Snap Kit made sense and was the right fit for its product. So, Hi, Philippe, thank you for being here with us. So before we start the interview, maybe you can tell us a bit more about yourself, about your background and what led you to infltr?

Hi, Greg. Sure. So I had the idea for infltr about 5 years ago when the photo and video ecosystem on mobile was growing strong and I felt frustrated because most platforms were only offering a small set of fixed filter. So I came out with this algorithm, which is now patented, that lets user travel through millions of filters. And so this is how infltr, which is short for Infinite Filter was born.

So Philippe, can you tell us a bit more about how you find out about Snap Kit and why you decided to implement it in infltr?

Yes, sure. We are always looking for new ways to improve another new feature to infltr and I was really keen to extend our user base to a younger generation. At that time, we already supported a few other platforms in terms of sharing so it made a lot of sense for us to give a shot to Snap Kit. And I have to admit, it's probably the best decision we made last year. Growing a utility app as an independent developer is challenging. But when a user share from infltr to Snapchat or app is referenced within the story, and since Snapchat users are always sharing to their close friends, the likelihood of acquiring that user to that recommendation is much stronger. So Snapchat has really provided infltr with the organic growth it needed.

So can you tell us a bit more about the process of creating the app and how long it took to implement Snap Kit?

First, this was a trial period to us. We integrated Creative Kit and had a working version in a few hours. We did our best to understand all Snapchat users. For example, we realized that most of our Snapchat user were based in the Middle East or in Saudi Arabia. That demography was growing strong for us. So as a response, we quickly localized infltr in Arabic, and we hired locally for our customer support. And earlier this year, we integrated with Bitmoji. So we added Bitmoji Kit, and that was also really straightforward to implement. And now I'm really excited because our user are really engaging with that in the future.

How successful was the first step of the integration with Snap Kit?

It was an evening in July. And I look at my e-mails, and I figure out that on that day, we had, had 80,000 downloads for infltr. That was about 20x our daily average. So something was definitely happening. But then I realized that on that day, our user, they had shared 100,000 photo and video to Snapchat. So this was quite extraordinary. So at the moment, they are sharing about 540,000 photo or video every day. In total, they've shared 87 million stories, which have been seen 46 billion time. So quite proud of that. We see that our user that use Snapchat, they used -- our app, 2x more than our baseline. So obviously, revenues have grown significantly due to Snap Kit. We've been able to put a team, release a new app in January, which we call Giftr. So yes, Snap Kit has really been a game changer for our team and for the app.

Let's learn more about Snap Kit, how it did come about, how it was designed. And for that, we are joining Alston Cheek and Seema Hari from Snap. Hey, Alston, just for fun, to start, can you show us what's your favorite Snap Cam filter right now?

These days, my favorite Snap lens has got to be the one that makes me look like I'm floating around in space. When I'm working from home and my daughter has stuffed animals all in my office, it's nice to be able to block out the background when I'm on the phone with developers all day, every day.

Space is a great lens. Seema, how about you? What's the Snap Lens that you love?

My favorite Snap lens is the cat on head, where a little cat just sits on top of your head the whole time. It just like looks around slowly and smooths its hand slowly on your head. So it looks very realistic.

Most important question, why did Snap build Snap kit in the first place?

Yes. The original inspiration for Snap Kit actually came directly from our community. Snapchat is a place where best friends communicate every single day. And a big part of what they want to talk about is actually things that happen outside of Snapchat, like a song you're listening to or a show you're hooked on. And before Snap Kit, the process for bringing those experiences into Snapchat was actually quite cumbersome. But despite all that friction, our community was still going through that because they really wanted to bring the things that they were passionate about into the conversation with Snapchat. So from right there, we knew we could do much better, and that's actually how we came up with the original idea for Creative Kit. We built Creative Kit to be the best way to visually share your favorite apps and services with your best friends on Snapchat. And from there, we looked at other products that we had spent enormous amounts of time perfecting for Snapchat, like Bitmoji and Stories, and thinking about ways we could open those up for developers to take advantage of as well. We think of Snap Kit as the way to bring the world into Snapchat and Snapchat into the world.

So what do you think are the most important values Snap Kit brings to the developers?

Fundamentally, our goal with Snap Kit was to allow developers to focus on their core app and service and lean on Snap for complementary product experiences that can delight our shared users and help our partner businesses along the way.

So Seema, what about you?

Snap is such a product-focused company that takes privacy very, very seriously. So from the very beginning, we knew that we had to create a developer platform that aligns with these values. So from the start, we focused on product integrations and not data as a core value proposition of our platform. Also, Snapchat is where all my real friends are. So I'm very excited to see developers use Snap Kit and bring experiences from other apps that Snapchatters can then share with their real friends on Snapchat.

The exciting thing for us bringing Snap Kit to market was that we put the tools out there with a certain assumption of the value that they would bring. But it was really the collective creativity of the developer community that brought that value to life. Greg, you know this better than anyone. What you built with Yolo is such a fun way to ask questions and get feedback from your friends by posting a sticker to your Snapchat story. And your service resonated so much with the Snapchat community, that Yolo went to the top of the App Store Charts for weeks.

Can you describe us the evolution of the platform?

We're thrilled with the response that we've seen from the community since we launched Snap Kit in 2018. As of today, over 800 apps have integrated with the platform. And today, at the Snap Partner Summit, we're thrilled to announce 3 exciting new products: Dynamic Lenses, Snap Minis and Camera Kit.

So can you tell us more about these 3 products, Dynamic Lenses, Camera Kit and Minis and how they fall into the ecosystem?

Well, Snap Kit is really just getting started. Dynamic Lenses are an extension of Creative Kit and a really obvious one if you think about it. So we built the ability for these lenses to be populated with data from the originating app. So when you win your Fantasy Football week, not only does the lens show that, but it even shows the exact score that you won by. Snap Minis are an incredibly exciting new opportunity for developers. Now we love what our game developer partners have built on the Snap Games platform over the last year, and we knew that we could unlock some incredible new experiences if we were to extend the platform beyond games into other app use cases. And because they're built on HTML5, it's super easy for developers to spin up new product concepts. And with distribution within Snapchat and the ability to bring your friends into the experience, we think Snap Minis is an awesome new opportunity for developers to build on top of. And Camera Kit is something we're also super excited about. Even with the most sophisticated underlying technology, what our partners really care about are those amazing AR experiences that we can bring to their community. So what sets Camera Kit apart is our incredible Lens Creator Community and our powerful AR offering tool, Lens Studio, that allows our partners to imagine entirely new AR experiences that they can take to their community and are custom-tailored for their services.

We're so proud of what our partners have built with Snap Kit to date, and we can't wait to see what they build next.

Seema, Alston, thank you both so much for being here today. So let's get final takeaway from our panelists. What are you most excited to see as Snap Kit develops?

I'd like to see more of their content and games outside of the platform. So they've got all these like amazing original shows being created and all these interactive games. I think it will be fun to see if and when or how they bring that outside of Snapchat.

Well, I love Snap Kit because Snapchat builds it, but it builds it with us. So it's sort of like if we were building it together.

When we launched Snap Kit, we had a pretty strong understanding of the value that things like Stories and Bitmoji would bring to apps. But the thing that makes us so excited working on this platform is that every single day, we're introduced to new apps that are using our tools in the most creative ways that we could have never imagined. We're so honored that our tools have played some part in unlocking this incredible creativity from developers everywhere, and we can't wait to see what they dream up next.

I'm really excited about Snapchatters graduating and becoming developers and then using Snap Kit to create their own integrations on Snapchat. I mean this generation has been using Snapchat for years, and they're going to come up with things that we haven't even imagined yet.

That wraps up our discussion on winning with Snap Kit. Be sure to tune in for the rest of the Snap Partner Summit conversations, and thank you very much to be with us.

Today we'll be looking at the Snapchat Camera, what it can do and how it can elevate your business through AR. Snapchat's camera ecosystem is changing. From Lens Search to Lens Explorer, the AR Bar and Scan, we're bringing the power of the Snapchat Camera to businesses in a way that's helping them approach the AR world in a new way. I'm Ceci Mourkogiannis, joining you from my home in Los Angeles. And today we'll be joined by several industry leaders who are using the Snapchat Camera to take their businesses and campaigns to the next level. So let's meet them now.

Hi, everybody, I'm Hannah Winner, I am the Head of Products at Triller in Los Angeles, California.

Hi there, my name is Ian Rogers. I'm the Chief Digital Officer at LVMH here in Paris.

Hi, I'm Eric Ralls, Founder and CEO of PlantSnap from Telluride, Colorado.

So let me tell you a little more about me. I'm a product designer at Snapchat. And over the last few years, I've worked with a talented group of designers and engineers on developing the Snapchat Camera ecosystem and the features that make it easy to find the right effects for the right moments. So when I joined Snapchat 2.5 years ago, we had just launched Lens Studio, an incredibly powerful tool that makes it possible for anyone in the world to create a lens and share it with the Snapchat community in a very short period of time. At that time, we had thousands of lenses. 2.5 years later, we have over 1 million. And the question on our mind over the last couple of years, as we've scaled this community, has really been how can we deliver the right lens to the right person at the right time? And we've made several investments in this area, starting with things like Textual Lens Search, Lens Explorer, which exposes the entire catalog of creations by a community to users, and of course, Scan. Scan enables you to find the right lens for the right moment simply by scanning what's in front of you, whether that's a dog, some food, a tree, a beach, a sunset or a mountain, simply pressing hold on the screen while your camera is focused on the object and will deliver an incredible, contextually relevant creative experience for that moment. But what about if a thing in front of you isn't what you're trying to find a lens for? And in fact, you want to use your imagination and let it run wild? Well, that's really what Voice Scan is about. Simply say, "Hey, Snapchat, turn my hair pink. Hey, Snapchat, show me a unicorn, show me an elephant." Anything your imagination can think of, we've got a lens for it. Okay. So now that you know a little more, let's dive in and learn more about the Snapchat Camera and how creators, developers and businesses can get involved. To do that, we're going to be speaking with Ian Rogers, Chief Digital Officer at LVMH, who is partnering with Snapchat on building AR experiences triggered by their logo.So before we get started, I would love for you to tell me your favorite Snapchat lens.

Well, I suppose that's as difficult as choosing my favorite Winamp skin in 1999. But if I had to choose, I would go with the one that turns you into a baby in sort of like the hooded jumper. I mean who doesn't like that one? It never gets old. And I think that's the one that I have to choose because I've actually taken that image and printed it on a postcard and sent it to people, like a physical cardboard postcard.

Okay. Ian, I'd love to start by having you tell us a little bit about your background and what you do at LVMH.

Sure. I've been the Chief Digital Officer at LVMH for the past 5 years. And prior to that, I was in the music business. And at LVMH, we're undergoing a massive digital transformation, and I've been helping the team with that.

How important is the camera to your strategy today?

Well, if you think about it, for a luxury company like LVMH who works in a variety of sectors, our customers are using their cameras constantly. Right? So -- and they're certainly using their cameras in their shopping experience, whether it's through virtual try on -- of a makeup or just taking a picture and sending it to a friend as part of the shopping experience. So the camera is already a huge part of our business.

And why did this partnership with Snapchat stand out to you?

I think what we've been able to do with Snapchat is really push the boundaries of what's possible with the camera and consumers today, right? I mean, it's one thing to talk about the augmented reality of the future, but there are lots of ways that augmented reality is already in the hands of consumers. So doing things such as virtual try-on or looking at a product and then getting more information about that product, or going straight from one of those virtual try-on experiences to a commerce experience. I mean, these are all things that 5 years ago was a conversation of something that we might do someday, but that we're actually doing with Snap and Snapchat today.

What is it about Snapchat and Snapchatters, in particular, that makes this such an interesting opportunity?

Well, I think that what Snapchat has is a critical mass of consumers who are really pushing the boundaries of what's possible with their camera. So you have people that are communicating with each other, consuming content, but also just creating. And I think that, that's incredibly unique in the marketplace. And so I think that the opportunity for us is to innovate alongside them.

How do you see LVMH's partnership with Scan evolving over time?

What we're doing now is testing. And we've been testing with a number of our brands. So from Louis Vuitton and Dior, to Givenchy and Sephora, MAKE UP FOR EVER and others, we're really testing and testing what's possible. But also what do consumers like, what works in this format? From my perspective, that's always where it gets interesting, is when you transition from -- and no offense meant to what I do or my colleagues, but from the "digital teams" into the creative teams, the same people who are making the fashion shows, et cetera, and you really show them what's possible with technology. And then I think the next step is where you end up using it as an open creative canvas that transcends commerciality and really puts the 2 worlds together.

And how else do you see the camera evolving when it comes to fashion and beauty specifically?

Right now, we're at a moment where it is basically impossible to sample beauty products in a store. And we're not sure what happens with sampling as we recover from COVID-19. So when you think about virtual try-on, I think that the use case for virtual try-on in beauty just went way up. And you could apply that in other things in our space, too, like jewelry, watches, et cetera. And try-on, in fashion, is a massive unlock, right? The return rates for fashion buying online are extraordinarily high. And so any way that we can help the consumer get a better picture of what this product is going to look like on them in their space, alongside other things they might use, anything that we can do in that space is going to be a huge unlock for us. So it's a very exciting space for the entire industry.

Very interesting, Ian. Thank you. My next guest is Hannah Winner, Head of Product at Triller. I'd love to have you start by explaining what is so unique about Triller.

Triller is an AI-powering music video making tool. The thing that makes us unique from other social streaming and social media platforms is our community are our own platform, so our creators. And that unique quality is largely built on our music library feature. So we have licensing agreements in place that allow us to provide almost every song imaginable for our users so that they can make these really cool music videos in seconds. And it's not simply listening to a song, it's not simply watching an artist's music video.

So why is the team so excited about Camera Kit?

Practically speaking, our engineering team is very tiny compared to most of these other giants in the space. We're mighty. We're able to tackle a lot of projects simultaneously. But Snapchat is here to help provide this boost and really propel us forward at an unprecedented rate, and I think it's really great to be able to leverage those resources and those connections and partnerships.

So we've seen some awesome collaborations between Lens creators and musicians on Snapchat already. But what opportunities do you see for collaborations between Lens creators and musicians on Triller?

So I foresee a new crop of artists becoming a part of the Triller ambassador team. In terms of making this really unique splash, Lens creators can kind of come in alongside our in-house designers and bring new ideas to the table, things that our own team in London may not have thought about. And I think the Lens creator community is so diverse in and of itself. So we're bringing in all these different perspectives and styles and ideas to the table. And I think, in addition to that, being able to highlight that work from those creators on our carousel is going to be a really, really great way to provide that exposure to that new type of artist.

Awesome. Next up, I'm so excited to speak with one of Scan's newest partners. For those who don't know, Scan works with Snapchat's camera to help recommend relevant information and creative tools simply by pointing your phone at the world around you. I'd love you to talk to us a little bit about PlantSnap's mission.

PlantSnap is a real simple concept. You take a photo of a plant, and PlantSnap tells you what it is. We're trying to make it fun to notice and interact with nature and learn a little bit about it. Nature needs us right now.

So why did you and your team jump at the opportunity to partner with Snapchat on Scan?

Our main mission is to map every plant species on the planet by 2022. That takes a lot of people, a lot of pictures. Snapchat is the perfect opportunity, perfect partner to help us get this app out there, get our algorithm out there and get as many people snapping photos of plants everywhere they go. This is going to help us build a scientific database that universities and academicians and climate scientists can use to determine the health of plant species, determine the movement of plant species. It's a herculean task, but we think that partnering with Snapchat will help us get there.

So Eric, tell me why are you so excited to partner with Snapchat's Scan platform?

Snapchat gives us access to an entirely different demographic than what we currently have. Understanding plants is a great way to start noticing plants. And how the -- how you're surrounded by them every day, bringing attention to a younger generation, getting them interested in plants, making them notice plants when they walk by, making them want to know what type of plant that is, getting them interested in the environment so that they help future generations protect what we've built here on the planet. We're here to take care of it. It's an amazing place. We're fortunate to be here. And I'm hoping that by integrating PlantSnap into Snap Scan can play a little bit of a role in educating the younger generation and getting them more involved in saving this amazing little blue marvel.

Thanks, Eric. Final takeaway. Before our panelists go, I'd like to ask them one last question. What excites you most about the future of Snapchat's camera?

I think I'm most excited to see how Triller can both learn and adapt and really push the limits of AR technology in the space alongside all these various content partners that are going to inevitably bring great creative energy to the product overall. And I think it's going to be very, very exciting to watch how quickly our user base kind of grows with this new functionality. I really think it's going to be a game changer.

Snapchat, what doesn't excite me about it? It's that you're constantly innovating. There's always new toys to play with, new innovations.

What we do at LVMH is we add operational efficiency and firepower to creativity. And that's why the partnership with Snapchat makes sense because that is what you're doing on the software side as well. You're taking the firepower of the phone and the firepower of the camera and the firepower of the network and marrying that with community and content creators into something that is exciting today, and we don't even know what is possible tomorrow. And it's up to the creative minds to show us.

Well, that wraps up today's conversation around the Snapchat Camera. Make sure to stay tuned to learn more during the Snap Partner Summit. I'm Ceci Mourkogiannis, thanks for joining.

Exclusive interviews of some of the most talked about creators on Snapchat. What's up, everybody. Welcome to our Snap Star Power Panel as part of SPS 2020. We have a lot to cover today from new features to augmented reality to Snap Originals production. And stick around for the end because we're going to call and check in on an old friend who just happens to be a Snapchat legend. But first, let's meet our Snap Stars.

Hello. My name is Rickey Thompson. I am the guy who loves to make you laugh. And right now, I am in Los Angeles, California.

I'm Heidi.

I'm Dixie.

I'm Charli.

I'm Mark.

And we're the D'Amelios coming to you from our house in Connecticut.

Hey, it's Bryant. I'm a photographer and Lens creator from Orange County, California.

Hi, guys. It's Jordyn Jones. And I'm a singer, songwriter and content creator, and I am in Michigan.

Hello, everyone. My name is Austin McBroom. I am from the Ace family, and I am talking to you from Los Angeles.

Before we dive in, I just got to ask, what is everyone's favorite Snap Camera lens. Austin?

Well, I was hoping you would ask me that question. So I feel like this one is rare, but I use it so much that it just keeps reoccurring. I believe it's called the Airy Shadows. If I have a pimple or a blemish, it just makes it so smooth you can barely see it. Or if I get a haircut, it really defines my hair. I love it. Look at that. Just look at that.

Bryant, what's yours? Did you make that lens?

Yes. It's actually one of my most recent lenses that I made, and it's called For You - Grain. Yes, it's one of my new favorites.

Dixie, I've noticed that you use a lot of Bryant's lenses.

He comes out with a new one, like, every day and that one turns into my favorite. But I really like his bahamas filter and his bahamas light eyes filter.

Bryant, obviously, your work is beloved by your friends and also tons of our users. How did you start making lenses and become an official Lens creator?

I ended up going to a Snapchat event up in Santa Barbara. It was for the Spectacles event. And I ended up meeting a lot of other Lens creators. And I just asked them a bunch of questions. And since I already have some experience with other programs, like editing programs, it was pretty easy to learn after 30 minutes of kind of being walked through Lens Studio. Ever since I've just been so hooked on to making lenses for Snap.

So Austin, you've also been working hard, putting out content across the Internet, gaining so many subscribers on Snapchat, starting a family while also starting a business on our platform. What's that been like?

We just took a leap of faith and jumped into the YouTube space and decided to make videos. And next thing you know, we just started kind of -- it was a slow start, but once we learned, the consistency gain kind of picked up from there. And that's when we discovered Snapchat. When Snapchat came out with the swipe up feature, it was able to allow our fans to watch our videos so much quicker and so much easier. And just by that swipe up feature that Snapchat offered, we gained around 300,000 to 500,000 more views than normal.

So Rickey, you've done so much on Snapchat this year, from shooting a creator show called Trend or End to shooting a Snap Original called Road Trippin'. What was it like making that show?

Oh, my goodness. Like, literally making the show was one of the best times of my life. So basically, we got to travel across the U.S. and experience different types of things I thought I would never, ever, ever be able to experience. Like we talked about this with like, oh my gosh, we would never go gator feeding, we would never go skydiving, we would never go roller-derbying. And this whole experience really got us out of our comfort zone, and it really showed us that there's so many cool and fun places you can go to all around the U.S. So it was an amazing experience.

Jordyn, you've been on Snap for a while. Have you noticed anything different since you've gotten the Gold Star?

I've been Snapchatting religiously for years and years and years, so I love the recognition I got from having my Gold Stars. It doesn't really, I feel like, change a lot because I've always been able to talk to my fans, and I've always been able to, like, post to my Snapchat story. But now it's just like a cooler thing. And I love like the new replies.

Yes. You're such a Snap OG that you might know the products as well as I do. And you mentioned some of our newest products: Full-page Profiles, highlights, enhanced Insights. And I'm curious, do those features change the way that you use Snapchat?

I love looking at my Insights, who's watching, where at, what other kind of content that the people who are watching me watch. I love their replies. It's so cool and it's so new. I definitely feel like my Snapchat fans are my most, like, strong fans I have. And now like I can ask questions, and I can see people's feedback. And I can just post like a random picture and have people say nice things.

Dixie, have you noticed any changes since you got the Gold Star?

My views definitely went up a lot, by, like, 2 million, which is...

Rickey, what about you?

Oh, my goodness, yes, yes, yes. I think it's so cool now that I am able to see my Snap stats. I always wanted to see like who's watching and who am I catering to and all of that. And I find it so cool. So now I'm like, okay, a way to up my Snap views, I know that these people are watching at this time. Then also the new feature where people can reply to your Snaps, which is really cool.

And Charli, have you been able to use any of these new features?

For me, I'd say the highlights have been something I really like because I have different categories. Like, I have a category for all my dancing videos on Snapchat that I do. So I think it's really cool to always have something out there for people to watch.

What types of messages have your fans been sending in on story replies?

I think a lot of the people that watch our Snapchat stories just want to ask us questions. That we may be -- like don't get to answer. So it's really nice to be, like, giving them a response and/or just telling them like, hey, like just anything. It's really -- it's really cool to just be able to engage as much as you can.

I like post sometimes like good morning snaps and good nights snaps, and then a bunch of people tell me like good morning and good night. So it's comforting.

You were both named official partners of UNICEF's Anti-Bullying Campaign, which is so incredible. And I'm curious, how has your own experience on social media impacted your desire to help others?

You're really able to see how social media people and people that do the same things as us in their everyday lives, like, we go through the same emotions, and it's really not any different. And it just gives both of us a platform to talk about the things that maybe some people aren't comfortable talking about. So I think it's been a really great way to try and reach people that might feel like they have no one because that we still know that like we're always there to support everyone and just be positive.

Do you all feel the same kind of pressure when you post on Snapchat as you do elsewhere on the Internet?

I was actually talking about this today. I'm very true to myself on social media. So I think it's a really cool way to just be myself and not get any negative feedback because there's no comments there. It's like -- it's a way to just express yourself without having to hear any negative. So I think that that's a really cool thing that Snapchat has.

Jordyn, what do you think?

Snapchat, it's just like a fun, safe place, and I just really like it and enjoy it. And I'm completely myself, and I'm -- I don't think about, oh, I don't look like this or I'm not wearing this. So -- but Snapchat's always just been like my safe place, my hard-core fans and just positivity, so we're thriving.

Bryant, I'm curious to hear your thoughts here.

I think Snapchat is probably the only platform that I don't feel any pressure. Just because I feel like I can post whatever I want without necessarily having to worry too much about it. It's almost like a -- I look at it as like my disposable camera. It's like a quick -- you take it out, you shoot something, you post it and it's there.

Rickey, how about you?

At first it was very, like, nerve-racking. I was nervous. I was, like, okay, are people going to like this, are people going to like that, I don't know. But then I will say like Snap really helped me and really prepped me for like sharing my life towards the world. I want to show people my life and that's what I do. I love the fact that I have a voice, I am myself, I'm just being myself. And the fact that people are inspired by that really makes me happy.

When social distancing restrictions are completely lifted, what's the first thing we're going to see on everyone's story?

I actually really just want to go and sit at a cafe. Like, I miss brunch so much. I'm so upset I took it for granted.

So we want to do something where we're out with our fans, interacting, giving back and being able to Snap that experience.

Hanging out with my friends.

Probably the first thing I'm going to post is reuniting with my boyfriend.

I just want to be able to travel again. I've been thinking about somewhere like Mexico, Mexico beaches would be awesome.

I need a haircut very badly. It's been over a year at this point, I think.

So everyone loves following each of you. But as we wrap up here, I'm curious who some of your favorite Snapchatters are to follow.

Oh my goodness, it would have be the OGs, Paris Hilton.

Some of the people that I follow and watch their stories are the D'Amelios and I'm still watching DJ Khaled stories. I've been watching his stories forever.

One of the main reasons I use Snapchat is just so I can post every single one of Bryant's filters, just because, like, I like to. So I feel like he's the reason that we love Snapchat. One of them.

Other than my wife, if there's one person, I have to say Kevin Hart. Sometimes when I'm feeling down and I just get on his Snap because it's super quick and just watching his videos, and it's exciting to see.

Well, that does it for our panel. Thank you all so much for being here. But before we let you go, we're going to call and check in on one of my favorite Snapchatters to follow. And let me see if I can get this to work. Hang on. Governor, how are you?

I've been terrific. Thank you very much. Hanging out here at home, it's a little bit different than it used to be. But since the coronavirus, we all have to do our social distancing.

So let's get right into it because I know your time is super valuable. You've shared so many amazing moments over the years from the Arnold Classic to trips across Europe to movie sets. What's your favorite thing you've ever put on Snapchat?

Snapchat is, for me, kind of like the ideal kind of way of sharing because for some reason there always was -- someone did never enjoy when it's all something by myself or alone. I always wanted to have my friends there, where I always wanted to share with the world what I see. So then Snapchat came along. And now I can share all this stuff with people. So to me, I just love going around and Snapchatting. And especially when I go to the, for instance, the Arnold Classic. Sometimes I just jump out of the seat with my phone and I turn around and I Snapchat and film the whole action because I cannot believe, I want everyone to see what I am seeing with my eyes. Like this muscular guy, or if someone breaks a world record in deadlifts or something. I like to be there and just film it. Sometimes you see people that have -- that are handicapped and that maybe have one leg missing or something like that, and you see them clean and jerking 350 pounds. I want the world to see that because they will get us inspired as I was when I was seeing it.

Recently, you gave a commencement address on Snapchat for all the graduates out there who have had graduation ceremonies canceled, and millions around the world tuned in. What was it like to do that?

Well, you have to understand that up until now, I mean, things changed so much. It's just mind-boggling if you think about it. I mean the technology. I mean here I was, giving many commencement speeches in the past, but it's always kind of like for 5,000 students. And now Snapchat is asking me to do a speech, a commencement speech, for the world. That's what this university that has invited me, not maybe to have a few little clipses on an evening news of a line that I said, of 2 lines I said. No, it's for the whole world, for all the students. It doesn't matter if they are in Africa or if they are in Asia, if they're in Australia, if they're in Europe, if they are in the Middle East, wherever they are, millions and millions of students -- as a matter of fact, there's a potential of over 200 million of them seeing this commencement speech. I was really happy and I was honored to give this commencement speech. And my message was very clear. The coronavirus is an obstacle right now, but it is a learning experience that obstacles like this will come our way throughout our own entire life. This is nothing new. This just happens to be a very historic obstacle, but there will be through their whole life, there will be obstacles thrown in front of you, and you better get used to it and adjust to that.

So we've just wrapped up a panel with some of the biggest stars on Snapchat, many of whom are high school age, and they've had so many events canceled or postponed recently. What would you tell them to think about during these challenging times?

Well, I think, first of all, it is important for me to say congratulations. I mean, to be at that age already a Snapchat star, to be a star, that is fantastic. But now the key -- that means basically that you're very talented, you're very smart. So what do you do with that? So you can do a lot of things with that for yourself. But my important part always is, is to give something back to the community. I think that when you have -- when you're a Snapchat star, you can go and you can go and sit there and complain about things that are happening around the world or around your community, or around your country, or you can go and do something about it because you have a lot of power now. So to me, it's always important, take, but also remember that an end, we are always being remembered by how much we give, not by how much we make. And so give something back to the community, give something back for people that need help. That is, I think, an important message.

Thank you so much for joining us, Arnold. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Hasta la vista, baby.

That wraps up our Snap Star Power Panel. Be sure to tune in to the rest of the summit because we're covering everything from Snap Kit to AR to Minis and so much more. Thank you so much for watching.

Tastemakers and Snap experts on the Snap generation and how to move forward after COVID-19. The Snap generation is paving the way for the world's economic rebound while setting new trends across the board. Today, we'll delve into insights on Snapchatter behavior, understand how they interact with businesses using amazing Snap tools and make some informed predictions about what's to come post COVID-19. I'm Savannah Sellers, host of Stay Tuned on Snapchat, and let's meet today's panelists.

Hi, I'm Lauryl Schraedly. I'm the Global Head of Consumer Insights for Snapchat from Huron, Ohio.

Hi. I'm Melanie Shreffler. I'm the VP of Custom Solutions at Cassandra, and I'm from New York City.

Hi, I'm Gretchen Saegh-Fleming. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer at L'Oréal USA from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

So just a little bit about me before we get started. I'm one of the co-hosts of Stay Tuned, which is an NBC News-produced show for Snapchat, and therefore, the Snap generation. Stay Tuned, in general, has really made us at NBC News think about how to reach the Snapchat generation. We are thinking about the best way to bring the story to our audience in a way that really will resonate with them in this particular age group. We want to give them the information and updates that they need, but not create unnecessary anxiety and also give them options about how to give back or give them some good news. And we are seeing our audience respond in huge numbers right now. They are watching by the millions. And it's really encouraging to know that they want this information. They want it in the places that they are anyway, that they are interacting with their friends and consuming all different types of information. And we're meeting them there and we are specifically producing and writing and thinking about them with every step of the way when we create our show. And it's been really neat to see right now, especially during this time. So before we dive in with our partners, I think it's important we examine some insights on the Snap generation, what themes we're seeing for the coming year and what COVID recovery will look like. For that, there's no one better to talk to than Snap's very own Lauryl Schraedly.

Hi, Lauryl. Thanks so much for doing this. I'm so excited to talk to you. I love talking to other members of the Snapchat family. And in that vein, I have a very important first question for you, which is, what Snap cam filter are you loving right now?

I love the puppy dog. It's a classic, and it makes me laugh.

Yes, Lauryl. That's exactly what I was going to say, classic. Love that answer. All right. Well, now I can really get into this here, which is talking about the Snap generation. You are, of course, an expert. So can you just sort of walk us through an overview about them? What makes them, them? What makes them unique? What do they care about?

The Snap generation, first and foremost, really cares about their community. They're ushering in this new wave of positivity and they care deeply about their friends, their family and the planet. 3 and 4 of them agree that it's important to stay on top of world events. And nearly half are a member of a minority race or ethnicity. They're also the largest global generation and really value authenticity and individuality. Finally, they really also prioritize the welfare of others. And 6 in 10 say mental health is really the cause that they care most about.

So Lauryl, you mention that they are very in tune with current events. I can speak from experience of hosting a news show on the Snapchat platform, Stay Tuned, that, that definitely seems true for us. So let's switch gears now to current events and what's going on right now with COVID. Are you seeing any type of specific app engagement or any trends with them? What are we seeing from this generation on the road to COVID recovery?

So overall, they're definitely still concerned. 80% of Snapchatters are concerned about COVID-19. But they're really most concerned about their friends and their family and overall societies. In terms of trends that we're seeing online and in apps, we're seeing more engagement as people have more time. But specifically, we're seeing more engagement in the at-home entertainment space. Within the gaming space, mobile apps are also really growing. We're seeing an interesting trend within the CPG space. So similar to the last few years where we've seen more beauty brands go direct-to-consumer, we're seeing that now across a number of CPG categories. So that's really an alternative to buying from retail and going straight to the CPG brand themselves. We really aren't sure exactly where this will settle, but we think the brands and the retailers that have made investments in distribution as well as e-com platforms will be most poised to really succeed in the long term.

This generation has obviously been through a lot. I would imagine, just like the rest of us, they are especially feeling like they just sort of want to be done with this drama for a while.

Yes, they have been through a lot with the political divisiveness, and they're really looking for more a message of unity and positivity. Instead of focusing on differences, they really want to focus on individuality and celebrating that. And they really embrace these attributes through technology as well. The next trend that we're seeing is really around innovation. They really expect brands to continually innovate even if they aren't succeeding. So 76% respect brands that innovate even if they do fail. Finally, the Snapchat generation really wants to feel like brands are listening to them. It goes much further beyond just the marketing tactics of the past and more about having an authentic, holistic point of view as a brand. One way to hook this audience is really through entertainment. So 3 in 4 consumers in the Snapchat generation prefer light and uplifting content over something that's more dark and serious. They also are willing to watch ads that they find entertaining, creative and funny and really don't mind them as long as they see entertainment value there.

Okay, Lauryl. I know that you sort of touched on this in that last fantastic and info-packed answer you gave me. But specifically, how does this generation think about brands and marketing?

Yes. So with the Snapchat generation, it's really important for brands to be very values-driven and have a perspective beyond just the transaction. They're loyal consumers and really feel the brands that they choose reflect their personal brand. So now is really the time to make that connection and enjoy their support for decades to come.

Thank you so much, Lauryl. We all just learned a ton, I am sure. That was awesome.

Thank you.

Next, I want to hear from Melanie Shreffler from Cassandra. Her team always has an eye to the horizon when it comes to young consumers, understanding trends, anticipating market shifts and preparing brands for the future. So Melanie, in your eyes, how does this generation see and experience the world? And then how does that compare with the rest of us, with other generations?

Sure. So Gen Z has actually grown up with unprecedented access and choice. It's made them incredibly globally minded. They have friends around the world. They're interacting with those people. They're really able to see everyday life through the lens of other people's eyes in a really interesting way. And if you think about it, it's actually incredibly changed what they're capable of. Otherwise, how could you have a young woman from Sweden be able to launch a global movement rallying an entire generation behind her and get everyone focused on climate change? And so they really are thinking through almost everything that they do in a much more self-aware way. So they really are conscientious about the decisions that they make in ways that I've never seen with other generations.

So now when you mention that sort of breadth of choice that they have and then also just the options that they have when it comes to technology, their fluency with it, that brings a lot of things into play for brands to consider. Have you seen brands sort of change how they market, both in creative and in media, to this generation specifically?

Absolutely. I mean one of the things that has always surprised me about this young generation is their desire to be seen as individuals. But also when you think about brands and treating them as individuals, it means that you really have to look at the human that you're talking to. You can't just look at them as a sales target. So the lesson there for brands is to try to figure out how you can actually engage like their friends, talk to them in a way that their friends do, engage on the platform to their friends, and they are spending time on together. It creates a much more native conversation, a much more natural conversation for them. And it can actually open up a lot of opportunities for brands to really showcase the personality and actually let themselves stand apart from the other brands that they're trying to compete with.

Yes, Gen Z can sniff out authenticity and if they are being told the truth like nobody else I've ever seen. They're also being targeted with ads. It's got to feel like it belongs there.

Absolutely. And when it's a young person who's used to those platforms, native to those platforms, it really stands out to them if you're not getting it right.

So we talked about these 3 key trends for brands to consider when they're thinking about this generation. And that's drama is done, innovation requires empathy and that brands have a new baseline. What would your advice be to these brands about what to consider when they are trying to adapt for this generation?

Sure. I think that there are 2 recommendations I would make. Number one is to actually be positive. This actually connects to the idea that drama is done. So if you think about this generation has come of age during the era of school shootings, post 9/11, climate change issues and now COVID-19. So finding ways to help them be positive is incredibly important. The other thing kind of connected to that is to really find a way to build humor meaningfully into your marketing messaging. And there's probably never been a time in the world that we've needed more reason to laugh and to actually just smile sometimes than right now. So finding ways to build humor into your messaging is really important.

Absolutely. That is such a good point, too; to make sure that it is actually of that generation.

Completely. And actually, I mean, look to the young people themselves to actually create that humor for you. And then help them share and spread it, you actually give them the attention and the street cred that they're looking for when they actually create that kind of humor. And then your brand actually becomes a facilitator and the platform for the place to get that kind of humor. So it's really a win-win for both the consumer and the brand. So if you let them take control of the conversation, they're the ones who are controlling culture anyway. Let them take control of the conversation, and they'll take you with them on that journey.

Wow, I love that. Well, thank you so much, Melanie. Love all these insights.

You bet.

Next, I'm very excited to speak with Gretchen Saegh-Fleming, the CMO of L'Oréal. She'll be sharing her own experiences with marketing for young consumers and talk to us about how L'Oréal is positioning itself for COVID recovery. Now, Gretchen, I'm so excited to hear from you as the CMO of this huge legacy brand and talk about how you guys connect with Generation Z. So I would first just love to know, in your opinion, what do you think makes this generation unique?

First of all, I think Gen Z is the most diverse and mission-driven consumer base yet. For them, beauty is the true self-expression, and that means something completely different for every individual in a completely unique way. And at L'Oréal, as you can imagine, we are delighted to embrace and support that. Gen Z is also the most technologically enabled generation yet. And tech has really given them access to a much broader, deeper world than previous generations at their age. And so at L'Oréal, we are committed to meeting them where they are.

So with all of those things in mind about this sort of being their worldview, the lens that they see things through, what does that mean this generation thinks about brands and marketing?

Yes, Gen Z is not looking to be courted by brands in the same way that millennials do. They're generally more externally oriented and share a strong collective will to improve the status quo, whether that's tackling climate change, resetting gender and sexual norms, exposing racial and economic injustice. Brands that win with Gen Z are the brands that really lead from a values-driven position and are seen as allies in those -- the fights to improve the status quo.

So how has that meant that you've had to adapt at L'Oréal to speak to this generation?

Yes. What we found is that playing it safe when it comes to the Gen Z is really low risk, low reward. And so when brands lead with values, lead with purpose, we find that, that really does connect or give us the opportunity to speak to Gen Z in a way that resonates.

Totally. I can so speak to that values aspect hosting a news show on Snapchat. There are just so many things that resonates so strongly that we can clearly see these values that this generation aligns with. And now speaking of Snap, I actually am really excited to hear about a specific example of your company sort of taking all that in mind and using it in Snapchat and how you've been able to connect with that audience within Snapchat. Can you tell us about something you've done?

Yes, sure. We've been partners with Snapchat for a long time. And we actually decided together that in this quarantine economy or the socially distant reality that we're all living in, that we had a unique opportunity to connect with consumers and give them an opportunity to engage. So we launched 8 of the first beauty lenses for Snap Camera. Several of our brands participated. And we gave the consumer the opportunity to try on different makeup looks, whether that's through color, through hair color, skin care, even fragrance, and to basically bring that with them into their Zoom app, GoToMeeting, Google Hangout, and give them the ability to have really a very low fuss makeup look in the socially distant environment. I think there's a couple of reasons why it's really resonated and people are having so much fun with it. First of all, it's about self-expression and play and color, which is just really engaging. And then secondly, everyone's kind of at home. We're away from our loved ones. We're away from our friends and our family. You don't necessarily want to get up in the morning and get ready and get dressed for work in the way that you normally would if you were headed to the office. But of course, you still want to look your best. And so I think it's just given people the opportunity to kind of look and feel their best in a no fuss, really simple, fun way.

Yes, I kind of want to try hosting my whole Snapchat show with it.

You should. Let us know how it goes.

I will. Thanks so much, Gretchen.

Yes, delighted to be here. Thanks for including me.

All right. Just one more question that I would actually like to ask the whole group. And that is what challenge are you most excited to see this generation tackle in the future? Lauryl, let's start with you.

Yes, I'm really most excited for this generation to bring fun and positivity and really unity back to the forefront of society. I so admire the way that they celebrate their friends and their friendships and really lift each other up. And I can't wait to watch them use technology just to continue to enhance that and spread it globally.

Melanie, how about you?

The thing that I would like to see Gen Zs work on for the future is actually their own happiness. Taking a bit of time for self-care, for a little bit of mental health, I think, is incredibly important for them. So that would be my goal for them, is to actually think about their own happiness to achieve that happiness in the future.

And Gretchen, how about you?

I'm really excited for this generation to take on climate change. At L'Oréal, we've made significant commitments to improve our overall sustainability and our environmental footprint. And a lot of those ideas have come from younger members of our workforce. So whether that's leveraging renewable energy sources or reducing our plastic footprint. And we're only just getting started. So I'm really excited to see where this leads.

Absolutely. And I love that a theme here has been talking to Gen Z, not just about Gen Z, having them in the room, having them in those conversations and taking their ideas seriously. And thank you guys all so much. Those were all such fantastic answers to this huge question. That wraps up our discussion on the Snap generation and the road to recovery. Be sure to tune in for the rest of the Snap Partner Summit. There are so many amazing panels and conversations and so much to share. Thank you for joining us here. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Take care.