How BNP Paribas is targeting millennials on Snapchat

Banks are testing the waters on Snapchat to reach its young user base. This week, BNP Paribas, France's largest bank and one of the world's biggest, went full steam on Snapchat through a global partnership with the app's parent Snap Inc., the first such arrangement for a European bank. "The plan is acquire more millennials for our employee base and understand how we can interact with this new generation," said Romain Chapron, the bank's digital media partnerships manager. The challenge with Snapchat is to create content that holds users' interest. BNP is featuring its employees in short videos that show potential recruits what it's like to work at the bank and doing Snap ads to promote the bank's products. It's also using lenses and branded geofilters that highlight sponsored events such as the French Open tennis tournament. The campaign will run for a year, and the videos will be posted daily on BNP Paribas' Snapchat channel. The company said its ads will be posted in live stories and Discover channels, and where relevant, cross-posted to Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. The bank has maintained an active presence on Snapchat over the past year, and as part of recruitment campaign last fall, churned out weekly videos from its Snapchat channel. The videos emphasized work-life balance and fun. The bank also took part as an influencer in #CampusStories, a Snapchat guide for students studying abroad.

BNP Paribas Snapchat video posted to YouTube For the Snapchat partnership, the bank is producing some of the videos in-house, while using agencies including Publicis and Havas for others. "We have to deploy a fun approach in tone of voice, which is something new for us as a bank, and we have to be very creative," Chapron said.  BNP Paribas launched similar arrangements with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter two years ago. It's smart move for bank to develop a presence on Snapchat before going deep on the platform, analysts say. "Millennials have been very guarded with brands encroaching on the Snapchat space, and brands have to very careful on how they engage on the platform," said Christopher Barnes, managing director of Market Strategies International, a market research firm that focuses on the financial services sector. "They've done a good job producing relevant content, and again, ramping up."