June 12, 2024
June 12, 2024

Snapchat Boosts Ticket Sales for Theatrical Advertisers

Samba TV finds that Snapchat produced a 91% lift in ticket sales.

In an era when consumers have more options than ever for watching content, it can be challenging to drive ticket sales. New research from Samba TV and Kantar shows how Snapchat encourages people to get out and see your movie the way it was meant to be seen: in the theater. With over 800 million monthly active users and reaching over 75% of 13- to 34-year-olds, Snapchat is the perfect place to reach a highly engaged moviegoing audience.


Snapchat Brings People Back to Theaters

In order to help advertisers understand Snapchat’s impact on theatrical releases, we partnered with Samba TV. Samba used Fandango data to assess the incremental impact of Snapchat advertising on theatrical ticket sales by comparing ad-exposed audiences with a control group.

The results? Snapchat drove a 91% lift in ticket sales.¹


Exposure to campaigns on Snapchat delivered 91 percent lift in ticket sales


Moreover, campaigns that leveraged multiple Snapchat ad products, such as our full takeover suite and Lens auction, drove a lift of 102%


Snapchatters Are More Likely to Go to the Movies

It’s clear that reaching Snapchatters can have a significant impact on ticket sales. But with all the content options and platforms out there, how does the Snapchat audience compare to non-Snapchatters? To answer that, we partnered with Kantar to better understand Snapchatters’ movie-going habits, behaviors, and motivations relative to other platforms.

Kantar found that Snapchatters still love going to the movies. In fact, 92% of weekly Snapchatters surveyed by Kantar are theatergoers. And on top of that, Snapchatters are 1.5x more likely to watch a movie in theaters every 2-3 months compared to non-Snapchatters.³


Movies Are a Reason to Connect

Not only do Snapchatters love going to the movies, they prioritize doing so with their friends. Kantar found that:

  • Nearly 75% of theater-going Snapchatters surveyed by Kantar watch movies with at least one other person.

  • 78% of Snapchatters surveyed by Kantar claim their top influence when deciding whether or not to watch a movie is recommendations from friends and family.

  • Snapchatters are two times more likely to watch a movie because of FOMO (fear of missing out) compared to non-Snapchatters.³


Snapchat movie watchers are passionate, frequent movie visitors, and social


AR Movie Ads Drive Impact

Finally, it’s important to remember that movies are fun. And this extends to movie advertising on Snapchat. One of the most fun ways to engage with branded content on Snapchat is via augmented reality (AR) experiences, and AR ads have a huge impact on theatergoers. Kantar found that 61% of movie-going Snapchatters are more likely to see a movie in theaters after engaging with an AR ad for the film.

Whether it’s via the Snapchat camera with AR or through any of the products in our takeover suite, Snapchat is the perfect platform for theatrical advertisers to increase awareness, drum up excitement, and boost ticket sales.

Reach out to your Snap Account Manager to get started!

1 2024 Samba TV ticket sales lift findings commissioned by Snap Inc.
2 These findings came from studying multiple theatrical campaigns across a variety of campaign windows, advertisers, and genres using a robust Intent to Treat (ITT) framework. The questions addressed priority areas, such as whether seeing an ad on Snapchat inspired the respondent to purchase tickets to a movie or movies they otherwise would have skipped.
3 2024 Kantar custom theatrical research commissioned by Snap Inc.