Royal Ontario Museum Drives +7 Point Lift in Ad Awareness With Scroll-Stopping Great Whales Campaign

After an extended closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Royal Ontario Museum  (ROM) reopened with a whale-sized splash! Partnering with Snapchat to reach Gen  Zers, millennials, and families across Ontario, the ROM wanted to offer Snapchatters  an immersive and whimsical AR experience with a glimpse into their new Great  Whales: Up Close and Personal marquee exhibit, enticing them to head to the  museum for the real thing. 

The goal of the museum’s Snapchat campaign was simple — drive awareness and  traffic for their new Great Whales exhibit. Knowing they could get the most out of an  AR experience, the ROM leveraged sky-tracking technology to place the whales  directly in front of Snapchatters. Three versions of the Lens were created and ran  through the Camera Carousel depending on the user’s location, giving Snapchatters a  variety of unique experiences featuring the great whales. 

To drive strong reach and meet the campaign’s awareness objective, the Lenses also  ran through an attachment on Snap Ads. Within the ads, the swipe-up feature was  used to drive traffic to the ROM’s website, offering a seamless way for Snapchatters  to purchase their tickets for the exhibit directly from the app. 

The ROM’s campaign results were quite a sight! The campaign drove a +7 point lift in  both brand and ad awareness, driven primarily by 18 to 24 year-olds, a critical demographic for their objectives.¹ The museum also saw an average of 16 seconds of  playtime in the Lenses, and a 1% swipe-up rate on the ads that drove Snapchatters to the website’s ticketing page.¹ Two key drivers of the campaign’s success? The use of purposeful sound plus the combination of polished brand video paired with a tutorial  video. 

Whale, whale, whale… What an amazing campaign for an even more amazing  exhibit!