Snapchat has launched a new AR Lens integration, in partnership with fitness app Strava, which enables users to provide interactive, visual updates of their Strava activity.
As you can see in these images, the new Stava integration provides new overlay options, with data from Strava then integrated into your Snap camera display, facilitating new forms of engagement with your fitness progress.
As explained by Snap:
“With a few taps, the Strava Activity Lens allows Snapchatters to take a Snap or post a Story that instantly tells the tale of recent workouts. Whether you’re walking around the city with friends or training for your next race, this AR experience helps you better tell the story of every effort on Snapchat.”
With over 100 million registered Strava users, the new integration will help provide additional exposure potential for Snap’s tools, which could also, importantly, play a part in helping Snap increase its appeal to older audiences.
Back in September, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel sent a 4,000 word memo to staff which outlined the company’s key areas of focus to get the business back on track, after a period of significant challenge due to shifting data privacy rules and the global economic downturn.
As reported by The Verge, within this, Spiegel explained that he wanted to focus on:
“Increasing our penetration in at least one new large country or demographic” and onboarding more 30- to 40-year-olds. Funneling more users into the Map and Spotlight sections of Snapchat “helps to make our service more compelling for our community, harder to copy, and more resilient to competition, and increases our monetization opportunity over the longer term.”
Snapchat has long been focused exclusively on younger audience groups, but now, Snap knows that it needs to diversify, in order to maximize its opportunities.
In line with this, a new partnership with Strava fits the bill perfectly, providing a complementary element for fitness enthusiasts – who are generally older users – while also tying into the Snap Map, and showcasing Snap’s other engagement features.
Users will be able to share their Strava activity to Snap via your Strava profile, or via a dedicated Lens on Snapchat:
“On Snapchat, find the Lens in Snapchat’s Lens Explorer or on Strava’s Public Profile. Your most recent workout will automatically appear, or you can toggle through different activities to share.”
It’s a good initiative, and it’s worth noting Snap’s ongoing efforts to boost appeal with older users, and what that could mean for related brand and marketing activity.