AMC Takes New Approach to Promoting Series on Snapchat

On Monday, AMC began an advertising campaign within Snapchat for its much-hyped new series “Preacher,” with the intent of drawing in younger viewers. The new series’ first five minutes will be featured on Snapchat’s Discover section, and marks the first time that an extended clip of a network TV show will be available on the social platform. After a 24-period of exclusivity on Snapchat, the clip will be released to other platforms. It will continue to run on Snapchat for six more days. “Preacher” debuts May 22.

The New York Times reports that other third-party publishers whose content appears on Snapchat’s Discover include BuzzFeed, Daily Mail and National Geographic. Posting “Preacher” to Snapchat — which has 100 million active daily users — is “another step in the network’s quest to meet millennials in the places and the apps where they spend the most time.”

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“Obviously it’s a terrific platform for this younger audience,” said AMC and SundanceTV executive Linda Schupack. “The audience we think will sync up perfectly with ‘Preacher’ is already on Snapchat.”

AMC already has two cult hits — “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead” — that are watched by “sizable audiences” in the 18-to-49-year old demographic. For “The Walking Dead,” AMC has regularly talked about the show on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit after episodes air, as well as created “Talking Dead,” an hour-long live discussion with members of the cast and creative team chatting with celebrities about the just-aired episode. AMC hopes to turn the dark comedy/drama “Preacher” into a similar cult hit.

For nearly a year, says NYT, Snapchat has “likened itself more to television than its competitors, pitching advertisers that it is focused on hourly time spent watching video and daily use of the app.” Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all also focus on video, and, as all these platforms compete for advertising dollars, AMC has “spread its advertising clout across nearly all of these new media platforms thus far.” Now the network will discover the impact of debuting “Preacher” on Snapchat.

“For millennials, the thrill of discovery is really important,” said Schupack. “Our hope is to turn our fans into evangelists by getting ‘Preacher’ to them ahead of the premiere.”

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