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Elisabeth Murdoch debuts lifestyle brand on Snapchat Discover

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By Seb Joseph, News editor

July 15, 2016 | 4 min read

Elisabeth Murdoch has launched a lifestyle brand on Snapchat Discover in a bid to target millennial men.

Brother

Elisabeth Murdoch debuts mobile video media brand on Snapchat Discover..

Brother arrives on the messaging app today (15 July) and comes from the media veteran’s mobile-focused content studio Vertical Networks. Initially, content will come in Weekend Editions (Friday through Sunday), though the media business does plan to stretch its output over seven days once the launch phase is over.

As with other partners on Discover, Brother is funded in part by ads including Unilever, Axe in the US and KFC in Australia. The advertisers give a sense of the type of audience Brother is going after, with it described in a recent Business Insider article as a “less-edgy Vice”.

Snapchat’s vice president of content, Nick Bell, said of the deal: “Together with Vertical Networks, we’re excited by the creative and commercial opportunities that programming for a mobile-first audience present. The team behind Brother has put together a brand and voice that we’re excited to share with our Snapchat community.”

Brother joins an ever-growing list of partners for Discover, sitting alongside the likes of Refinery29, BuzzFeed, People and Cosmopolitan.

It’s one of the first to join Discover since its overhaul last month. Stories are now front and centre of the new look design, with the previous circles replaced by square tiles showing images and headlines that link through to individual posts. As well as making navigation easier for readers, an additional feature will give Snapchatters the long-requested ability to subscribe to their favourite publishers’ channels and stop being served content from ones they’re not interested in.

While still in its test and learn phase, Discover is impressing those early publishers who are willing to shell out on what is reportedly a hefty sum. The Sun was quick to hail the revamp, and has said that the first report from the app since the change has shown an increase in traffic to the channel.

It’s no wonder then that Murdoch wants a slice of the Snapchat pie. She set up Vertical Networks last November and has offered the app’s London team space in her firm’s Mayfair office until they set up their own base. While little is known about Vertical Networks, the business will focus on the fast-growing short-form video market.

“We are delighted to bring Brother to life and energised by the potential of the Snapchat platform to engage audiences," said Vertical Networks’ chief executive, Murdoch. "This is the start of a journey for Vertical Networks where we are building content for mobile-first audiences and it is great to be collaborating with the team at Snapchat.”

Vertical Networks is the venture Murdoch started after she exited the family business in 2014. She sold her production company Shine Group to her father Rupert's News Corp in 2011 for $675m, before its entertainment division was split into a separate company called 21st Century Fox in 2014.

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