Snapchat owner Snap Inc. signed a multi-year deal with the Australian Football League to produce "Our Stories" for the "competition and teams across the season," according to Max Mason of the AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW. The L.A.-based technology company has been "pushing into Australia hard over the last 12 months and now has 4 million daily users." The new deal with the AFL "follows one-off partnerships between Snap and the sporting body" during last year's grand final, the women's season opener earlier this year and a preview of this year's men's season. The "crux" of the deal is understood to be based on advertising revenue share. The stories will be put together by Snap, "stitching together fan, athlete and league messages into one video." Each home stadium "will also have geofilters." Snap views events such as sport, concerts and festivals as "key to its advertising business model," much like traditional TV broadcasters. Such entertainment is "one of the few guarantees for strong and consistent audience reach." It previously did deals with Seven West Media for the Olympics and Tennis Australia for the Australian Open. Snapchat's younger audience skew is "vital in securing advertising dollars." Digital marketing firm eMarketer forecast the "newly listed disappearing video business' advertising revenue will hit" $770M this year in the U.S. (AFR, 3/19). MASHABLE's Ariel Bogle reported Social Media Today's Andrew Hutchinson said that it was "a big deal" for Snapchat to sign up a local league "on the scale of the AFL." He suggested the company would be able to monetize by "selling ad packages against the coverage." While many big brands "are advertising on Snapchat locally," Hutchinson explained that it does not yet have the penetration of the U.S. market, where it has partnered with the NFL and other leagues. Snapchat "clearly thinks AFL players in short shorts is a winning recipe, and it may be onto something" (MASHABLE, 3/19).
