Turner Sports, Snapchat Join Forces to Leverage Live Story

Turner Sports and Snapchat are joining forces for a multi-year content deal that leverages Snapchat’s Live Story product with the goal of enhancing fans’ storytelling and viewing experiences through Snapchat’s coverage of major sporting events, including year-round NCAA Championships. The partnership will debut during NCAA March Madness.   

Snapchat Live Stories allow Snapchatters the opportunity to contribute their unique perspectives through video and photo Snaps to one collective Story, capturing the real story, straight from the fans and people at the event. As part of the deal, Snapchatters will have access to a variety of official brand marks, imagery and behind-the-scenes Snaps to better the storytelling of that premiere event. To compile the Live Story, Snapchat curates the thousands of submitted Snaps into a brief video that can be broadcast globally to millions of fans right on their mobile device. Each day, 10 to 20 million Snapchatters tune into a Live Story daily.

Brands will have the opportunity to align with this immersive viewing environment through various advertising products, such as Snapchat’s 3V ad product. 3V ads are full-screen, vertical video ads that are interspersed throughout the user-submitted content in a Live Story.

“There is nothing more powerful on social than a passionate sports fan expressing their emotions during that pivotal moment of a game,” says Seth Ladetsky, senior vice president, Turner Sports Ad Sales. “While providing fans the tools to enhance their shared experiences, we are also creating an opportunity for advertisers to showcase their brand in an organic environment rich with engagement and interaction.”

“By partnering with Turner Sports, we’re able to bring Snapchatters closer to the action and behind-the-scenes of the biggest plays, sideline moments, teams, and more starting with March Madness,” says Ben Schwerin, Director of Partnerships at Snapchat.

For the sixth consecutive year, Turner Sports and CBS Sports provide live coverage of all 67 games from the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship across four national television networks – TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV – and via NCAA March Madness Live.  This year’s NCAA Final Four National Semifinals on Saturday, April 2, will be televised on TBS, along with the National Championship on Monday, April 4, marking the first time the title game will air on cable television in the 78-year history of the NCAA Tournament.

The deal between Turner Sports and Snapchat expands upon existing league partnerships with Snapchat.