We told you it was coming, and now it's here. The first Snapchat ad arrived Saturday and it was kinda freaky.
The first sponsored message was a preview of Universal Pictures' new movie horror movie Ouija.
YouTube / Martin Beck/ Universal Pictures: "Debbie are you here? Can you show us a sign? Run?"
The app sent the ad to all of its users, but it was the users' choice whether they wanted to view it or not. The ad showed up in the 'Story' section but was clearly marked "sponsored."
In an interview with Ad Age, Universal Picture's Doug Neil explained the why the company chose to be the first Snapchat ad. "It seems to be right in the core of our target audience for the movie "Ouija." So we were glad there was an opportunity to run an ad within Snapchat. "
Before rolling out ads, Snapchatsaid it wanted to make them "fun and informative" instead of "creepy and targeted" — a sort of dig at the way Facebook does ads.
However, most on social media are saying the ad itself was plenty creepy. Manyposted their reactions on Twitter.
And a Gizmodo writer points out, "I'm not so sure that Snapchat's made good on its promise for its ads to be 'non-creepy', since horror film Ouija was the first subject."
Still, Marketing Land called the decision a "smart move," especially since it's a youth-oriented movie advertised to Snapchat's primarily millennial audience.
Snapchat has not specified how many or how often it will be sending ads to users.
