Nasser: 

Welcome to Shift Happens. I’m Nasser Sahlool. Today I’m joined by Bob Cornwall, country manager for Canada for Snap Inc. For a long time, digital marketing was built around the idea of reaching the largest possible audience. More impressions, more followers, more eyeballs. But people don’t spend their time online the same way they used to, thank goodness for that. People are moving from broadcasting to connecting, from feeds to friends, and from passive consumption to more private, participatory, high intent interactions. 

And Snapchat has been at the center of that evolution from the very beginning. So today we are talking about what marketers can learn from changing consumer behavior, how brands can build relevance in more personal digital environments, and how technologies like AI are an enabler of relevance, creativity and ease rather than the central narrative. Welcome to Shift Happens, Bob. 

Bob: 

Thank you for having me. I’m really grateful for the opportunity and for the chance to do this with you, so thank you. 

Nasser: 

And you’re a podcast virgin. 

Bob: 

Yes, this is my first podcast. 

Nasser: 

Well, you have a voice for podcasting, right? 

Bob: 

Thanks. 

Nasser: 

As long as nobody tells you that you have a face for podcasting, I get told that all the time. 

Bob: 

That’s totally fair.  

Nasser: 

So, Bob, let’s dive into this. We spent years talking about social media as a broadcast environment, right?  But, you know, one of the things that you talk about is how behavior is clearly shifting in that context. How are you seeing people from posting for, you know, wide audiences to more personal and private interactions? And what do you think is driving that? 

Bob: 

Yeah, it’s a really good question from a user behavior standpoint. I’ll take a really big step back and just talk about some of the macro trends that we’re seeing. And I think hopefully the listeners can relate to it, and you can relate to it in a personal way. But people today, Canadians are inundated with content on everything. There’s some interesting research that just came out that said, on average, people get more than 140 push notifications to their phone every single day. They scroll more than 300ft of content every single day, and they have more than 1200 thumb swipes that they put onto their phone every single day. 

Nasser: 

How many of those are swiping right versus swiping left?  

Bob: 

That would be up for you to figure out. But if you think about that, people have been in this moment of content consumption and what it’s causing is a ton of fatigue. So consumers in Canada are feeling like, you know, there’s they’re overstimulated. They’ve been viewing too much content. They’ve been trained to scroll and just doom scroll mindlessly consuming content. And  there’s also this other consumer trend that I call reality blurring. With the emergence of AI technology and AI generated content, people are becoming more aware of when something is human made versus computer made. And the distinction between the two is really, really hard to tell. 

So I don’t know about you, but like my parents are older and my mom will send me content all the time and be like, can you believe a rhinoceros is playing ping pong with this flamingo? And I’m like, mom, that is not real content. That was AI generated. And so people are becoming more discerning about understanding, is this real content or is this AI slop, for lack of a better word? And so in that moment of being overstimulated, being trained to scroll and having a really hard time understanding what’s real and what’s not real, what we’re seeing is that in the social space, people are pivoting to public spaces where they’re posting for audiences or adding comments underneath a post, or trying to build an audience themselves. The retreating to more private spaces where they’re talking to real human beings, people they know, people that bring meaning into their life, and they’re looking to create connection with those people and maintain that connection. 

And that really becomes the thing that differentiates Snap against all other social platforms, is we are primarily a platform where people come to connect with their inner circle, their closest friends, their family. And one of the major behaviors that we see on the platform is people come to Snap. So they want to snap with their friends and their family, and that’s what they’re looking for, is that real, authentic human connection. 

Nasser: 

So you described Snapchat as human connection at scale. What does that mean? And how does that apply in this kind of digital environment, which to a lot of people is inhuman? 

Bob: 

Yeah. So when I say human connection, what I mean is we actually facilitate the connection between human beings and with people that you actually care about connecting with. So an actual social network.  

Nasser: 

An actual social network. 

Bob: 

Exactly.  We’re about helping you find your closest family and friends and making it easy for you to connect with them. And that’s one of the things we mean when we say human connection. The other thing that we mean is that it is real content. So when people connect or Snap on our platform, they’re doing it with like raw content that’s authentic, that’s personal, that reflects them. And even from an app standpoint, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the app. Or if you use it. 

Nasser: 

Oh, yes. Yeah. 

Bob: 

But one of the things that makes us different is we open to the camera, and that’s intentional. We don’t open to a feed. And so that’s incredibly personal. And it helps people share what’s going on in their life right now, with the people they care about the most. So when we talk about human connection, we mean facilitating the connection between the people that matter most to you and your life. And the way that you’re communicating is in a real, authentic way, not in a polished or performative way, but you’re actually sending real, raw content. 

When we talk about scale, what I mean is that Snapchat’s been around for about 15 years, and many people’s first experience of it was 15 years ago, and they got on their platform and they tried it. And over the last like 3 to 5 years, Snapchat in Canada has had a real resurgence of user growth. And so it shocks people how big we are in Canada. So on a monthly active basis, we reach more than 13 million Canadians. Which is wild. It’s bigger than Pinterest. It’s bigger than X in terms of its reach. And we’re within spitting distance of TikTok. So when I talk about human connection, I mean facilitating a real connection between real people sharing content that isn’t polished or performative, but is raw and authentic to them. And when I talk about scale, I mean, we have the masses in Canada on our platform. We reach more than 85% of people, 18 to 35 in Canada, and they use the app on average more than 30 times a day. 

Nasser: 

Wow. So given that it opens with a camera, would you say that Snapchat users are better at taking selfies and less likely to take that jowly one from down there?  

Bob: 

They are pretty proficient at selfies, and the camera can also turn around so that you can take photos of the environment that you’re in as well.  When they’re taking photos on our platform, one thing that’s really different is the use of lens and augmented reality. So they’re very proficient at like taking a photo and then augmenting it to better express themselves or share a thought or a feeling. And so that’s one thing that makes us really different from the selfie space. 

Nasser: 

And Snapchat was really the pioneer as far as the use of augmented reality in these kinds of environments. And I know there were a few key cultural moments. And for me, I think the big cultural moment in time was a Game of Thrones one, right? With the Ice King… what’s its name – lens? So my question to you is, given that tie in, could you find a way to make the final season of Game of Thrones disappear? Because, I mean, that’s your whole thing right? 

Bob: 

Yeah, yeah, that is. I mean if we can make that happen, I think that’s above my pay grade. That’s what I would say. 

Nasser: 

That’s a shame. 

Bob: 

I know, but you’re right. Snapchat is an incredibly innovative platform, and we’re often copied and duplicated by many other platforms out there. Most notably, we were the first social platform to introduce vertical video. Which is now a very common format across all social platforms. We were also the first platform to introduce lenses, which is a way to augment a photo or a video that you have to further express, sort of, or communicate what’s going on. And we’ve also been a pioneer in the augmented reality space. Where you can create your own 3D avatar, we call them Bitmojis, of yourself, that can interact with your friends’ Bitmoji on the platform. And or you can take videos of your real human self interacting in a virtual environment, which is really, really cool. 

Nasser: 

So let’s talk a little bit more about the technology side of things, because every platform out there is pushing technology to build more content and broadcast more, whereas your focus on technology seems to be more about helping drive deeper connections and engagement on a one on one basis or one to many basis. So why is that distinction important? 

Bob: 

Well, if I take it right back to the start, our founders, Bobby and Evan, when they started the company 15 years ago, they built it on the hypothesis that technology should be used to actually facilitate human connection and not just connection between people, but also the connection that people have to the real world. And so rather than have technology pull people out of real human relationships or out of the physical world, they wanted technology to sort of amplify those relationships and amplify that experience that they have in the world, to have fun, to play, to learn and to grow. And that was our founding mission. And so everything from a technology standpoint that we’ve built has been intentionally designed to facilitate that type of connection or to facilitate that type of interaction with the real world itself. 

And we’ve seen that come to fruition in many ways, some of which I was just sort of talking about, be it the augmented reality is a really great way to sort of connect, not only being able to snap between you and your friends, but you can connect in a digital space. We also created this map that lives on our platform, where you can actually share your location with your friends. So if you are at a concert or you’re on vacation and you want to meet up, it makes it really easy to find where your friends are and then be able to connect with them in real life.  

One of the interesting user behavior things that happens on our platform is people don’t spend endless hours consuming content. They actually come on frequently, like I said, more than 30 times a day. They connect and then they take action in real life. They leave the platform and then they go and they take action either with their friends or make a plan or do something because of the connection they’ve created on the platform itself. 

Nasser: 

So that that creates an interesting challenge around positioning yourself for marketers, right? Because when a lot of traditional marketers think about the KPIs they care about, this platform feels at odds with that somehow. So what do you think are the metrics that they should care about that they’re going to get from Snapchat that they don’t necessarily get elsewhere? 

Bob: 

Yeah, I think in a world where there’s an endless amount of content, the content proliferation that’s been happening, there’s an endless amount of content that’s out there right now. People are scrolling past it, and it’s getting harder and harder for brands to capture the attention and connect with their audience in a meaningful moment. And so when users come to our platform, they come with the intention to connect. They come with a heightened attention to the platform itself. And I think that creates a really unique opportunity for marketers and advertisers to find an audience in a head space where they’re willing to connect or interested in connecting. And if you serve the right message at the right time to the right audience, you’re going to get their attention and you’re going to get engagement. 

Kantar did an interesting study where they asked consumers what was their most preferred social platform or digital platform, and Snapchat was the number two most preferred consumer platform. The other part of that research that was really interesting that came out was 80% of social media users were actually open to receiving a message from a brand when they were on our platform. 

Nasser: 

Oh, wow. 

Bob: 

So this idea that brands, you know, it’s harder and harder for them to break through the clutter of all of the content that’s out there, but their opportunity is to show up in a moment when their audience is looking to connect, which is what our core offering is. And when they do that the right way, it actually drives really meaningful business results for them, that actually helps to grow their business. 

Nasser: 

So elephant in the room and the topic du jour is of course AI. A lot of platforms and marketers are using it to build masses of content to broadcast, to communicate. How do you see the use of AI being used within Snapchat in interesting ways, to build that human connection and creativity? 

Bob: 

Yeah, it’s used in a number of different ways. One is around optimizing the platform to facilitate connection. So we leverage AI so that people can find the people that they’re interested in connecting with friends and family or otherwise. For brands, we have AI using it to help them find the right audience at the right moment in time, which is really great if you’re a brand that’s advertising on the platform. We have a ton of smart optimizations that we use through our Ads Manager function, where you can actually plan by and measure a campaign using AI technology that’s on the back end. And then we also have a ton of AI creative tools that advertisers can use to create lenses, augmented reality moments, fun games, or whatever it is that they’re after to engage their audience in a meaningful way. So we’re using AI in a lot of different ways. 

Most recently, we launched an AI solution for the shopper journey. So anyone that’s looking to sell a product online, we use that technology to actually surface the right product, the right user, at the right time, tapping into what could be a catalog of thousands and thousands of different products, and then leveraging AI to determine what product is right for the right audience at the right moment in time. 

Nasser: 

So, wait, you’re saying that I could create a Nasser face as a lens and then distribute that to everybody in the company and insist that they will use it? 

Bob: 

You totally could. 

Nasser: 

I love that. 

Bob: 

I’ll send it to you after this.  

Nasser: 

Excellent. So there’s the shift. Digital communication is moving from broadcasting to connecting. People are moving away from passive consumption towards more private participatory interactions. And for marketers, that means success is no longer just about reaching audiences. It’s about building relationships, creating relevance, and showing up in ways that feel natural within the conversations people are already having. Technology, whether it’s AI, AR, or whatever comes next, is the most powerful when it helps people make those connections easier, more meaningful, and more human. They’re looking for experiences that feel personal, relevant, and worth participating in, not just more content to scroll past. Because the brands that win won’t be the ones shouting the loudest, they’ll be the ones that people actually want to hear from.  

Now make it happen. Follow Shift Happens. Leave us a review and share this episode with your team. If you have questions for the podcast,  email us at shifthappens@dacgroup.com.  We’d love to hear from you. 

Bob, thanks for joining us. 

Bob: 

My pleasure. Thank you for having me. 

Nasser: 

No, it’s our pleasure. And I look forward to creating a Nasser face for everybody else. I’ll be sending it to you via Snapchat. 

Bob: 

Can’t wait for it.
 

Nasser: 

All right. Well, thank you very much for joining us. This is Shift Happens, and I’m Nasser Sahlool.