In 2013, reference to such a service was exclusively a reference to Snapchat. Of course today, disappearing messages are a kewl feature of every service, including Instagram, Facebook, Microsoft Outlook, and Oracle Database. (I'm kidding regarding the latter two. I think.)
My 2013 post concentrated on a January 2013 experiment by a frozen yogurt company with the amazingly original name 16 Handles. In the company's experiment, customers could get Snapchat coupons for use at 16 Handles - but the coupons would disappear within 10 seconds after being opened. While everyone wrote about the experiment, including Ad Age and Mashable, it appears that 16 Handles itself didn't do anything with Snapchat coupons after the experiment was over - or if they did, they deleted all mention of it (within ten seconds).
A lot has happened since 2013. Everyone uses disappearing messages, Snap is now a publicly traded company (not that the new stockholders have any say in how the company is run), and 16 Handles has continued its "innovation."
I just ran across this January 2016 article. It mentions 16 Handles' amazing 2013 experiment, and then talks about some things that happened since then.
16 Handles was one of the first brands to get onto Kik in late 2014 in a bid to reach teen customers where they were. The brand generated 27,000 interactions with a small amount of paid media behind it in the first few days, but then the app waned — and with it, the brand’s traction. “That was one of our possible failures,” admits [marketing manager Lara] Nicotra.
But they were ready to recover, designating Snapchat as "their 2016 thing." In that year,
...the brand [planned] to focus on Snapchat Stories — longer Snapchats that stick around for 24 hours — that will work hand-in-hand with the company’s refurbished content calendar. “In the past, it was just ‘let’s give people cool access to our brand’,” said Nicotra. “Now, it’s a commitment.”
An amazing commitment - keep your marketing material in front of your customers for an entire 24 hours. But such a commitment comes at a cost.
Nicotra declined to disclose how many followers the brand has on Snapchat, but as it focuses on the platform, she said, 16 Handles has decided to stop using other platforms, including Tumblr and Pinterest. Her interest in using Twitter as a paid platform has also waned.
Since I don't have Snapchat, I ended up going to the 16 Handles website. If you go to the bottom of the page, you can see icons for all of their social media outlets.
Notice anything missing?
