Snapchat is coming to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally again this year.
The social media app is a messaging platform that lets users send time sensitive photos and videos to one another. It’s mostly used by millennials, but the Sturgis Rally is mostly attended by baby boomers.
Officials say last year’s Snapchat focus on the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally racked up millions of views nationwide. This year Snapchat coverage at the Rally is going global. This is good news for Andy Young of the Homeslice Group. Young says he’s aware the rally doesn’t attract millennials. He says it’s mostly attended by older people but he hopes Snapchat can change this.
“Reaching out to millennials is huge not just for the rally but really for any brand nationwide, they’re trying to figure out where to reach millennials because people aren’t necessarily watching TV the way they used to or subscribing to traditional media and that’s kind of where Snapchat came in,” says Young.
This makes sense to Brandon Nutting. He’s assistant professor of advertising and public relations at University of Nebraska Lincoln. He calls the Sturgis Rally’s use of Snapchat a strategic move.
“So by bringing attention to the fact that something like this exists, you have millennials who maybe are buying their first Harley, if you look at the types of motorcycles that people ride on the rally they’re not sports bikes, they’re cruisers right? And so you have the younger generation who’s just starting to buy those. They’re finishing college, they’re thinking, “I want a motorcycle,” and so you’re doing the long game thought. Now they’re aware that this massive rally exists and so they’ll start making their way there,” says Nutting.
He says younger generations are the first to jump on a new technology. But over time, older populations start to become aware of and use it. That’s the case for Snapchat, it’s seeing an increase in baby boomer users.
The Snapchat coverage of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally goes live on August 7. Young says the content featured on Snapchat will not only include Sturgis, but the entire Black Hills region.