Snap Inc's CMO on brand reboot: ‘We celebrate being different’

She has a difficult balancing act to pull off: to keep the flagship app Snapchat as true to its wild messaging roots as possible, but without losing grip on advertisers hungry to remain relevant to the elusive Gen-Z and increasingly even younger generations of users. In an interview, Kao tells Mint how the California-headquartered company is taking this forward, as it launches Snapchat's first-ever brand marketing campaign. Edited excerpts:

Q. Snap now has a CMO after a couple of years. How have the first few months in this role been?

I’ve been attending a new employee orientation even though it’s been 9-10 months for me in the organization [laughs]. But in terms of campaigns, last year was less about social media, more about Snapchat. We are now clearly wanting to establish that we are different. Last year, we had said what we aren’t, this year we have to say what we are. I wanted [Snap] to have a new value proposition and come up with a new brand positioning.

Q. So what is the brand positioning you’re going for? Especially, given that your rivals like Instagram have become synonymous with a curated online persona.

We are the fastest and easiest way to connect. We have always been about connecting with family and friends. We are also the only app that opens straight to the camera, and that makes the difference. It should not be so hard to express ourselves. We want to reconnect with the reason for using Snap. We celebrate the fact that we are different than those other platforms.

Q. You’ve emphasized authenticity in your marketing. Why is that?

We understand that you want to be polished, and even over polished online on some platforms. But you may want to connect, be silly, be yourself, and not have to over-curate themselves and be really yourself. That is where Snap comes in.

We have seen creators who use their snapchat to test their ideas and then scale them up on other platforms. We often joke that on other platforms you’ll show your plate of food perfectly curated and then in snapchat you show your plate of food after it’s finished.

Q. How do you appeal to advertisers while emphasizing authenticity on the app?

We work on getting people to open the Snapchat much more frequently. We offer more tabs on the chat tab such as sponsored snaps. Creators can play a more different role on this platform. From a brand standpoint, it opens up more opportunities. The aim for us is to have brands appear more authentically, not be an interruption. We see users talk about brands on our platform all the time.

We also have other kinds of offers to advertisers. The Map app is the second most-used map app in the world. Even when they’re apart, people now want to know where they are. This map is a utility where users can see ‘oh my friend is visiting Hawaii!’. It is interesting to see that connection and authenticity go hand in hand. I won’t lie, I track where my kids are.

Now, we have launched a new product called Promoted Places—wow, you are only five minutes away from this restaurant, let’s meet here! So, we really see brands to not be an interruption, and really bring people together.

Q. How different or unique is the value proposition Snap offers users and brands in India?

India is one of our most important markets. It is an incredibly creative market for us: 90% of our users here are 13-34 year olds. You see a huge Gen-Z audience here.

Q. But there are concerns about the way Snap is used, especially by younger folks.

Snapchat is a very positive and authentic environment. It is based on family and friends, it is not a platform about followers, but about the people close to you. Among Gen-Z, there is a need for real friends. You don’t have to pretend to be somebody else, you can see connections and conversations, it doesn’t have to be one way. There are more conversations that are two-way on Snap than on any other platform.