Erik Wagner
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2023 Snapchat Recap

Communities are an added layer of identity on Snapchat. They allow Snapchatters to indicate their university or high school and access features specific to their graduating class – most notably a Shared Story for each class.

 
 

Have a blast in the past.

Ready for a trip down Memories lane? Look no further than your 2023 Snapchat Recap!

Now in its fifth iteration, the Snapchat Recap celebrates each user’s brightest moments of the year with a personalized wrap-up.

My role as Sr. Creative was to lead the design direction for the product itself, lead the marketing campaign to raise awareness and engagement with the product, and lead an external partner on the sound design heard within the campaign.

 

Hats Worn

Creative Direction
Design Direction

Creative Team

Eric Fensler
Ben Pacocha
Erin Fortes
Sarah Rose Reichert

 
 
 
 

THE JOB

Memories, by nature, is a pretty intimate product – storing some of your most precious and meaningful Snaps. This year, the primary goal behind the Recap work was to make a Story so exciting and that’d it be impossible not to share.

 
 
 
 

THE FORMAT

Snapchat indexes your Memories and pulls Snaps with recognized elements into categories, presenting you with compilations around themes like New Year’s Eve, selfies with face filters, Snaps with friends, being by the beach, and more. There were constraints that didn’t allow for the format to change much from previous years, so most of the effort was put into the design direction and themed segements - making them as compelling as possible.

 
 
 
 
 
 

CREATIVE APPROACH

Tackling the challenge of making the 2023 Recap the most exciting yet, we wanted to approach the creative from a different direction than years past.

We’ve dubbed this year’s design direction ‘Adrenaline Rush’. It’s a visual shock to the system - starting a with a jolt of energy to make folks lean in and to get amped to relive their year. We keep the energy going the entire time through dynamic animated text - pushing and pulling in every direction, playful copy, and a spectrum of color.

 
 
 

DESIGN SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Shows how the entry point, intro sequence, example, title card, and outro sequence work in concert.

Recap Intro Sequence

Narrative Title Card Example

Recap Outro Sequence

 
 

NARRATIVE GROUP TITLE CARDS

These are the graphics seen to introduce each themed segment of the Recap.

Recap Introduction

For Snaps of dogs & cats

For Snaps of selfies with viral Lenses

For Snaps mentioning laughter

For Snaps taken at home

For Snaps taken 3am-7am

For Snaps of cars, bikes, planes, etc.

For Snaps taken on NYE 2022

For Snaps of selfies

For Snaps mentioning love

For Snaps @mentioning friends

A potpourri category of Snaps

For Snaps taken near the beach/ocean

For Snaps taken at work / school

For the most recognized visual tag

For Snaps of small groups

For Snaps taken 5+ miles from home

For Snaps with Bitmoji stickers

For Snaps of coffee / at coffee shops

For Snaps using temperature stickers

Recap Outro

For Snaps highlighting food

For Snaps from concerts, games, & events

For Snaps taken on trips/vacation

For Snaps with Sounds

For Snaps taken 9pm-3am

For Snaps of selfies with sunglasses

 
 
 

LOCALIZED CREATIVE

The design system was created with localization in mind.
Each moment within the Recap was localized for the 40+ langauges that Snapchat supports.

 

ARABIC

FILIPINO

HINDI

SWEDISH

 
 
 

Campaign Rollout

The campaign created for the 2023 Recap was rolled out across a variety of channels including:

 
 
 

PUSH NOTIFICATION

Reserved for big moments, push notifications are an effective way of driving awareness and engagement at a very large scale. We wanted to keep the language straightforward and add some emojis for dramatic effect.

 
 

SNAP ADS

Full-screen vertical video ads driving Snapchatters to view their Recap Story within their Memories.

 

Showcases the video in-context of the UI and CTA

 

Showcases the video in-context of the UI and CTA

 
 
 
 

DISCOVER STORY

A video in Team Snapchat’s Discover channel highlighting that the 2023 Recap is now available.

 
 
 
 

EMAIL

Reaching Snapchatters where they’re at make them excited about watching their Recap.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

MASS CHAT / CHAT MEDIA

A ‘Chat’ sent from Team Snapchat, via a push notification, to a targeted cohort of Snapchatters to drive awareness and engagement for their Recaps! The copy was kept simple and straightforward to make it as actionable as possible.

 
 
 
 
 
 

CREATIVE TOOLS

A small sticker pack was released in tandem with the Recap. The stickers are fun way to celebrate specific Snaps that folks may want to share from their Recap (or Memories) to their Story or with friends.

 
 

PRESS ASSETS

Imagery and video created for press-related communications.

 

The Recap launch was featured in Fast Company!

The YouTube video:

 
 
 
 
 

APP STORE

Assets created to highlight Snapchat and the 2023 Recap through several promotional placements.