• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 9, 2015

Remember Second Life? How about Diaspora? How about Pownce? Or, more recently, Ello? Each one of these social networks were supposed to be the next big thing and like every next big thing every agency on the planet jumped on board as, well, each one was going to be the next big thing. 

Snapchat is that next big thing for agencies right now with many joining in as users or creating programs on the service for their clients. OK so yeah, Snapchat very likely has a much better chance of survival than the aforementioned failures but it's still amusing to see every agency glom onto these shiny new objects.

Havas Chicago just launched its second intern recruitment program on Snapchat with Havas NA CCO Jason Peterson saying, "If you want to speak to a millennial audience, hire millennials to create the content for you. Snapchat is the immediate future for reaching our consumers, and whether or not our clients are ready for it, we want to be ready for it."

Because every consumer on the f*cking planet is 21-25, right?

Then there's MRY CMO David Berkowitz touting the semi-risk-free aspect of Snapchat saying, "On Snapchat, the risks are a lot lower. It's a place where we can experiment and have some fun. It's not as high profile as Facebook or Twitter where people scrutinize every word and you have to represent the brand."

Nothing wrong with a little experiment I guess.

On the one hand, you can argue that agencies are petty little children chasing the newest toy at Christmas time. On the other hand, you can applaud their actions for staying ahead of the curve in terms of media used by consumers.

I'm curious though. If the goal of advertising is to help brand marketers grab the most money they can from the widest possible audience, why aren't agencies running head over heels to the AARP app to craft really cool programs to tap the wealthiest audience of all; baby boomers?