Startups
Partnerships / Social media

Snapchat adds Philly’s Slyce to ‘Creative Partner’ program

The move indicates renewed interest in social coupons from the LA-based “camera company.”

Part of Slyce's Philly team in 2017, with CEO Ted Mann at left. (Courtesy photo)
Correction: Due to a source error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of coupon activations in an initial campaign. That number was also reported in the headline. The headline has been changed and the story has been updated. (9/26/17, 8:58 a.m.)
Snap Inc. rolled out a list of 14 new “Snapchat Creative Partners” on Thursday. Among them was one Philly startup: Slyce.

It all started with an exploration: What if people could save a coupon straight from Snapchat? As luck would have it Slyce’s Coupon Author platform — used by retailers like The Children’s Place and Bed Bath & Beyond — can do just that.

An initial Snapchat campaign for clothing retailer Express proved successful, said Slyce CEO Ted Mann. It offered a $25 discount on purchases over $100.

Being part of the creative partners list doesn’t yield any immediate monetary gains, said Mann, but it’s a great way to channel opportunities for companies to use their software. It’s also exposing the tech to a massive audience, he said.

Alongside Slyce, another couponing app called PopWallet was included in the partner roster, signaling a broader interest from Snapchat on making coupon ad sales part of its pitch. According to Wharton professor Raghuram Iyengar, who’s done his research on the social coupon model, it’s an experiment aimed at monetizing Snapchat’s network data.

“Thanks to the data they have on customers, Snapchat could go one step ahead and help companies advertising on Snapchat figure out who are the right people to target,” Iyengar said. “They could track who could become a ‘brand ambassador.'”

Slyce, which transitioned from being a public company to a private one in January of this year, is headquartered in Center City. Out of the company’s 50 or so employees, about half are in the U.S., and most are in Philly. The company still has an office in Nova Scotia, home to Slyce’s former headquarters prior to its 2015 acquisition of the Philly-founded SnipSnap.

“So far that’s going really well and investors are happy,” Mann said of the transition to being a private company, which was possible thanks to an investment from a Washington, D.C., private equity firm called Anzu Partners. “We’re going really fast, signing on several partners every month.”

Companies: Slyce Inc.
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