We celebrate the fact that we are different: Snap Inc CMO

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Snap Inc. has not had a chief marketing officer since 2023; until Grace Kao was promoted to the role earlier this year.

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: 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. 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. 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.