Meet the Snap exec leading product strategy, driving monetization, and debunking myths on augmented reality
Carolina Arguelles is Snap's head of augmented reality (AR) Monetization and Product Strategy.- Arguelles told Business Insider that AR education, as well as tackling misperceptions about the space, are a core part of her role.
- Another focus is how to make AR into something that's accessible to more brands for more reasons.
- She also said that Snap welcomed competition in the space, and that she believes the company is in a good position because it was an early adopter.
The former Nielsen manager spends a lot of time thinking about how to make AR accessible to all brands, both big and small, giving them the measurement tools they need, and battling misperceptions about the nascent space.
One of our key areas of focus is education. Just trying to make people understand what it means to be in the camera. To advertise in the camera, how it is accessible, how it's not something that you should be super scared of — which, especially with a new audience is something that's just core to anything that we can try to build off of.
When I started at Snap, I was actually on our measurement team. I was previously at Nielsen for a long time, that really helped the transition into that. I was running all measurement for every kind of vertical, except for entertainment. And then I also started leading thought leadership and evaluation of all of our ads. That's how I really fell into AR. My job was figuring out how does AR really drive measurement results for advertisers, what works better than others, what are creative best practices. I was really passionate about that, I got close to the team, and then that's when they invited me to kind of come over and lead the AR product strategy on that side.
So, my main job is to bookend the product development process. I'm trying to understand industry trends: Where is the industry going, not just in tech, but actually just where is society going? How are social economic issues effecting how people are living their lives? And what are advertisers saying about what they need? That helps me understand where our priority should be, from a product development standpoint.
Yes, I help direct strategy for entire pricing teams. There's pricing experts, and they do the analysis around how we price things. What I do is I say, "Hey, this is what we're launching. Based on my analysis, this is what I'm recommending for pricing. Please look at this and give us your recommendation." That's really how it works.
Snapchat AR is not just upper funnel. We actually measured all these very upper funnel-flighted campaigns, these big national buys, and even those drove really strong sales results.
See the full story here: https://www.businessinsider.com/carolina-arguelles-snap-augmented-reality-interview-2018-8