Ephemeral vs Nostalgia

Whether it is more noble to have photos disappear immediately after being seen or to have them come back and haunt us after a certain amount of time.

It all really started the day Snowden, out of Hong Kong, released files he had grabbed from the NSA confirming what we all already knew : we are being watched. Almost immediately, a flurry of new apps emerged offering users to either hide our  communications or simply erased them. While the former could please some ( the less paranoid), the latter – total file annihilation – offered the most confronting security. And it wasn’t long before photos, our most prized and intimate possessions, were involved.

Well, not exactly.  Snapchat was conceived in April 2011 and Snowden revelation were June 2013.  The impermanent photo app is a college project who defies the traditional role of photography – to help remember who quickly became a widely adopted communication platform. While its birth has nothing to do with the NSA, it certainly did help its adoption rate when we heard that everything was fair game to snoop around. Surely teenagers, the majority of its users, already have an innate penchant for secrecy. Whispering, note passing, texting have all been previously used to tightly control who could be the  exclusive recipient of the latest gossip. But the ability for the sender to actually control the destiny of the message, that was right out of Mission Impossible self-destructing instruction tapes ( without the smoke).

The rest is start-up history, yet to be closed by a massive exit. The harm was done. Photographs, which we all took great care to preserve ( in shoe boxes or fancy albums) were now deliberatly created with the purpose  to be destroyed after their consumption. Almost as if they are being eaten.

While the reaction in the non teen-age community was one of dismay, puffing and shoulder raising, it didn’t escape the marketing community that if an image was to be destroyed, viewers would pay much more attention to it than those appearing on Facebook/twitter/G+ newsfeed. And more attention means engagement, the golden goose of content marketing.

There are now probably thousands of Snapchat imitators, all offering another variant of ephemeral photography. Even Facebook, with its Slingshot, did one.  It almost seems to be a requirement these days for any new photo app. But recently, the tide seems to have  changed and reversed. Not only some photo apps delay the possible viewing of an image for one hour but some will dig deep into your history and resurface older images to you and your friends, like a permanent Throwback Thursday. Defined as Nostalgia apps, they are slowly getting traction.

Why ? Because the first generation that started to take and share massive amount of pictures on their phones are getting older. They are transitioning from a life of constant party ( where ephemeral rules) to a more sedentary one which can involve marriage and yes, even kids. Those ephemeral moments well, they might be worth preserving.  The last wave of baby boomers, also tech savvy, are also keen in easy remembering  and are a factor.  But more important, older pictures, carry a lot of emotional value. They demand a lot of attention ( where was this again ? who is that ? etc) and very often become the subject of  long conversations ( see the success of Throwback Thursdays on social media) between friends. And you know where that leads us…yes..high engagement rates. They are pictures we stop for and connect around. A marketer’s dream.

So where does that bring us? Is it better to shoot and trash or to shoot, forget and remember with teary eyes ? What has the most value : The instantaneous consumption or the long simmering memory that smells like grandma’s cooking ( we know which one Instagram would choose). Obviously both have their appeal and there is no reason they cannot co-exist. For marketers, they offer different ways to reach to a captive audience, something they are quickly loosing  in the cascading mess of social media news feeds. Both, Ephemeral and nostalgia, requires user to stop and pay attention. To take a break and notice.

While Snapchat is just starting to monetize its huge network, Nostalgia apps are just starting to appear and are still far away from any monetization. But it is not far when one of them should see a strong growth and start capitalizing on those pictures we had forgotten. Not far at all.