Reddit announced Ask Me Anything (AMA) ads at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on 7 January, giving brands a tool to promote Q&A sessions and strengthen their engagement with users.
Anyone with a Reddit account can set up an AMA session and invite users to ‘ask them anything’. Usually, its public figures, experts or people with interesting stories. Former US president Barack Obama did one 13 years ago, where users asked him both political and personal questions.
But brands have also hopped on the AMA trend, too, and now Reddit will allow marketers to promote these threads with ads featuring a go-live date, RSVP count, and a ‘remind me’ button that prompts users to ‘join now’ when the session starts.
According to Reddit’s research, 81% of people like it when brands have conversations with them on the platform, and 59% of Reddit users also want them to listen to their feedback. AMA sessions offer customers an opportunity for a two-way dialogue.
Authenticity is key
Sephora was an early beta tester of the AMA ad format when it hosted a session with its beauty directors. The experts answered questions about gifting, makeup and skincare, as Redditors asked which products would work best for them. The AMA session was a success, with the ad garnering over 1,000 RSVPs.
‘For brand AMAs to be successful, they need to feature real, knowledgeable people offering true value and insight,’ Emma Harris, lead creative at VaynerMedia EMEA, told MediaCat. ‘Sephora having their beauty directors host an AMA to answer beauty questions made perfect sense — but had they thrown their CEO into one with no clear topic and just the AMA format — they likely would have received criticism and trolling from Reddit users.’
Redditors have a reputation for being intolerant of advertising and are known to quickly call out self-promotion. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s AMA session made it to the platform’s r/AMADisasters subreddit in 2017 after users accused him of ignoring questions and only promoting his new show, The Orville.
‘/r/IAmA has essentially become a tool for stars to give a quick pitch about their latest project, in the form of a shitty Q&A. I suggest we’d add a new tag for AMA’s like this, something like “MiniAmA” or “PromotionalAmA” or “AvoidThisAmA”,’ one user wrote.
Done right, however, Harris argues that AMAs could help brands get ads ‘under the noses of users without turning them off’. As noted by Digiday, the new AMA ads are ‘among the first Reddit ad formats to feel truly native’. But, Harris warns the platform must ensure brand AMAs ‘maintain the integrity of the format’.
‘The authenticity of AMAs is what makes them special, so it’s crucial that Reddit works hard to preserve this. The minute people feel that AMAs have just become Trojan horses for ads or that the site is being overrun with them, they’ll quickly become skeptical and avoidant,’ Harris said.
Alongside its AMA ad announcement, Reddit also unveiled its Reddit Pro Trends tool which allows businesses to track what Redditors are saying about any topic. With Pro Trends, marketers can search for keywords and phrases (eg, brand names, products, trends) to find out when, where, and how users are discussing their brand.
Featured image: appshunter.io / Unsplash
