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NFL Kicks Off 100th Season With Nostalgic Snapchat AR Lens

Scan any NFL 100 logo to unlock Bears vs. Packers highlights.

Next Thursday the Chicago Bears take on the Green Bay Packers in the first match-up of the NFL’s historic 100th season. In commemoration of the event, the National Football League has partnered with Snap Inc. on a new AR lense honoring the two teams who will be kicking off the 2019-2020 season. 

Beginning September 5th, Snapchat users within the Greater Chicago area will have access to a new Snapchat Lens that uses Snap’s Marker technology to turn any 2D NFL 100 logo into an AR highlight reel featuring some of the best Bears vs. Packers clips from past seasons. 

Image Credit: Snap Inc.

To access the filter, Chicagoans can open up their Snapchat app on gameday and press-and-hold the center of the screen—while in camera mode—to unlock the Lens selection screen. From there, they should see a new NFL 100 option. Once selected, they simply need to scan any 2D NFL 100 logo and boom! They’re now front-and-center of a best-of highlight reel. 

“There is a depth of engagement [on Snapchat],” said Blake Stuchin, the NFL’s Vice President of Digital Media Business Development, during an interview with Engadget. “For example, ahead of Super Bowl [LIII], we created a sticker pack of the [two] teams a week before [the game], with limited promotion, and it was viewed more than 303 million times in Snapchat.”

Image Credit: National Football League

Last year the league renewed its ongoing contract with Snapchat for an additional two years, beginning with “Sunday Publisher Story,” a new series that provides hourly updates of live football games in real-time. According to Stuchin, the program generated 2 million viewers per week last season. In the future, Stuchin hopes to expand the AR Lens to cover additional NFL-related content, such as Super Bowl rematches as well as recaps of infamous rivalries. 

Earlier this week, Snap Inc. announced several new locations now compatible with its Landmarker Lenses program—such as the Arc de Triomphe, Statue of Liberty, and Taj Mahal—as well as new templates for its Lense creation desktop app, Lens Studio. These features open up a wider variety of interactions and filters, including Face in Video, Countdown, Portrait Particles, Hair Color, and several other new options.

The Arc de Triomphe Landmarker Lens / Image Credit: Snap Inc.

Featured Image Credit: Snap Inc.

About the Scout

Former Writer (Kyle Melnick)

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