This March, a group of entertainment industry celebs will be rewarded for their contributions to their craft over the past year, and no, I’m not talking about the Oscars. A March 31 date has been set for the inaugural edition of The Snappy Awards, an awards show that will celebrate some of the most popular creators on Snapchat.
Matt Friend, a comedian and actor with a sizable Snapchat presence of his own, will host the upcoming show. He will be joined by a litany of guests and nominees, including DJ Khaled, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his long-term contributions to Snapchat.
“Snapchat has always been the place where I can be completely myself — it’s where some of the most creative, original voices are building real communities every single day,” Friend said in a statement. “I’ve grown up on this platform, so getting to host The Snappys Awards Show and celebrate the creators who are shaping comedy, music, sports, and everything in between feels full circle.”
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When Snap hosts the Snappy Awards at its Santa Monica HQ, it will join the growing list of social media companies that have produced platform-specific award shows. TikTok recently executed a similar concept when it honored the likes of Keith Lee, Bretman Rock, and Alex Warren at the first U.S. TikTok Awards. Twitch, meanwhile, has thrown its support behind QTCinderella’s Streamer Awards.
If you’ve watched any of those shows in the past, The Snappy Awards might look familiar The categories featured in Snap’s show will include honors for breakout creators, storytellers, collaborators, comedy stars, and individuals with outsized cultural impact, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ironically, the increasing platform agnosticism in the creator world may be the catalyst for these company-specific awards shows. As creators go wide to limit their reliance on individual platforms, it’s important for an app like Snapchat to explain the distinctive aspects of its community. Those localized success stories can become leverage when rivals flounder, as we saw when Snap attempted to capitalize on a looming TikTok ban.
YouTube, of course, has long used glitzy play buttons to reward the creators whose channels get millions of subscribers. And Instagram’s take on the concept is Rings, a juried award that will fete the app’s top creators.
It’s certainly the right time for Snapchat to celebrate the diverse and eclectic in-app culture it hosts. The Snap Star monetization program has helped its namesake platform grow its creator ranks, and Snap recently pressed that advantage by launching a Subscriptions product that resembles similar revenue streams on platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
The Snappy Awards will showcase some of the brightest stars who are benefiting from those initiatives. The show, therefore, can portray Snapchat as an app that creators can use to turn their passions into sustainable careers.
