In the last 12 months, Snapchat usage has increased dramatically among our target. There are now 10 billion videos watched per day.

But they don’t go to Snapchat for the paid articles — they go for the unpaid Stories.

So we decided to create a story of our own.

As a brand, we knew it would need something special to be compelling enough to encourage views.

So in a world first, we turned Snapchat Stories into fully interactive DIY projects.

But they weren’t just a series of videos showcasing a complete interior refresh.

Our stories allowed users to actually hammer, saw, drill chisel and paint their way through the who job with their thumbs.

We designed each shot in a unique way. So if the user tapped in the right place on screen, they could get the feeling that they were hammering a nail, sawing timber or chiseling a tile.

To ensure that they tapped where we wanted them to, we used something really simple: an arrow on a stick. We just positioned the arrow manually in the shot where we wanted them to tap. Then we match-cut the second shot, which showed the effects of the tap. So it appeared as though they were hammering and chiseling with their thumb.

That way, the project became not just interactive but fully immersive.

Each film was shot in the app on an iPhone and instantly uploaded, one snap at a time.

And so that the complete Story could be ready to be consumed in the morning, we had to shoot each one overnight.

This was Lowe’s first foray into Snapchat. So we were starting from a zero follower base.

What’s more, Snapchat stories are unpaid advertising and cannot be promoted on the platform. To add to the limitations not even influencers were used to buy views. So the only way to generate reach, was by placing the Lowe’s Snapchat code across their other social channels.

So how did we do? In just 3 days we gained 8,700 follows and exceeded 300,000 views.

Drop-off across the 30 or so snaps required to get through each story was virtually non-exisitent, with similar tap numbers recorded on the first and last frames.

All this combined with the buzz on twitter and facebook confirmed we had a hit on our hands.

Lowe’s intends to produce up to 40 more In-a-Snaps this year.