Getting Social

After running into Snap Inc. co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel in 2015, Betsy Kenny Lack ’79 made the decision to leave her job at the signature publication of a 100-year-old company to lead a strategic team at a social media venture still in its infancy.

 

“That was when he made a pitch for me to join Snapchat,” recalls Lack, who came aboard the then-five-year-old company — best known for its real-time messaging platform — in 2016. “It’s a bit of a joke between us that he wasn’t very specific about what I would do. Sometimes you need to take a leap of faith for what seems to be, at the time, a risk. I admired Evan and his vision — he had a very clear view about the values of the company. It was absolutely the best decision I’ve ever made.”

 

In her previous eight years at Vanity Fair, Lack was charged with covering Silicon Valley and technology as thoroughly as the magazine covered Hollywood and the entertainment industry. That included running the “New Establishment List,” a power ranking of top tech companies and their leaders. The list led to expanded notice for entrepreneurs, from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who ended up on the cover of Vanity Fair in September 2015. With that experience to her credit, the transition to working for a technology company felt like a natural one for Lack. Fittingly, she had first met Snap’s Spiegel when he agreed to participate in a New Establishment Summit series conversation with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

 

Six years into her tenure with Snapchat, Lack’s role as head of global brand strategy is clearly defined yet constantly expanding. Because of the creativity and innovation of founders Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, the company continues to evolve, a fact that holds great appeal for Lack. Though known for its fast-disappearing conversations and augmented reality Lenses, the platform also offers access to content on its Discover platform, where Snapchatters can access the latest news from NBC and The New York Times, among other vetted sources, to create a healthier news experience. Snapchat’s audience also can access a vast slate of original shows such as “Good Luck America,” which aims to deliver political news to its young audience and is hosted by former CNN political correspondent Peter Hamby. Notably, Snapchat does not have an open news feed, which helps to shield Snapchatters from those who try to transmit false information.

 

In broadening Snap’s brand, Lack has been able to establish collaborations with artists such as Damien Hirst, Christian Marclay, Jeff Koons, and Alex Israel to “create global Lenses and experiential activations” within Snapchat. Israel’s self-portrait imagery allows users to experience his paintings in augmented reality, for example. Snapchat partnered with Hirst to create a Lens that allowed users to put themselves into his spin art paintings or create their own. The original artist images are not only available in the app, but also have found their way into prominent museums, such as LACMA and Miami’s Bass Museum, widening the company’s reach.

 

“In [2020], we were No. 1 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Lack says. “Being able to work with a company that is constantly growing and changing makes my job so interesting. When you work in brand, you communicate who you are as a company. That’s what I do.” Billed as the “fastest way to share a moment,” Snapchat has distinguished itself from other social platforms in a few notable ways. It is the app of choice for people under the age of 21, and it allows users to live in the moment in a way that mimics a real-time conversation. Thoughts and images shared are fleeting — similar to live dialogue — as Snapchat aims to empower people to live in the moment without the pressure to be perfect, thus distinguishing it from the “internet-is-forever” standard.

 

“We’re also different in that your Snapchat world is about your close friends,” Lack explains. “It’s not about strangers following you and knowing what you’re doing. That ephemerality is where Snapchat is so appealing.”

 

Outside of her work at Snap, Lack has prioritized philanthropy and volunteerism. She serves on the board of the Lincoln Center Theater, the Snap Foundation, and the Walden Woods Project. She also counsels families dealing with addiction and helped establish a program at her alma mater, Princeton, to encourage women to consider careers in computer science and engineering.

 

Currently, Snapchat reaches 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in countries like the U.S., U.K., France, Australia, and the Netherlands and boasts 319 million daily active users, with growth expanding across the world. The vision is for the average age of users to increase as those who have grown up with Snapchat become adults. While the debate about the curses and the blessings of social media will endure, Lack is proud of the decisions the executive team at Snap continues to make when considering the negative implications social media can have on young people.

 

“There is in the world right now a very healthy questioning of the impact of social media,” Lack says. “I feel very lucky to work at Snap because we really do look at the ramifications and consequences of what we do. It’s very much a part of our day-to-day decision-making.”