Emoji Marketing- Part 2: Cases and recommendations
As told in the first part , the use of emojis are increasing rapidly. Below are some examples of emoji marketing by global brands and some key lessons that every brands should consider.
Pepsi’s wedding proposal
On 17th of July, World Emoji Day, Pepsi had communicated with something different in mind: A young man asked his girlfriend to marry by emojis in the campaign called SayItWithPepsi. Pepsi helped the guy out to ask his girlfriend to marry him by only using simple expressions.
Mentos created its own emoji
Mentos had introduced new emoji characters to social media in order create a better engagement. The Strategy Director of BBH, agency of Mentos, Ben Shaw said: “We have seen a great increase in the usage of emojis. We have created special emojis and social stickers to reach out to a medium that would be difficult for Mentos to be.”
The first emoji press release by Chevrolet
To introduce its new Cruze model, Chevrolet created #ChevyGoesEmoji hashtag on Twitter and announced its press release in emoji language only. The aim was to get people to understand the emoji story and become viral. It was a successful campaign and was the first of its own that made history.
PETA used emojis for social awareness
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had used emojis to better communicate with its audiences with the campaign called “Beyond Words”. Graphic designers expressed the heartbreaking pain that animals suffer by emojis and show the way to take action. Those who sent a “heart” as a reply to the visual shared by PETA started receiving mobile notifications and were motivated to share the campaign video on their social accounts.
General Electric combined science and emojis
General Electric decided to narrate science to Z Generation with their own language; emojis. GE partnered with Bill Nye, the science guy, and create a microsite that has explanatory science notions and experiments told with emojis. GE created #EmojiScience campaign on Twitter and those who participated got a science video by Bill Nye on Snapchat in return of an emoji sent.
The brands recently introduced its emoji characters. Each character is representing a material that was invented in GE Innovation Labs. We try very hard to just pay attention to what our audience or community is already doing — how they're already communicating," says Sydney Lestrud, global brand marketing manager for General Electric. "We look at the platforms or social channels where they already are or where they're tending to migrate to. So for us, we are always very interested in what's next and what's around the corner."
Oreo, which entered the Turkish market last year, had rolled out a campaign in China and asked parents to take a photo with their children and add dancing emojis on top. The campaign reached 100 million emojis in less than 3 months.
5 Advices brands who are interested in emoji marketing:
Don’t be scared to utilize new technologies and platforms: It doesn’t matter if it’s Snapchat, Instagram or the next big platform but make sure to use that platform, too, to communicate with your target audience.
Mobile first: Undoubtedly all brands needs to embrace mobile strategies.
Embed emotions to convey messages: Researches show that instead of promotions focusing on emotions is more important. Prioritize what is important for your target audience and how to engage with them in a humainly way.
Go simple to engage: The user journey in your campaigns needs to be short and simple. The raise of the emojis clearly shows that fast and efficient communication will become more popular.
Test: Although emoji marketing is now trending, it doesn’t have to mean that you need to be a part of it. Take small steps first try testing before launching.