Branded Emoji Hashtags Are The Next Big Twitter Craze

Emojis have become increasingly popular, and have turned into into a language brands can effectively use. A number of companies benefiting from branded hashtags and custom imagery for on social network platforms like Twitter.

One brand that has found great success using emoji is Star Wars. Back in April, coinciding with a new trailer for The Force Awakens, Disney designed a number of custom emojis to tie in with the film, including a Stormtrooper helmet and new robot BB8. 

Bridget Harvey, a senior manager for Twitter’s brand strategy team, noted the effectiveness of these images to Adweek. “We saw a lot of excitement around the Star Wars Emojis. That drove quite a bit of interest from our partners around the possibility of creating an Emoji for a brand. From there, we decided to explore this further. We really do believe in innovation through experimentation. That’s something that my group holds near and dear to our hearts. We believe that when you do experimentation in any campaign, the best campaigns start with insight.”

She adds, “it’s pretty clear that people love emojis. From that insight, we felt that this is a clear opportunity.”

Star Wars isn’t the only brand that thinks emoji speak louder than words…

• Coca-Cola launched a successful Emoji campaign back in September, titled #shareacoke. The imagery involves two Coke bottles in unison, along with pictures of people sharing their beloved sodas.
• Toyota created its own emoji program, where users could download custom images from the company to post to their heart’s content. “We’re really excited about the amount of engagement,” said Toyota’s social media marketing manager, Florence Drakton to Adweek. “The fans took the cue… it definitely opened up a new style of communication between ourselves and our consumers. It’s another form of expression. Sometimes, it’s better shown in an image than with words.”
• The American Music Awards benefitted from custom emojis as well, with artists like Ariana Grande to Nick Jonas getting their own special images.

.@ToyotaRacing‘s Kyle Busch won @NASCAR‘s #TheChase. We made new #FanMojis to celebrate! https://t.co/8zc3UNszxf pic.twitter.com/AUUHoIbVCI

— Toyota USA (@Toyota) November 23, 2015

 

Companies like Taco Bell have fully embraced custom made emojis for food fans to use and share with others.

It’s clear to see that branded emojis have become a hit, even though they aren’t being used as regularly as some companies would like. Nevertheless, their increased usage should be more than enough reason to create many smiles.