The public’s love affair with emoji has — not surprisingly — been noticed by the marketing community, where there is accelerating interest in the form from commercial brands seeking fresh ways to reach and engage with audiences.
Today, Swyft Media launched 30 new emoji keyboards for Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store representing a range of popular brands.
Branded keyboards include Peanuts for iOS and Google Play, 1-800-Flowers, the University of Florida Gators, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Dark Horse Comics Hellboy, Itty Bitty Hellboy, Emoji DC and Leopold the Robot, among others. The keyboards are sold and promoted by each brand.
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The idea is for companies is to put their brand or product in front of eyeballs in a natural and organic way without being intrusive or offensively commercial.
Swyft sees brands and advertisers using their emoji keyboards as part of broader marketing awareness campaigns and as a way to connect with consumers without banner ads.
Brands and agencies looking to create customized keyboards can tap the talents of Swyft’s team of professional “chat artists” whose job is to understand mobile messaging and social media and advise brands on how to present their emoji campaign.
Swyft also provides companies with real-time analytics and metrics on their campaigns, including insights such as when and where content is being downloaded as well as how it’s being used and shared.
Swyft Media, a subsidiary of Monotype, already works with more than 300 brands to bring their imagery to mobile messengers like Facebook Messenger, LINE, BBM and some 60 other applications.
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