Logo reality contest show RuPaul?s Drag Race and footwear retailer Foot Locker are the most recent brands to join in on the latest mobile marketing trend, emoji keyboard applications, in an effort to connect further with fans.

Introducing an emoji keyboard is another way for RuPaul?s Drag Race to play into its fan frenzy, having already proven successful with over one million launches since its release on Wednesday. The demographic of sneaker fans is also quite large, and Foot Locker is tapping into that with the keyboard extension of its app, even creating a new name for the emoticons, Shoemojis.

"[RuPaul's Drag Race] was interested in driving awareness about Season 7 of the show and saw a keyboard as a great viral tool to get word-of-mouth out about the show," said Christian Brucculeri, CEO of Snaps , New York. "With the keyboard, fans take content and share it with friends organically in messaging, generating awareness and engagement about the show.

"There were two primary goals," he said. "One is to drive deeper engagement with existing fans, Logo wanted something that they could hand off to the show's biggest fans as a fun extension of the show.

"The second is to drive awareness and tune-in for Season seven. By leveraging the show's biggest fans and giving them content to share, Logo enabled the show's audience to spread the word for them."

The successful engagement rate of the Drag Race keyboard in less than one week shows that creating these emoji keyboards and brand stickers is a strategy for brands to investigate. Foot Locker's hope is to draw consumers to the app for the keyboard, and then continue to purchasing merchandise offered through mobile.

Brands show emotion

The Foot Locker shoemoji keyboard is apart of its recently launched app where users can shop for sneakers, browse upcoming releases details and calendar, connect with other sneaker enthusiasts, locate stores in the area and have access to the VIP program.

The goal with the app is to engage with the sneaker aficionado and create a broader social conversation about the brand.

The Logo network partnered with Snaps to develop the emoji keyboard app. The mobile messaging start-up has created keyboards and branded images for other brands such as Burger King, Victoria?s Secret, The Houston Rockets and Sony Pictures.

However, it is not only Snaps working on this type of branding. Hearst, Sega, Dreamworks and MGM, Walmart and Foot Locker are just the tip of the iceberg of brands foraying into emojis. This has the potential to be the next big platform for brands to reach consumers.

It utilizes consumers? tendency to share, and appeals to mainly the millennial user but also all other demographics that are slowly catching on. Essentially, these users are promoting the show themselves, similar to sharing posts on social media correlating to specific brands.

The popularity of emojis itself is increasing in popularity. The outcry on social media for the addition of new emojis has been so loud that Apple recently released additions to its keyboard.

Even with the expanded Apple emoji board, consumers are still interested in more of these mobile icons due to the constant driving need for something new. These brand-oriented boards will draw in consumers who are looking for something more than the same emojis they have repeatedly used.

Gaining millennial momentum

Another brand taking advantage of the marketing craze, Burger King, ramped up awareness of the return of a popular menu item, Chicken Fries, by rolling out a chicken-inspired emoji keyboard for mobile users (see more ).

The new spin on emoticons gained ubiquity quickly amongst millennial mobile users and presents an interesting growing opportunity for marketers seeking to engage a demographic with light attention spans (see more ).