While a number of brands have jumped on the emoji bandwagon, Unilever?s Dove hopes to corner a still-untapped area with strong consumer interest via a new keyboard featuring a wide range of hair types. 

After the company's research showed that  there is a need for more variety of styles amongst emoticons representing women, Dove also determined which types of hair consumers are more interested in seeing in emoji form. The hair care brand is hoping to promote sales of its curly hair products, focusing on deviating from the well-known straight-hair girl emoji as part of its Love Your Curls campaign. 

A mixture of a big brand name paired with consumer outcry for curly haired emojis is giving Dove a leg up on competition within the emoji space. The hair care manufacturer launched a keyboard application which allows users to send various emoji icons featuring women with all styles and color of hair as well as various skin tones. 

The keyboard serves a wider range of content to women who are looking for emojis that represents themselves more accurately. Many consumers have been searching for more relatable emoticon images to share with friends, and now Dove is making that available.  

Dove?s emojis caters to women of all skin tone, hair color and style. The range of emojis feature women with various tones from dark skin to light skinned, along with dark, light brown, blonde and red hair. 

The hair care brand also took to social media to announce the new keyboard. Dove shared a GIF featuring four of the emojis including various hearts that enlarge to grab users? attentions with text reading ?Curly girls, what advice do you have for others learning to embrace their curls, tweet it with #LoveYourCurls.? 

Unilever was also quick to partner with publishing brand Refinery29 for its recent Snapchat Discovery channel launch, tapping into the publisher?s audience to target millennials for the TreSemmé, Dove and Axe brands (see more). 

Also, Dove continued to boost its image as a supporter of women?s self-esteem with a new campaign leveraging Pinterest, reflecting the platform's ongoing relevance for targeting millennial women even as other marketers flock to Snapchat and Instagram (see more).