Boot manufacturer The Frye Company is leveraging Instagram?s new emoji hashtags as part of a contest that coincides with the finale of the brand's 20-part docuseries and helps cement its image as a craft-focused brand by encouraging consumers to include emojis of a boot and hammer. 

The contest is being held through Instagram from May 15 to May 25, in which local New York based artists are encouraged to share images of their workspace and work for the chance to be featured in the finale of the #MeetOurMakers docuseries that showcases various artists in New York who work with their hands. To win, users must include the hashtag #MeetOurMakers in an attempt to greater promote the campaign and also a hashtag including emojis of a boot and hammer for Frye to spin a unique take on a typical social media contest. 

"As the saying goes, an image speaks a thousands words," said Michael Becker, managing partner at mCordis, San Francisco. "Images are an amazing form of expression, on the surface they are immediately recognizable but the more you think about them you can begin to personalize them and layers of meaning emerges.  

"Consumers are increasingly expressing themselves with images, with emoji?s, and these expression are now searchable," he said. "The Frye Company can pull a number of benefits from being the first to leverage Instagram's emoji hashtag feature.  

"This feature will drive consumer engagement by tapping into existing consumer behavior, the desire for self-expression, to be unique and to participate. Moreover, the Frye Company will be able to start setting the stage for effective use of emoji hashtags, to establish and inform best practices and further establish themselves as industry thought-leaders, innovators and trends setters and should be able to drive a nice balance with their efforts by earning the reward of shared and earned media from their paid media efforts."

Instagram released the new update at the end of April, introducing clickable hashtag emojis, which links all posts that include the hashtag compiled together, the same as traditional hashtag posts. The update also included three new filters and updates for the Apple Watch. 

Hashtagging publicity
The shoe manufacturer released a 20-part docuseries on Instagram and YouTube featuring 15-second pieces on local artists filmed on an iPhone 6 to further secure its brand image as an authentic and artisan-based manufacturer. The series focuses on craftsmanship and working with your hands, coinciding with Frye?s overall brand image (see more). 

The contest winner will be featured in the final installment and conclusion to the series. Creating a contest hypes up the campaign and generates greater awareness through social media, and since the series is featured solely on social media this is ideal. 

Using the emoji hashtag feature of Instagram is a unique way for the Frye Company to catch the eyes of consumers. Emojis are rising in popularity and stand out in text captions; users tend to gravitate towards posts incorporating the symbols. 

Organic marketing
This is one of very few examples of brands taking advantage of the emoji hashtag due to its recent release. However, other brands are likely to jump on board, given the interest in emojis and visualization on mobile. 

Instagram emoji keyboards in a contest such as this takes on a more organic impression to it, rather than a clear promotion manner to it. It is more playful content in the eyes of the consumer. 

As large and small brands alike fight for domination of social media applications such as Twitter and Instagram, marketers should focus on dispersing new content via promoted hashtags that feature organic messages and authentic consumer reactions to keep buzz trending and entice more users to join the conversation (see more). 

"Contests are a time aged tradition for grabbing consumer attention and driving engagement," Mr. Becker said. "Social media is a powerful marketing tool since marketers can meet and engage consumers where they meet and engage each other.

"Marketers should be careful, however, with social media," he said. "Without thinking about how to strategically leverage social media to drive the conversations back to the brand?s properties, brands may find themselves relegated to the role of tenant farmers, they?re doing all the work to build up the social media site?s engagement rather than leveraging social media as a tool to further deepen the relationship with the consumer. 

"The key to successful social media is to tie the engagement with the brand and where possible drive the consumer engagement back to the brands owned properties by offering opportunities to access unique content and experiences only available at the brand?s sites or in the brand?s app. This is what we refer to at mCordis as establishing and owned media causeway." 

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer