Emoji are becoming more prevalent as mobile messaging applications ? where the symbols are a mainstay for quick communications - continue to gain in popularity. A number of big brands have already jumped into emoji marketing, but the Coca-Cola program is the first time Twitter has developed a custom brand emoji for an advertiser. 

?They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that?s the way young people communicate these days,? said Matt Rednor, CEO and founder of Decoded Advertising. ?Emojis are a quicker, easier and more fun way to express emotion, and allow brands a better way to track sentiment. 

?They can be of great value to brands as they make it easier to say more with less, and make global advertising easier than ever since they are really the only universal language on every mobile messaging platform,? he said. 

Digital tribute?
Last week, Coca-Cola used the branded emoji to extend its popular Share A Coke campaign. On Thursday, Sept. 17, the emoji featuring two Coke bottles clinking in a toast appeared every time the hashtag #ShareaCoke was tweeted, with the goal of creating the world?s largest cheers. 

The program was promoted on the Coca-Cola billboard in New York?s Times Square over the weekend and on the MyCokeRewards homepage. 

Coca-Cola will continue to use branded emojis as part of its campaigns this year. 

As social media?s popularity has grown, marketers have focused on leveraging hashtags to create meaningful engagements with consumers on these platforms. Today, hashtags are a standard ? if not always innovative- element in most multichannel campaigns. 

With the growth in mobile messaging platforms, emoji are shaping up to become the next hashtag. However, not all brands will have the kind of universal awareness that Coca-Cola can boast and which is important for a branded emoji that consumers will understand how to use (see story). 

?Emojis are the new hashtag,? Mr. Rednor said. ?As messaging apps surpass the growth of social networks, we?re moving from a hashtag culture to an emoji one. 

?Brands have been trying to come up with their own hashtags for the last couple of years, now they?re going to have to think of their emoji,? he said. 

The examples of emoji use by brands are quickly stacking up. 

Ford recently launched a new branded sticker keyboard through mobile messaging applications while GE developed science lessons incorporating emojis, amplifying the role of emoji-centric marketing tactics through creative and offbeat methods (see story). 

This summer, Old Navy puts a new spin on emojis with a mobile-optimized site that predicted shoppers? perfect pair of flip-flops based on their icon use (see story). 

?Getting people to use branded content without realizing they're being advertised to is the holy grail,? Mr. Rednor said. ?Brands don't always have to create their own emojis though. 

?They can try to commandeer an existing emoji so that there's some brand recall if people associate the brand with that emoji,? he said. ?Or brands can use emojis in other ways to elicit actions, like testing how an ad made someone feel for example.?