Toyota delivers secret emoji for Twitter tailgate party fun
Toyota is pairing a secret emoji innovation on Twitter with a contest to band together sports team fans in a show of support.
The automaker is surprising Twitter users with a secret emoji, with sports fans using a curated hashtag seeing the exclusive emoji appear in their post to further celebrate the brand's sports campaign. The automaker is looking to excite consumers and sports fans with a unique innovation through the social media platform, as users will be surprised to see their tweets transform.
"It is no secret that emojis have become a prominent method of day-to-day interpersonal communication," said Florence Drakton, social media strategy and operations manager at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A."They also happen to be hugely impactful in the world of talking about sharing in the revelry of sports.
"It is important for us to be there with our fans through all of the moments that matter most to them - on the road, on the field and through their adventures," she said. "Toyota's FanMojis offers sports fans a fun way to express their enthusiasm and competitive spirit related to sports via Twitter and other social messaging feeds."
Toyota emojis
The secret emoji campaign is the latest facet of Toyota?s focus on tapping into the popularity of emojis and sports following its Fanmoji keyboard launch. Twitter users who post about their favorite football teams using the hashtag #letsgofans will see their tweet automatically update with a foam finger emoji.
The campaign is running this week until Friday, Nov. 20. Toyota is also launching a contest in which NFL fans share their hashtag along with a hashtag of their favorite team. The team with the most posts will win.
The winner will be announced on Nov. 20. The hashtag #LetsGoFans is a play on Toyota?s slogan ?Let?s go places,? to tie in the brand image with fun game-time content.
The Twitter campaign is made to create a digital tailgate party, a fun take on a longtime tradition. Toyota has named its contest as Twitter?s Loudest Tailgate party, with a surplus of fans virtually shouting their support for their teams.
As technology continues to develop, it is becoming easier for brands to develop small fun innovations such as Toyota?s emoji. But that also means that marketers need to consistently focus on playful, innovative moves no matter how small.
Following a tweet with the hashtag, Toyota responds with a promotion of its emoji keyboard.
Toyota?s mobile strategy
Toyota sponsored an emoji keyboard for football fans to share with friends on messaging and social media applications, bringing a sports angle to marketers' growing efforts to leverage an icon-based shorthand for engaging mobile users (see more).
Toyota Motor was also the first advertising partner opening its doors to branding initiatives and original Web series development as part of AOL On and NBCUniversal?s new partnership, which will further AOL?s digitization goals by rolling out premium content across a slew of mobile platforms (see more).
"Sharing emotions is an integral part of how fans connect with their favorite teams," Ms. Drakton said. "Through this campaign, we aim to help fans communicate a fuller, more dynamic spectrum of who they are and what they care about while cheering for and supporting their teams.
"We intend to measure our success against total number of app downloads and, perhaps more importantly, the frequency with which our fans use our FanMojis to communicate," she said.
Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer
