Brief:
- Broadcaster ABC is promoting the return of game show "Supermarket Sweep" with an emoji-based game on Twitter. The "Supermoji Sweep" game asks people to reply to its @SuperSweepABC account with combinations of nine emoji for grocery items including cheese, bread, steak, turkey and cherries, per an announcement emailed to Mobile Marketer.
- Each emoji has a set dollar value that isn't visible, and people who reply to the show's Twitter account with a combination of three emoji whose value equals $20 or more will receive a video message from comedian Leslie Jones, the host of "Supermarket Sweep." Twitter users can play the game as many times as they want.
- For the activation, Twitter developed a custom reply engine that reads the emoji in tweets, matches them to grocery prices, tabulates winning combinations and delivers a receipt in a tweet. "Supermarket Sweep" will premiere on ABC at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 18 and stream on Hulu the following day.
Insight:
ABC aims to engage Twitter users with a gamified promotion that's easy to play and corresponds with the object of "Supermarket Sweep," which gives contestants a chance to win $100,000 for finding five hidden products in grocery store shelves before time runs out. As Twitter users participate in the emoji-based game by responding to the show's account in tweets, ABC can extend the reach of its campaign among the social network's 36 million users in the U.S. Gamification strategies that engage consumers with an experience can improve recall of promotions and form stronger ties with brands.
For Twitter, the activation is a sign of how the platform can support gamified campaigns for mobile marketers. The company's engineers developed special software to perform a variety of functions on the channel, such as reading emoji in tweets and generating an automated response. The ABC campaign asks Twitter users to perform specific actions — posting emoji with a secret value — for a chance to see a video message. That kind of interaction can add another dimension to hashtag challenges that ask people to participate in a brand campaign, often by tweeting photos and videos.
ABC's campaign also is notable for asking Twitter users to respond with emoji, which have become more popular on social media platforms that have integrated the digital icons with text. For World Emoji Day on July 17, Twitter provided updated statistics on popular emoji, whose usage tends to reflect the public mood. The shopping cart emoji showed a more than 2,400% jump in usage during the first half of 2020 compared with a year earlier as people discussed their shopping habits during the pandemic. The germ emoji saw an almost 2,200% lift, ahead of the 441% increase for toilet paper, 155% for soap and 128% for the face wearing a mask, per Twitter data cited by the Jerusalem Post.
ABC is the latest brand to launch a gamified campaign to engage consumers with a branded experience. Other recent examples include the gamified Instagram augmented reality filter that gas station chain RaceTrac created as an extension of in-stadium promotions for frozen yogurt at its convenience stores. Xfinity Mobile in September unveiled three mobile games on Pinterest to promote its wireless phone and data service. Before that, Jack in the Box ran a gamified advertising experience on audio streaming platform Spotify that gave listeners a chance to win free tacos.
