Re/Max unpeels digital stickers for homebuyers' mobile messaging

Brief:

Re/Max, the realtor with more than 125,000 agents worldwide, introduced a digital sticker pack that aims to elevate connections among brokers, homebuyers and sellers while they message on mobile chat platforms. The sticker pack offers 16 branded stickers that users can share through SMS, Apple's iMessage, Android Message and WhatsApp, and through Giphy on Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories, the company announced in a press release.
The stickers include congratulatory messages like "You Bought a House" and "Welcome Home" aimed at homebuyers, reminders for buyers and sellers like "Time to Sign," motivational phrases like "Sell, Yeah!!!" and promotional imagery such as Re/Max's hot air balloon brand icon.
Re/Max worked with creative agency Camp+King to create the branded stickers and promotional video clip.

Insight:

Re/Max's introduction of branded stickers for popular messaging platforms comes as more consumers communicate through mobile devices and seek to expand their visual vocabularies with emoji, GIFs and other imagery. The stickers help to liven up communications among brokers, while reinforcing the company's brand among its clientele of homebuyers and sellers. While home ownership has declined among younger adults in the past 15 years since the U.S. housing bubble burst, Re/Max must keep apace with tech-savvy millennials and Gen Zers who are working to launch their own households and are generally more comfortable communicating through messaging apps than previous generations, particularly when interacting with brands.

About 71% of Americans use digital stickers, emoji and GIFs, saying they can better express their emotions through visuals than text alone, according to a survey by GIF-sharing platform Tenor and Harris Poll. The survey also found that 69% of U.S. adults feel more connected to the people they frequently message with when expressing themselves through a combination of visuals and words.

Re/Max is among the organizations that have created digital stickers or customized emoji keyboards to more deeply connect with mobile users and remain top-of-mind. Mars candy brand Snickers recently generated 42 million interactions by letting people decorate their mobile messages with branded images and stickers, according to messaging tech company Holler. World Wildlife Fund, the nonprofit group focused on saving endangered species, last month worked with messaging app Viber to create sticker packs and a chatbot to raise awareness about the plight of tigers.