Coca-Cola has become the first brand to pay for an emoji on Twitter, with a picture of two Coke bottles clinking automatically appearing on tweets when a user types #shareacoke.
The deal marks the first time a brand has paid Twitter to have an emoji made for a specific marketing campaign.
Unlike previous custom emojis for branded properties like Star Wars and MTV’s Video Music Awards, the Coke emojis are part of an ad deal.
The emojis work as a paid ad placement, and Twitter will only be offering the feature to Coke after committing an undisclosed amount of their ad budgets to Twitter.
Twitter worked with Coke for six months on the project and is currently talking to 10 of its biggest brand clients about more paid emojis.
Speaking to AdWeek, Ross Hoffman, senior director of global brand strategy at Twitter, said: “Coca-Cola is a massive global partner of Twitter and they have been pushing us for some time on building a custom emoji (along with the creative agency of W+K).
“We know that people love using emojis and usage has been significantly increasing over time on our platform. This was a perfect opportunity to work with a nimble and smart marketer to make this happen.”
Twitter’s brand strategy team worked with Coke and W+K “on design, creation and strategy on launching this the emoji around the world.”
View some early examples of tweets that have used the emoji below:
The World’s Most Famous Arena joins the world’s largest cheers! #ShareaCoke pic.twitter.com/mUHMJzwnME
— MSG (@TheGarden) September 17, 2015
Sky high concert with @ColdWarKids on the @SouthwestAir + @MyCokeRewards party plane! #CodeVegas #ShareaCoke pic.twitter.com/rp3tlaXzEk
— The Coca-Cola Co. (@CocaColaCo) September 19, 2015
#ShareaCoke friends! pic.twitter.com/8aUkejDLRV
— Danica Patrick (@DanicaPatrick) September 17, 2015
It's the cheers heard around the world! Tweet with #ShareaCoke to set a record for World’s Largest Twitter "Cheers!” pic.twitter.com/liGFMGofpJ
— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) September 17, 2015