Twitter Is Striking Million Dollar Deals For Branded Official Emoji

By @TheMarkDalton.

Twitter users have no doubt seen official branded emoji on the platform at some point. From football clubs to Star Wars or various cultural events, Twitter may be small compared to the other social giants but that is not stopping them raking in huge deals for the small custom emoji. 

Since October, Twitter has designed 17 custom emojis – three of them are launching this week for Super Bowl 50 with Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch. Twitter has struck a “seven figure” deal for the branded icons and custom emoji are reserved for Twitter’s biggest advertisers including Coke, Starbucks, Spotify and Dove.

The million dollar deal not only gets the brand a custom emoji but they also get a combination of Promoted Trends, Promoted Moments and Promoted Tweets as well.

The new branded Twitter emojis for the Super Bowl will roll out this week and Anheuser-Busch has created two distinct emojis for Budweiser and Bud Light; the latter’s Twitter ad spree will tie-in to its highly publicized ‘The Bud Light Party” promos, starring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen.

Azania Andrews, senior director of digital connections at Anheuser-Busch told Adweek that;

“We will be the only alcohol, wine, or spirit brand to have custom emojis that will launch [for] Super Bowl when our spots release, We know that custom emojis are a relatively new addition to Twitter, and we’re really excited to bring that to consumers and help us spread the word.”

Pepsi’s official emoji will be a can of soda with musical notes floating out of the top. Pepsi’s custom icon will be made available on Super Bowl Sunday along with a Promoted Moment. Verizon will also have a custom emoji along with a Twitter promotion which is shown in the embedded tweet below.

One tiny text wins you a 55-inch TV. Text Minute50 to 502016 to enter. #Minute50https://t.co/1UYBwGRR1d

— Verizon (@verizon) February 1, 2016

Combining branded emoji with ad buys looks like it could be one way for Twitter to not only show brands how powerful the platform can be but also to get some fantastic revenue into the company. Clearly brands are interested in making large deals with Twitter as they know there is an opportunity to reach out visually to consumers and get live real-time conversation started instantly.