Coke is the first brand to get a custom Twitter emoji

By Digiday • September 17, 2015 •

Coke is it. And by “it” we mean the first company to have its own custom emoji — a pair of glass bottles adorned with its signature red label. The emojis appear when people tweet the hashtag #ShareACoke.

Ready for some fun? Tweet #ShareaCoke to help set a new @RecordSetter record for the world’s largest cheers. *clink!* pic.twitter.com/9UmY5WrVKE

— Twitter (@twitter) September 17, 2015

Although the customizable the Share a Coke campaign has been recently hijacked elsewhere, people have largely behaved themselves and are using it sincerely. In an attempt to draw attention to the new emoji, Coca-Cola is using Vine stars like Ethan Dolan, his brother Grayson and Hayes Grier to have their followers tweet the hashtag with the prospect of getting a follow or a direct Message in return.

What a world!

Here’s an example:

I’m pumped to #ShareaCoke with my fans. Tweet using #ShareaCoke to set a new record for largest cheers. I’ll follow & RT a bunch of you #sp — Hayes Grier (@HayesGrier) September 17, 2015

Hey guys! I’m DM’ing a BUNCH of people who tweet me using #ShareaCoke @cocacola Let’s trend, see you in the DM’s #sp

— Ethan Dolan (@EthanDolan) September 17, 2015

In an interview with TechCrunch, which first broke the news, Twitter’s senior director of brand strategy Ross Hoffman said the social network used Coca-Cola to test out the emoji because it was a “perfect opportunity to work with a nimble and smart marketer to make this happen.”

With emojis growing in popularity, it’s smart for Twitter to capitalize on the trend and charge brands big money to create a “hashflag” campaign for the public to use. Coca-Cola is the first company to try this out and we hear that more brands will have their own emojis soon. Cheers?