Let's play with emojis! How to make emojis more effective in social media advertising using promocodes and temporal orientation

Abstract

PurposeThe authors aim to examine how the construal level, either as an individual temporal orientation or temporal distance of promotion, moderates the effects of emojis' emotional intensity on consumers' purchase intentions in social media advertising.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments are used to test four hypotheses.FindingsThe results of two experimental studies show that present-oriented participants reveal greater purchase intentions when low (vs high) emotionally intense emojis are embedded in a social media ad; but future-oriented consumers showed no difference when viewing ads with the two different emojis. In Study 2, participants indicate greater purchase intentions when a social media ad includes a distant-future promocode and high (vs low) emotionally intense emojis and an ad with a near-future promocode and low (vs high) emotionally intense emojis.Originality/valueThe current study advances our understanding how emojis with different emotional intensities can be effectively used in social media ads. This study also provides theoretical implications to construal level theory (CLT) by examining how emojis interact with construal level, either as a chronic tendency or simulated by psychological distance, can influence consumer response.

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“…This research highlights the processing advantages of emotionally‐valenced emojis over neutral ones, indicating that emojis are indeed processed emotionally, which aligns with our observations of their impact in advertising. Furthermore, the research by Huang et al (2022) provides valuable insights that complement and extend the findings of your study on the impact of emojis in advertising. While this research focused on the differential effects of emotional versus functional advertisements with and without emojis, this paper adds a nuanced layer by examining the role of construal level and emotional intensity of emojis in shaping consumer responses.…”

Fostering consumer engagement with marketer-generated content: the role of content-generating devices and content features

“…navigation structures, graphical styles and information content) affect consumers' perceived ease of use, usefulness and acceptance of this technology in retail settings. Huang et al. (2021) also examined how consumers' construal levels – such as the temporal distance or temporal orientation of promotions – moderate the impacts of emojis' emotional intensity on their purchasing intentions in the social media advertising context.…”

Boost your email marketing campaign! Emojis as visual stimuli to influence customer engagement

“…). Facial emojis tend to appear in digital communications and marketing campaigns pertaining to human traits or expressions (Hewage et al, 2020); also, facial emojis with different emotional intensities can be effectively used in social media ads and influence to purchase intentions (Huang et al, 2021). Nevertheless, non-facial emojis appear more Boosting email marketing using emojis frequently to represent specific products, such as clothes, books, toys, food (fries, taco, hamburger), games or office items (Rodrigues et al, 2018).…”