Tag Archives: The Emoji Company

It’s World Emoji Day 2020 – Emoji Company CEO, Marco Huesges talks the continued success of the global brand

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It’s World Emoji Day 2020 and a happy World Emoji Day to you all, a day on which not only the Emoji Company itself, but the hundreds upon thousands of emoji users the world over celebrate the global popularity of those little icons that have been helping people spread their messages, and finding their way into the modern day lexicon and communication on a daily basis.

But today isn’t just about celebrating the estimated six billion emoticons used everyday as the world finds a universal language in emojis and emoji stickers, but also a day to celebrate the global success of the official Emoji brand – an award-winning lifestyle brand that spans the global licensing scene from retail partnerships, to making new waves in gifts, collectables, and more.

Over the past two weeks, Licensing.biz has been catching up with just some of the leading licensees of the Emoji brand in a series of video snippets talking to the strength of a brand that has continued to keep conversation going, even throughout the world’s ‘Great Pause’ throughout these testing times. And it all culminates with today’s celebration.

Licensing.biz catches up with Marco Huesges, CEO and founder of the Emoji company to talk about the international appeal of the brand.

Firstly Marco, Happy World Emoji Day to you. How are you celebrating World Emoji Day this year? What makes this such an important day in the calendar for you?

World Emoji Day is the day of celebrating the global popularity of icons and how they enable us to spread unmistakably messages and to connect with people from all over the world.

For us as emoji company, creator and owner of the Emoji® brand, it is also the day to celebrate the global success of the brand together with our license and agents whose ambitious and enduring brand support is the fundament for our success story and that motivates us every day to develop new concepts, style guides and emotional consumer product strategies.

We’ve seen from the video series you’ve been running with Licensing.biz that there is a great energy from licensees across the globe for the Emoji brand. What is it about the Emoji brand that unifies licensees, retailers, and consumers in this way?

Licensing is an emotional business. In an overloaded, fast moving consumer product world each company constantly seeks to find the perfect way to connect with their target audience. The Emoji® brand offers the ideal foundation to do exactly that. Our brand truly connects products and people; it builds inevitable relationships and helps to deliver understandable consumer messages.

The video series also highlights the real breadth of partnerships you have in place for Emoji. What’s the key to maintaining such a far-reaching portfolio of partners?

The universal character of the brand, its depth, its popular content variety and diversity allows us to work with partners from any industry sector which leads to our broad portfolio of licensing partners which come from so many diverse areas, such as consumer product, entertainment services or the marketing and advertisement space.

Can you talk us through some of the biggest campaigns/biggest success stories for the Emoji brand this year? What have been some of the break-through categories for you guys?

The year 2020 started with some great initiatives. We launched a very successful direct to retail program with the leading discounter LIDL in multiple countries. All through 2020 we continue to work with Ferrero for KinderJoy in various territories and Burger King will be launching a QSR program with collectable Emoji® plush toys in various countries.

Our brand collaboration program Emoji® by Britto has seen some great new partnerships with Goebel Porzellan GmbH for Europe that includes bags, spectacle cases, umbrellas, coaster and cups and that has recently launched.

In short we will be able to announce some new digital licensing as deals, some loyalty programs in South East Asia as well as some exciting international apparel brand collaborations very soon.

How does this position you for the coming months and years? Looking ahead, you’ve dropped hints of some pretty major partnerships coming, what have you got in store for us in the coming months?

Despite the Covid-19 situation we have partnered with lots of new licensee since the beginning of 2020 and continued existing partnerships. 2021 will see some exciting loyalty programs happening in Europe and the opening of more Emoji® apparel stores in Mainland China will continue.

We entered into various direct to retail partnerships with leading retailers from various countries and entered into some serious licensing deals in the digital space which will increase global brand visibility.

For now, we really want to wish everyone, all our partners, licensees, agents, and friends to stay healthy and hope to see them soon in person!

 

It’s World Emoji Day 2020 – Emoji Company CEO, Marco Huesges talks the continued success of the global brand

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It’s World Emoji Day 2020 and a happy World Emoji Day to you all, a day on which not only the Emoji Company itself, but the hundreds upon thousands of emoji users the world over celebrate the global popularity of those little icons that have been helping people spread their messages, and finding their way into the modern day lexicon and communication on a daily basis.

But today isn’t just about celebrating the estimated six billion emoticons used everyday as the world finds a universal language in emojis and emoji stickers, but also a day to celebrate the global success of the official Emoji brand – an award-winning lifestyle brand that spans the global licensing scene from retail partnerships, to making new waves in gifts, collectables, and more.

Over the past two weeks, Licensing.biz has been catching up with just some of the leading licensees of the Emoji brand in a series of video snippets talking to the strength of a brand that has continued to keep conversation going, even throughout the world’s ‘Great Pause’ throughout these testing times. And it all culminates with today’s celebration.

Licensing.biz catches up with Marco Huesges, CEO and founder of the Emoji company to talk about the international appeal of the brand.

Firstly Marco, Happy World Emoji Day to you. How are you celebrating World Emoji Day this year? What makes this such an important day in the calendar for you?

World Emoji Day is the day of celebrating the global popularity of icons and how they enable us to spread unmistakably messages and to connect with people from all over the world.

For us as emoji company, creator and owner of the Emoji® brand, it is also the day to celebrate the global success of the brand together with our license and agents whose ambitious and enduring brand support is the fundament for our success story and that motivates us every day to develop new concepts, style guides and emotional consumer product strategies.

We’ve seen from the video series you’ve been running with Licensing.biz that there is a great energy from licensees across the globe for the Emoji brand. What is it about the Emoji brand that unifies licensees, retailers, and consumers in this way?

Licensing is an emotional business. In an overloaded, fast moving consumer product world each company constantly seeks to find the perfect way to connect with their target audience. The Emoji® brand offers the ideal foundation to do exactly that. Our brand truly connects products and people; it builds inevitable relationships and helps to deliver understandable consumer messages.

The video series also highlights the real breadth of partnerships you have in place for Emoji. What’s the key to maintaining such a far-reaching portfolio of partners?

The universal character of the brand, its depth, its popular content variety and diversity allows us to work with partners from any industry sector which leads to our broad portfolio of licensing partners which come from so many diverse areas, such as consumer product, entertainment services or the marketing and advertisement space.

Can you talk us through some of the biggest campaigns/biggest success stories for the Emoji brand this year? What have been some of the break-through categories for you guys?

The year 2020 started with some great initiatives. We launched a very successful direct to retail program with the leading discounter LIDL in multiple countries. All through 2020 we continue to work with Ferrero for KinderJoy in various territories and Burger King will be launching a QSR program with collectable Emoji® plush toys in various countries.

Our brand collaboration program Emoji® by Britto has seen some great new partnerships with Goebel Porzellan GmbH for Europe that includes bags, spectacle cases, umbrellas, coaster and cups and that has recently launched.

In short we will be able to announce some new digital licensing as deals, some loyalty programs in South East Asia as well as some exciting international apparel brand collaborations very soon.

How does this position you for the coming months and years? Looking ahead, you’ve dropped hints of some pretty major partnerships coming, what have you got in store for us in the coming months?

Despite the Covid-19 situation we have partnered with lots of new licensee since the beginning of 2020 and continued existing partnerships. 2021 will see some exciting loyalty programs happening in Europe and the opening of more Emoji® apparel stores in Mainland China will continue.

We entered into various direct to retail partnerships with leading retailers from various countries and entered into some serious licensing deals in the digital space which will increase global brand visibility.

For now, we really want to wish everyone, all our partners, licensees, agents, and friends to stay healthy and hope to see them soon in person!

 

Sponsored content: The Emoji Company kicks off countdown to World Emoji Day with commercial director of the Americas, Paulina Perez

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With the countdown to World Emoji Day well underway, The Emoji Company has launched a video series with Licensing.biz – highlighting just some of the key partners and collaborations that the firm has worked with over the course of the last 12 months and beyond.

Kicking off the July countdown to the big day – that’s right, World Emoji Day on July 17th (if your diary isn’t to hand, no sweat – we’ll be sure to remind you) – is Paulina Perez, The Emoji Company’s commercial director of business in the Americas, and her message of thanks to all the partners, licensees, and retailers over the past 12 months and as it looks to the coming years.

Licensing.biz teams with Emoji to celebrate World Emoji Day this July 17th

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Glance to the right. Not too far, because that’s probably your kitchen, but just to the right of these words. There you go. Is that a face familiar to you? In fact, it very well could be yours.

What you may have noticed as you scroll through Licensing.biz’s daily content of news from across the industry, is a movement in your peripheral vision. If you currently have the sound on – and we strongly urge you to do so – on your home office set-up, you’ll no doubt already be aware that Licensing.biz is running a new sponsored video feature in its side-bar.

The reason being, is that we are counting down to World Emoji Day – taking place on July 17th this year – with a special campaign running in partnership with The Emoji Company, to celebrate the strength and appeal of this award-winning, world-spanning lifestyle brand with a special show reel of Emoji licensees walking us through their own experiences with the Emoji brand.

You might be watching Andrew Storey at IG Design Group, Lauren Madden at Lazer Built, Charlie Preece at Kokomo, or the Wow! Stuff family showing off their production and editing skills as well as their license with The Emoji Company for its own range of collectables. Over the next couple of weeks, and in in the build up to World Emoji Day on July 17th, you can expect to see more faces joining the roster, too.

There will be more sponsored content to come, too – expect more video content, exclusive interviews, and a site takeover as Licensing.biz prepares to celebrate this year’s World Emoji Day in true Emoji fashion.

 

The Emoji Company dives into swimwear with Mexico’s Mayaguana

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The Mexican swimwear brand, Mayaguana has partnered with The Emoji Company to launch a new collection branded swimwear lines for children and adults, as well as a selection of rashguards and towels.

Mayaguna mixes comfort, fast dry technology, and the appealing style of the Emoji lifestyle brand, all of which is now available at Mayaguana stores across a number of malls in Mexico, including Centro Comercial Paseo del Carmen, and La Isla Acapulco.

“This unique and colourful swimwear collection by Mayaguana is the perfect way to dress for the beach and to enjoy your summer holiday,” said Marco Hüsges, CEO and founder, The Emoji Company.

The Emoji Company now has the Emoji brand trademarked in over 130 countries across the globe, with a rapidly expanding portfolio of licensing partner to its name.

The emoji company works with over 700 renowned global partners including Sony Pictures Animation, Walmart, Fuji, Nestlé, Ferrero, Unilever, Tesco and Burger King and was ranked by the Licensing.biz Powerlist as the third most influential brand behind Lego and Coca-Cola.

The Emoji Company: “Yes, we are looking at making a move on the toy category”

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The globally renowned and literally iconic Emoji brand is formulating a move into the children’s sector through toys and a variety of animated content concepts that are still in discussion.

Until now, Emoji has carved out a hugely successful licensing portfolio across the teenage and young adult market through lifestyle licensing partnerships that span the globe, and last year, took home a Licensing Award in the Best Teen or Adult Licensed Property category.

The win seemed to top off a year that The Emoji Company founder, Marco Huesges, marks as “another great success story for the Emoji brand,” throughout what was considered by many as a ‘Disney year.’

And as that success story goes, Emoji is now looking at a new chapter for its licensing efforts, laying out its plans to move in on the children’s market over the coming months, be that through toys, publishing, animated content, or – in fact – a culmination of all three.

“The answer here is yes. While Emoji is established globally and targets primarily teenagers and young adults, we believe that there is an angle to address the kids’ market which is mostly connected to the toy space, in particular to collectable toys and plush,” Huesges told ToyNews.

“We are carefully analysing this market to ensure we make the right move, we are discussing several animation concepts with development studios and potential partners from the toy and the publishing space. It is a time-consuming process but we hope to have clarity within the next eight to 12 months on which direction to go.”

For Huesges, diversifying the portfolio in such a way is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s fair to say that the CEO has successfully managed to juggle, and maintain prominence within, an ever-widening number of categories for the Emoji brand, and interestingly, it is through the company’s burgeoning loyalty programme category that much of its success has been born.

“We launched a variety of campaigns with partners such as Aldi, Penny or Co-Op,” continued Huesges, “and we have been very successful with Emoji collectable toys within loyalty programmes, which opened up discussions with other partners about Emoji collectable toys in general.”

It kicked off with Burger King when the company ran a global programme that offered 30 different Emoji brand plush collectables. This, in turn, led to multiple discussions with other potential partners in the space, all of which proved “to be successful above the average.”

Not only this, but it was a planned move into the Chinese market that cemented the success of the brand over the course of 2019, when Emoji managed to open three Emoji branded stores across its mainland.

Huesges is now thrashing out plans to open another ten over the course of this year, and only recently successfully launched the official Emoji brand store on TMall.

“This development in China is a great way to demonstrate the variety and the depth of our brand and how to bring new designs and messages to life,” said Huesges. “We want the consumer to permanently engage with our brand and we will launch a variety of new projects such as Emoji tea shops to offer exactly that possibility to the customer.”

The potential for the Emoji brand in the collectables space can’t be denied. A category that wholly depends on the introduction of new characters or themes within each wave of launches, Emoji is pretty much tailor made for the market. Emoji is after all a compendium of thousands of character icons, that are not only recognised globally, but used by millions each day.

That said, simply because the brand enjoys a universality in its translation, doesn’t mean Emoji will be in the habit of using a broad brush approach for all of its territories.

“We know that markets have different demands and tastes,” said Huesges. “China for example is a very specific market, but one of our key territories. We analyse what is needed and give the brand a local look and feel, making it adaptable and suitable for the Chinese market.

“In fact, the demand for customisation of the Emoji brand is constantly growing and gives partnerships a personal taste. In a fast-moving consumer goods market you cannot stand still and need to permanently reinvent yourself and invest. We take this approach with all of our key markets across Europe, the US, China, Brazil, and Mexico.”

For Emoji, 2020 will start with some big noise and some ‘highly recognisable partnerships’ across Europe including a large scale direct to retail programme, multiple loyalty programmes, and some high level brand collaborations in the fashion space.

“In the US, we have built an incredible licensee roster and look forward to launching great programmes at retail. We have successfully added lots of different new categories, from shaped vitamins, entertainment services to exciting new food and beverage deals,” said Huesges.

“We have already had some great results and are perfectly prepared for the year ahead to come. We do expect another great year ahead of us, and have already secured noteworthy partnerships all around the globe, which will be launched in 2020,” he concluded.

The Emoji Company continues global expansion with Indian lingerie brand Clovia

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The Emoji Company is kicking off 2020 just as it ended 2019, with plans to continue its global brand expansion. And leading the firm into the new decade, Emoji has just signed a new licensing partnership with India’s fastest growing lingerie brand, Clovia.

Clovia’s newly added holiday collection includes Christmas themed nightwear and briefs, and is aimed at millennials and their continued engagement with emoji’s vast library of icons.

India’s fashion label focuses on comfort and style, and the new entire collection is crafted from soft breathable cotton fabric. The nightwear consists of full sleeves tops and pyjama sets with season inspired slogans and emoji icons to compliment.

‘This entire Christmas collection by Clovia makes for a perfect cosy winter gift. You definitely cannot go wrong by gifting cute nightwear to your best friend or BAE,’ reads a statement from Emoji.

“Clovia is known for its high quality, and cool design for women’s fashions, and the emoji brand is all about expression, so this was an exciting alliance,” said Marco Hüsges, CEO and founder, the emoji company.