According to a study by Brands2Life, 41% of consumers surveyed believe inappropriate or insensitive emoji use can damage a company’s reputation, with 42% feeling they’ve formed connections with brands because of emoji use to display humour.

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Meanwhile, half of frequent TikTok users said improper emoji use could hurt a brand’s reputation, with 36% saying they would stop purchasing from a brand which did not use inclusive emoji’s on the platform.

A further 37% added they would unfollow the brand on social media for that reason.

Brands2Life Managing Director of Digital, Social & Influencer, Kinda Jackson, said: “Emojis have become a language on their own, but meanings can shift across cultures and demographics.

“Brands must consider inclusivity and consistency with emoji use to avoid unintended interpretations.”

This comes as 31% of 18-34-year-olds said they would be turned off a brand for overusing emojis, compared to just 22% of those 55 and over.

Jackson added: “The use of emojis is not just about business representation; it’s about making your audience feel genuinely included on social media and creating a space on your channels where everyone feels welcome.”

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Now with roughly two billion monthly users, the platform has undergone significant transformations since launch, introducing new features, new functionalities and even being acquired by technology giant Meta.

To celebrate the social media giant’s 15 year anniversary, Mobile Marketing Magazine looks back at the revolutionising updates of WhatsApp and how it has adapted to mobile communication along the years.

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Messaging to multimedia

WhatsApp initially launched as a simple text messaging app in 2009, allowing users to send and receive messages via the internet.

However, recognising the growing demand for richer communication, the social media giant quickly launched multimedia content on its app.

As a result, users can now share photos, videos, voice messages and documents on the platform.

Voice and video calling

Six years after its launch, the platform introduced voice calling, an addition to its previous multimedia offerings.

This feature provided users with a cost-effective and efficient way to make phone calls all around the globe via the internet.

Following this success, WhatsApp further elevated its communication capabilities by introducing video calling in 2016, offering users face-to-face interactions, free of price.

End-to-End encryption:

In 2016, WhatsApp implemented end-to-end encryption, ensuring that messages and calls remain confidential and secure. This move reinforced its commitment to protect user data from unauthorised access.

WhatsApp Web

In 2015, WhatsApp recognised the need for a seamless cross-device experience. As a result, the social media giant launched WhatsApp Web, allowing users to access their messages on a desktop or laptop computer by simply scanning a QR code.

Later, the platform expanded its reach with a dedicated desktop application, increasing convenience and allowing users to access the platform whether they are on their smartphones or desktops.

Status updates and stories:

Eight years after it launched, WhatsApp followed the likes of Facebook- now Meta, which also acquired the platform in 2014 for $19 billion– and Instagram by launching stories.

A feature similar to rival social media platforms, users can share text, photos, and videos as their status, visible to contacts for 24 hours, a move which was first introduced by Snapchat.

This addition catered to WhatsApp’s audience who desire real-time updates and sharing moments.

Group calling

WhatsApp continued to enhance its communication capabilities with the introduction of group voice and video calling. This feature allowed virtual gatherings, connecting friends and family irrespective of geographical locations and distances.

Disappearing messages and multi-device support

To enhance privacy and user control, WhatsApp introduced disappearing messages in 2020.

As a result, users can enable this feature for individual or group chats, causing messages to disappear after a week. At the same time, the platform also extended its flexibility in communication by allowing users to access the same account on multiple devices simultaneously.

WhatsApp’s journey from a simple messaging app to now a $118 billion company reflects its commitment to innovation and adapting to emerging with trends. As it continues WhatsApp remains a key player in the mobile communication industry.

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HelloFresh has been issued a £140,000 fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending over 79 million spam emails and one million texts over seven months.

An investigation by the ICO revealed the spam texts and emails from the food delivery company “lacked proper consent”, with some customers not aware they had opted in to receive the marketing messages for up to 24 months after cancelling their subscriptions.

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As a result, 14 direct complaints were received by the regulator, with 8,729 complaints being made to the 7726 spam message reporting service.

Despite there being a reference to receiving emails, the option to opt-in was included in an age confirmation statement which was likely to “unfairly incentivise customers to agree”, according to the ICO.

ICO Head of Investigations, Andy Curry claimed this was a “clear breach of trust”.

He said: “Customers weren’t told exactly what they’d be opting into, nor was it clear how to opt-out.

“From there, they were hit with a barrage of marketing texts they didn’t want or expect, and in some cases, even when they told HelloFresh to stop, the deluge continued.”

However, the company has revealed it has made changes to its email and text marketing policies following the investigation, which began just under two years ago.

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The winners in all 11 categories of the 14th Effective Mobile Marketing Awards were revealed at an Online Awards Ceremony this afternoon. Brands and organisations honoured for their work included Unilever, B&Q, Vodafone Turkey, Fitness AI, Spur and PlugSports. Agencies and tech firms collecting awards for their work included Replug, Yodel Mobile, Moloco, Adjust, Zappar and Moburst.

The Grand Prix Award went to Fitness AI and Replug for an innovative and all-embracing user acquisition campaign. This campaign also took the individual category award for the Most Effective App Install Campaign.

Yodel Mobile picked up two awards for its work with DIY and household retailer, B&Q, for the Most Effective App Store Optimisation Campaign and the Most Effective Use of Data.

For more on the winning entries, head to the Awards Site. Congratulations to all our winners. The full list is below:

Grand Prix
Fitness AI and Replug – Scaling User Acquisition with a Holistic Approach

Most Effective App Advertising Platform
Moloco – Moloco Cloud DSP

Most Effective App Analytics Platform
Adjust – Adjust Suite

Most Effective App Install Campaign
Fitness AI and Replug – Scaling User Acquisition with a Holistic Approach

Most Effective Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Campaign
Countdown and Zappar – Countdown Bricks Farm

Most Effective App Store Optimisation Campaign
B&Q and Yodel Mobile – Leveraging Unconventional ASO Techniques to Drive B&Q Business Success

Most Effective Location Campaign
Vodafone Turkey and Carat – Geotargeting Tailored for Sales Channel Convenience

Most Effective Small Budget Campaign
Hailr – Spur Spiderman: Across The Spiderverse Campaign

Most Effective Use of Data
B&Q and Yodel Mobile – A Data-driven Approach to Driving B&Q Incremental Revenue

Most Effective User Acquisition Platform
Redbox Mobile – Astra by Redbox Mobile: A Revolution in Apple Search Ads UA

Most Effective Influencer Marketing Campaign
PlugSports and Moburst – An Influencer Marketing Slam Dunk!

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign
Unilever, InMobi and PhD – Closeup Voice

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Global technology company Meta has appointed Dentsu as the first global agency network solution provider for WhatsApp Business.

The partnership which is initially launching in the UK aims to respond to the evolving ways in which consumers interact with brands, enabling businesses to offer more personalised services.

As part of the agency’s partnership with Whatsapp, it has built a proprietary web platform for customers to manage all access with their account, providing an end-to-end managed service from creation to analysis and optimisation.

Dentsu UK and Ireland CEO, Angela Tangas said: “Customer-brand communications are in the moment and increasingly conversational. It needs to be easy and brands that embrace conversational experiences will be well-positioned to thrive.

“Our relationship with Meta is focused on helping brands achieve deeper engagement and value with their current and prospective customers, a critical enabler for growth.”

She added: “Launching a WhatsApp conversational solution, builds on our commitment to creating seamless E2E experiences. This enables brands to establish stronger, more relevant, one-on-one connections with customers, fostering trust and enhancing service experiences in the process.”

The tech giant also revealed that the partnership harnesses new advancements in AI and experience to co-develop first-to-market products and solutions in media and brand activation via Meta’s portfolio of apps.

Meta VP of Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Derya Matras continued: “For people and businesses across the world, WhatsApp is a great place to get business done.

“We’re looking forward to seeing how Dentsu brings the power of messaging to its customers around the world so they can accomplish more right within a chat.”

The post Whatsapp drafts in Dentsu to engage customers and offer more personalised services appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

It includes nine Mobile & App Masterclasses, starting in Barcelona on 27 Feb, with other events taking place in London, New York, Amsterdam and Berlin. Each event runs for half a day and gives mobile & app marketers the opportunity to discuss the market and their current challenges with their peers and expert agencies and tech companies.

New for 2024 are Mobile & App Leaders’ Dinners, with the first one taking place in London on 30 Jan.

Recent attendees at Future of Mobile Festival events include Asos, Depop, Monzo, Just Eat, Vodafone, Gymshark, Sainsbury’s, Ralph Lauren, Vinted, Zalando, Babbel, Delivery Hero, HSBC, John Lewis, Travelopia, Expedia, Skyscanner, BT Group, Pepsi Co, Microsoft, Uber, American Express and more!

There’s more information here.

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The tool has been created as part of the wider RNIB #BeforeYouAsk campaign, which aims to address the many misconceptions about sight loss, by educating the public through relatable scenarios to encourage them to change their attitudes and behaviours towards people with sight loss. It has been developed in partnership with Wavemaker UK and Voxly Digital.

A series of #BeforeYouAsk films use everyday relatable experiences – in the workplace; romantic relationships; applying make-up; watching football; travelling on the night bus; and unavoidable school message groups, to banish myths around what it’s really like to live with sight loss.

Hosted on the RNIB website, the #BeforeYouAsk interactive video chat tool is designed to address the weird, awkward, and at times hurtful questions that blind and partially-sighted people are frequently asked by sighted people about their day-to-day lives. It features over 40 questions and misconceptions sourced from people with sight loss, Ask the Public, Reddit, and a Google predictive search form. The answers are provided in video form by the campaign’s blind and visually-impaired cast.

“RNIB’s #BeforeYouAsk campaign uses humour and familiar scenarios to make people think,” said Martin Wingfield, Director of Brand, at RNIB. “The campaign also underscores a serious point about the misconceptions people face and the barriers these lead to in terms of people living independently. By partnering with Wavemaker and Voxly Digital, as well as with our cast of visually-impaired actors, we’re providing a reference point, where sighted people can go to find out more about visual impairment. We hope our first interactive video chat experience, alongside the six campaign films, will go a long way to increasing understanding of what it’s like to live with sight loss and to reduce the misguided everyday questions that many blind and partially-sighted people face.”

Following the campaign, it will live on as part of RNIB’s educational toolkit here.

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Aampe

Aampe’s tech turns an apps marketing messaging into a personalized experience through agentic AI that tracks and adapts to each users individual responses, clicks, and subsequent actions in response to each message they receive. Marketers can then collect the insights gained about users within a simple dashboard to understand individual user preferences, behaviors, and motivations. It automates content creation, experimental design, and conversion tracking, to boost user engagement and conversion rates, while reducing the time and effort required to manage traditional rules-based systems.

“AI dramatically alters how we build software, making the older rules engine generation of software increasingly obsolete,” said Aampe Co-founder and CEO, Paul Meinshausen. “Marketers have been forced to define rigid paths for their users that ignore their individuality and diversity. Generic segmentation leads to frustration, reduced engagement, and slower growth. Aampe has created a way for CRM AI agents to iteratively learn user preferences and then adapt and respond to those preferences optimally, unlocking the benefits that better customer experience provides.”

With its latest funding, Aampe has now raised a total of $9.3m since its founding in 2020. It currently serves over 50m users each month. Customers include IntelyCare, PayU, Swiggy, and Zalora.

The post User engagement platform Aampe completes $7.5m funding round appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Most Effective App Advertising Platform
Applovin – AppLovins CTV for AppDiscovery
Bidease: Transparent Mobile DSAP – Using Predictive Algorithms and ML to Grow Daily Installs X10: Bidease DSP & Messenger Home/Email Home
Gamelight – Leveraging Data to Fuel AI Algorithms
Mistplay – Mistplay Enhances its Loyalty Platform to Drive +23% Install Volume, +37% D7 Retention, and +31% D7 ROAS for Mobile Gaming Advertisers
Moloco – Moloco Cloud DSP

Most Effective App Analytics Platform
Adjust – Adjust Suite
Swaarm – Explorer

Most Effective App Install Campaign
B&Q and Yodel Mobile – Driving App Store Visibility and Incremental Revenue for B&Q with Agile App Install Campaign
Driving Test Success and ConsultMyApp – Maximizing Budget Potential for Driving Test Success
Fitness AI and Replug – Scaling User Acquisition with a Holistic Approach
Home Fitness for Weight Loss and AdQuantum – x40 subscriptions in 6 months with SKAN and web-to-app campaigns
Marvel and Petrol Advertising – Marvel SNAP Launch
Vodafone Turkey and VMLY&R – Her ?ey Yan?mda Drop The Link!

Most Effective Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Campaign
Countdown and Zappar – Countdown Bricks Farm
Unilever Lynx/Axe A.I. and Zappar – Lynx/Axe A.I. Launch Campaign
Vodafone Turkey and VMLY&R – Metaverse Shop
Vodafone Turkey and VMLY&R – Childrens Day with 5G

Most Effective App Store Optimisation Campaign
Angkas and M&C Saatchi Performance – Improving Google Play Store ranking for Angkas
B&Q and Yodel Mobile – Leveraging Unconventional ASO Techniques to Drive B&Q Business Success
Busuu and ConsultMyApp – App Visibility Unleashed: A Novel ASO Campaign for Busuu
Co-op and Apadmi – Driving Member Acquisition Through ASO
Product Madness and The71 – Optimising ASO at Product Madness
Upside and Moburst – The Cash-back Chronicles!

Most Effective Influencer Marketing Campaign
PlugSports and Moburst – An Influencer Marketing Slam Dunk!
Vodafone Turkey and VMLY&R – #RidiculouslyGreat Gaming w/ Enis Kirazoglu
Vodafone Turkey and VMLY&R – Your Money is Valuable at Vodafone

Most Effective Location Campaign
Jet2, Mobsta and Wavemaker Manchester – Jet2 Airport Proximity
Simpli.fi – HVAC Distributor Reaches Niche Audience With Location-based Targeting From Simpli.fi
Vodafone Turkey and Carat – Geotargeting Tailored for Sales Channel Convenience

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign
EE, Essence & Picnic – EE Full Fibre Broadband
Kumu and AVOW – First UA Campaign Activation on Mobile OEMs and Alternative App Stores in the Philippines for Kumu
Marvel and Petrol Advertising – Marvel SNAP Launch
Unilever, InMobi and PhD – Closeup Voice Activated Campaign
Visa, Ogury and Starcom – How Ogury’s Cookieless Technology Helped VISA Engage Users During the 2022 FIFA World Cup
Vodafone Turkey and Carat – ASMR Unboxing

Most Effective Small Budget Campaign
Driving Test Success and ConsultMyApp – Maximizing Budget Potential for Driving Test Success
Good Earth Tea Co., Mobsta and Mediacom North – Good Earth, Good Energy
Hailr – Spur Spiderman: Across The Spiderverse Campaign
JoyGlitch and AppAgent – Tripling Monthly Installs for Wordling with User Acquisition and ASO
Vodafone Turkey – 25th November, I Exist
Vodafone Turkey and Carat – ASMR Unboxing

Most Effective Use of Data
B&Q and Yodel Mobile – A Data-driven Approach to Driving B&Q Incremental Revenue
Gamelight – Leveraging Data to Fuel AI Algorithms
Good Earth Tea Co., Mobsta and Mediacom North – Good Earth, Good Energy
Samsung and Vodafone Turkey – Vodafone & Samsung Data Usage in Programmatic Out of Home
Simpli.fi – Saint Lucia Tourism Authority Increases Web Traffic With Mediagistic and Simpli.fi
Vodafone Turkey and VMLY&R – November 25 – Every 11 Minutes

Most Effective User Acquisition Platform
Bidease: Transparent Mobile DSAP – Using Predictive Algorithms and ML to Grow Daily Installs X10: Bidease DSP & Messenger Home/Email Home
Gamelight – Leveraging Data to Fuel AI Algorithms
Mistplay – Mistplay Enhances its Loyalty Platform to Drive +23% Install Volume, +37% D7 Retention, and +31% D7 ROAS for Mobile Gaming Advertisers
Redbox Mobile – Astra by Redbox Mobile: A Revolution in Apple Search Ads UA
Upstream – Grow 

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