Why In-App Stickers Should Be in Your Marketing Arsenal

4 min read

Stickers in messaging apps were first launched by Japanese company Line in their messaging app of the same name in 2011. Over the past ten years, stickers have exploded in popularity along with emojis to being something most people will use or at least see every single day. In 2016, Viber saw nearly 600 million sticker pack downloads and 40 billion stickers sent between users.

We all know the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is even more true in the modern era, where communication via images, emojis and stickers are extremely commonplace. But what use are stickers to your mobile marketing campaigns?


Brand Awareness

The number one reason to use stickers is to increase the awareness of your brand. However, with customers nowadays becoming warier of advertising, it can be challenging to get them to engage with your brand.

Great stickers that catch on and come into common usage can boost the awareness of your brand. In 2019, World Food Day released a sticker pack for Viber, which made it into the top 5 most downloaded stickers of the year; imagine how many eyes brought to their cause? If you look at that top 10 list, almost all of them are for commercial brands like Marvel or Disney movies.


Going Viral and Building Trust

One of the most exciting things about stickers is how viral they are. A user sends one of your stickers to a friend who has never heard of your brand, then that friend might download the sticker pack because they like the art or message of the stickers, and they then start sending them and spreading your brand even further.

Your stickers also are inherently more trusted and well thought of because they’re coming from a friend or family member. Ninety-three per cent of respondents in a study by Kantar Media said that friends and family are the most trusted sources for recommendations. Using your stickers can be viewed as an implicit recommendation of your brand.

Using your stickers can be viewed as an implicit recommendation of your brand. in app sticker for branding


Lead Generation

With popular messaging app Viber, you’re able to offer stickers as an exclusive reward, and this can be an incredible lead generation tool. For example, you could put a contact form on your website that gives users access to an exclusive sticker pack when submitted. Making the pack something fun and exclusive is bound to bring in more leads to your business, as nobody likes feeling left out!

If you’re looking to increase your opt-ins for business messaging, you can also make sticker packs available on a “Free & Follow” basis. What this means is that a user can only download and use the stickers if they agree to let you message them. This way, the user doesn’t even have to leave the messaging app to opt-in to your messages, and everyone they message with your stickers that thinks they’re cool will opt-in as well.


How to Create a Successful Sticker

Creating a sticker pack isn’t as simple as collecting your corporate branding and uploading it to the marketplace. But don’t worry, GMS is here to help as the sticker packs we’ve produced have been downloaded over half a million times. And we’re a B2B brand. So imagine how much further you could go as a B2C company with the right sticker pack!

Stickers in app sticker for branding

There’s an art to creating a good sticker pack, so you’ll need an artist to make one. Whether you have an in-house designer or use a freelance resource, this isn’t something you want to leave to an amateur.  Additionally, you’ll need to make sure that your stickers are well made, as otherwise, people will pass you over for other packs.

Once you have design resource in place, you should think of a theme. For our first sticker pack, we chose the theme “Time to relax”, which worked well. When picking your theme, think about how wide its appeal is. For example, with a big focus on wellbeing and “me time” in popular culture, a relaxation theme made a lot of sense for GMS. You’ll notice that it doesn’t have anything to do with our business as a messaging company, and you can do the same too. If your business is a travel agency, you have a solid link to a theme of travel or getaways, but if it doesn’t, just pick something you feel will be shared a lot that isn’t opposed to your brand. For example, if your brand is a health-related business, you don’t want to have a fast food themed pack.

Seasonal campaigns are another popular option. Your audience might appreciate holiday-themed stickers in summer or a more festive selection in December. If you’re in the education market, then a Back to School theme in August or September is another excellent tie-in topic. Always think about the busy season for your business and how that translates for your customers.

Finally, while one of the benefits of offering a sticker pack is that your brand gets in front of more people, you shouldn’t just plaster your logo over everything. I know this might sound counter-intuitive but hear me out. If your sticker pack is just a selection of different styles of your logo, that’s going to look like an advert. As noted in this article by Circle Studio, an advert that doesn’t look like an advert, known as native advertising, is almost 70% more likely to be shared. Instead, use logos sparingly and think of how other features such as theme, style, and colour can help the user draw that connection to your brand.


Your Next Steps

Sold on the concept of a sticker pack? GMS would be happy to assist you with sticker creation through our turnkey service. We will design the stickers and come up with any text that you need. Our close partnership with Viber and experience in creating sticker packs of our own will ensure that your end-product meets all the requirements.

If you’d like to discuss this further, you can click here to see more details on the service and talk to an expert.

GMS has created a fun, summer-themed sticker pack in celebration of our 15th anniversary. Download yours here before June 30!

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