You might not get Twitter, but you understand stickers. And Twitter wants to use that to its advantage.
Taking a page out of popular apps like Snapchat and Japanese messaging app Line, Twitter launched its own stickers in late July. Today (Aug. 15), Twitter launched “Promoted stickers,” which allow brands to design four to eight stickers that users can use to adorn their photos. All photos with promoted stickers are subtly embedded with the brand’s hashtag—clicking on the graphic will let you see how people are using it. Pepsi is the first brand to partner with Twitter, making its proprietary “Say It With Pepsi” campaign stickers available in 10 countries, according to a press release.
Snapchat and Line have found that stickers are less intrusive for users than actual advertising messages in feeds. Line’s stickers accounted for nearly a quarter of the company’s revenue in 2015.
Making stickers work, however, depends on how popular they are with users. In a blog post, Twitter said “millions of photos have been Tweeted using #Stickers in creative and dynamic ways across sports, news, and entertainment.” Many people, however, have yet to see the feature appear in their Twitter feeds.
In its latest quarter, Twitter reported that revenue grew 19.82% from the year earlier quarter, the slowest pace ever.
Since Jack Dorsey was appointed Twitter’s permanent CEO in October 2015, he has been trying to fix the microblogging site and boost growth. Among other things, the site has pushed live events such as Moments, Twitter Engage and streaming sports. Those efforts have yet to show results.
Perhaps Twitter stickers will stick.