The semiotics of emojis in advertising: An integrated quantitative and qualitative examination of emotional versus functional ad dynamics

Abstract

In today's marketplace, consumers encounter a multitude of advertisements incorporating emojis. This research undertook two complementary studies to assess how individuals appraise emotional versus functional advertisements containing emojis, examining outcomes like processing fluency, claim believability, attitude toward the ad, and purchase intention. Study 1 employed a factorial design, resulting in four experimental conditions: emotional ads without emojis, functional ads without emojis, emotional ads with emojis, and functional ads with emojis. Study 2 delved deeper, offering a qualitative exploration of consumer perceptions and sentiments concerning emojis in advertising contexts. Grounded in the Emotion as social information theory, results indicated that within the sports drink advertising domain, emotional advertising without emojis led to enhanced ad and brand attitudes, purchase intentions, claim believability, and information processing when contrasted with conditions incorporating emojis.