03 July 2015

Chevy's Emoji Press Release: Did it Hit the Mark?

Last week while browsing Twitter, I found that Chevy had released an emoji press release. The entire release was typed using emojis. At first I was a little confused. While I consider myself an avid emoji user, I didn't quite understand the whole release.

After reading some articles, I discovered that Chevy has a new model that is being marketed as a millennial car. What better way than to write a news release in their own language?

While I completely understand the premiss, I think Chevy missed their mark. I sent this news release to my boyfriend, who had no idea how to read it. After showing it to a couple more people, the only person I found who was able to comprehend the meaning was my 14 year old sister. She's at least 4 years away from buying her own car, let alone a new one.

Chevy missed the mark in two ways-- they assumed that millennials who use emojis can buy a car and that the news release would reach their target audience.

First, not all millennials use emojis. A lot of people assume millennials are in college or just getting out. However the majority of us are late twenties, early thirties. A majority of them have grown up without the emoji keyboard. My boyfriend and I are actually looking at cars, but neither of us understood the information presented. While they did release a translation of the release the next day, it kind of lost momentum.

Second, the news release didn't get that much publicity. I found a tweet from a public relations website on Thursday, three days after the release. While there has been discussion among marketing and public relations professionals over the effectiveness of the method, there hasn't been a lot of media coverage outside of social media. Chevy might have made a small splash, but they didn't attract the attention of their target audience.

Was it worth it? Maybe. I think that if Chevy had waited about 5 years, they would have had a better response. It's a great, innovative and creative way to grab people's attention. Unfortunately a little ahead of it's time.

What do you think of the emoji release? Did you understand it? Did they hit or miss the mark?


  1. I think it's a cute/funny idea but should have definitely been accompanied by a traditional press release! I think the number of people that truly use just emojis to communicate is pretty minimal and thus even heavy emoji users probably didn't get it, or at least not the whole message.

    Southern Belle Secrets

  2. I love how companies are continually changing up their ad techniques! This one is perfect :)

    Annie // Annie N Belle

  3. I think they really missed the mark on this one! This is almost unintelligible! The intent was there, but I don't think it was executed quite right. I think that emojis would make more sense in a billboard or poster - the fewer the better.

    Alessandra | blog.pumpup.com

  4. I think it's was a good idea but it defiantly isn't feasible to everyone. The thought was great but I had NO idea what that meant. Not a good way to get people talking about their product if they can't even understand the news release.

    xoxo, Danielle

  5. I think it's a good idea but I totally agree with you -- I wasn't able to understand it at all!


  6. I never even heard of the release. Wow! I am very late on this.

    Mikayla | A Seersucker State of Mind.

  7. I agree, missed the mark, I get what they were thinking but it just did not translate, #questionmark lol, maybe they should have used hashtags

  8. It's a cute and interesting idea but I definitely agree with your criticism. I think it would work for a fun post on social media if they simplified it.

  9. In theory, it's seems like a good idea, but if the people who are actually buying the cars don't understand it, then what's the point?
    I got through the first few characters and was kind of able to decipher it, but it would take way too long to try and figure out...thus one of the reasons why the release didn't work.

    xoxo, Jenny || Breakfast at Lillys

  10. This was not a good idea. It's not everyone who uses emoji . This sounds like an amusing strategy but I don't think it would work

  11. I get there reasoning to want to use something modern but I don't get the interpretation at ALL. Federer did a twitter post like that yesterday! It definitely didn't make that much sense to me at first my fiancé had to help me haha.

  12. Wow that is actually SO cool. But I don't understand any of it!!! I agree.... they missed the mark completely. Horrible.

    The Fashionista's Diary

  13. I think this is a really cool idea! I'm not really in the market for a new car, but this gimmick was enough to make me look into what they're trying to sell!

    XX, SS || A Little Seersucker Sass

  14. I think it's a fun idea but misses the mark. I just didn't care to take the time to read it!!

  15. They definitely missed the mark. If your target market literally can't even understand the release, it's a fail!

    Coming Up Roses

  16. We talked about this at work. I think it was an innovative idea but I also had trouble understanding what they were trying to say. It's a good idea - but I'm not sure I agree with how it was executed.

  17. I think it was a good idea that missed the mark. It's too bad because it could've been brilliant!

  18. I don't understand it at all. haha. Girl, I agree with you!

  19. I think its a good idea in theory, but people don't just use emojis to speak...they incorporate text too!

  20. Oh my O.o I had no idea what this meant, and after looking it up the lesson learned is that emojis are for simple ideas or familiar ones. They should have looked to Kimmy Schmidt to see how easy they can go wrong, and to those Buzzfeed emoji lyrics for a good example!

    Julia | Pennies & Paper