A single text message conversation that ended with “Why isn’t there an emoji for that?!” gave Melbourne entrepreneur Steve Baker a cheeky idea that saw him develop his first App: the ‘Shades of Emoji’ sticker collection.
I sat down with Steve this week to discuss his flirty emoji and the communications challenges he might face and thought I’d share his sexy little latex covered story with you.
So dirty sexy flirty emoji. Tell me more!
“I initially thought it was just a bit of fun, but after doing some market research, I realised there were no emoji available that catered for the BDSM market” Steve explained.
All those apple, banana and strategically placed water drop emoji don’t excite you?
“How boring! Shades of Emoji is about playful communication – being flirtatious in appropriate situations and expressing your sexuality. Shades of Emoji is where BDSM meets the keyboard and allows you to spice up your sex life or simply have a little cheeky, flirty fun.”
But getting the App into a store proved challenging. Apple were quick to reject Steve’s App citing a range of ambiguous “policies” even though they sell ’50 Shades of’ well… pretty much everything else.
“Fair call, I know it’s not everyone’s thing – but the hypocrisy of their otherwise BDSM inspired range was frustrating as I’d done a lot of App store research. After the initial rejection I appealed and gave them a lot of examples of Apps and Emoji that were far more explicit” Steve recounts “it turns out (and Apple admitted as much) that many of those products were in breach of their own policies, but they still remain for sale.”
Did you get your whip out at that point?
“Ha ha ha!!! No – they didn’t seem into it ;-)”
Not being able to launch from the App store hasn’t deterred him however, as he simply moved from the App platform to a web-sticker platform.
“My initial business strategy relied on a range of App stores stocking Shades of Emoji – when it became evident that was going to be problematic, I needed to rethink the way I delivered my stickers to people in a way that still was easy to use” Steve said. “I knew from the international market research I conducted that people loved the concept and couldn’t wait to use the emoji – I had just devise an easy online delivery method that was easy for people to use.”
“So I refocused my energy toward what I could achieve, rather than spending my time on what I couldn’t. While I’d still love to be able to stock the App version in a store, I realised it wasn’t critical to my ability to communicate with my audience. I’d already built strong Facebook and Twitter communities around the genre and since going live on the web sales of the stickers have gone crazy.”
I can see why! They’re a lot of fun.
What about the flip side? I’d expect you to cop a trolling or even negative media attention….
“From a communications perspective, I know I’m likely attract some controversy” he explains “and I need to be able to respond to that in an articulate and timely manner – so I have a set of draft talking points ready to go, ready to be tailored to the situation at hand.”
So get your fingertips flirting!
Why say it when you can sext it?
Welcome to the era of the expressive emoji.
I’d tell you more, but sorry… can’t talk now ?
Buy your ‘Shades of Emoji’ sticker pack from www.shadesofemoji.com
Like ‘Shades of Emoji’ on Facebook.
Follow @ShadesofEmoji on Twitter and Instagram.
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn.