You’ll remember where you were on the morning of February 1st, 2016. It’s a turning point you’ll never forget. Today will go down in history as the day that House of Fraser’s Twitter account went completely bonkers.
It’s been taken over by something called #Emojinal, a word and movement that seems to have been made up yesterday. You can see this in the crappy screenshot I used as a header image. It’s hypnotic in its tackiness. (Tack-y-ness? Either. Both.)
I’m a copywriter. I smelled a bandwagon.
I had no idea what the heck this was in aid of at the time of this post. There may be an update. But honestly I doubt it. This is far too confusing to make sense of. Just… why?
As our Lynne will tell you, publicity (on the whole) is good. When people are talking about you, saying nice things or otherwise, at least you’re being noticed. Emojinal is DEFINITELY being noticed by Twitter users. Or should I say side-eyed into oblivion.
Very few people seem comfortable with the sudden deluge of emojis. And this is incredibly sudden – the first hints of Emojinal tweets popped up less than 24 hours ago. We’ve been ambushed.
Essentially, this is out of character and a bit scary. A brand like House of Fraser has a lot of history attached to it. Their usual Twitter style is friendly and conversational (with tons of exclamation marks), but it’s not done much to change their image. Maybe HoF wants to shake off all that fusty ‘reputation’ nonsense and do something different, something modern.
Their Christmas ad campaign for 2015 should have been a warning sign:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wwWEzwJ6Ps
It was an edgy, fresh and decidedly un-Christmassy ad that received a lot of positive feedback. Once people worked out what on earth they were watching.
This development into emoji territory feels… wrong. If the Christmas campaign was Nanna trying on new jackets, the #Emojinal Twitter takeover is what happens when you give her a smartphone. Without instructions.
And once this little stunt is over, where does House of Fraser go from here? It can’t well return to ballet pumps once it’s done a lap of the block in LED trainers.
If we attribute this to a temporary lapse of judgement, maybe things will be okay. Let’s just say House of Fraser got a little over-Emojinal this morning and move on.
