Let's play with emojis! How to make emojis more effective in social media advertising using promocodes and temporal orientation

Purpose The authors aim to examine how the construal level, either as an individual temporal orientation or temporal distance of promotion, moderates the effects of emojis' emotional intensity on consumers' purchase intentions in social media advertising. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments are used to test four hypotheses. Findings The results of two experimental studies show that present-oriented participants reveal greater purchase intentions when low (vs high) emotionally intense emojis are embedded in a social media ad; but future-oriented consumers showed no difference when viewing ads with the two different emojis. In Study 2, participants indicate greater purchase intentions when a social media ad includes a distant-future promocode and high (vs low) emotionally intense emojis and an ad with a near-future promocode and low (vs high) emotionally intense emojis. Originality/value The current study advances our understanding how emojis with different emotional intensities can be effectively used in social media ads. This study also provides theoretical implications to construal level theory (CLT) by examining how emojis interact with construal level, either as a chronic tendency or simulated by psychological distance, can influence consumer response.