In the massive library of emojis (including a wide variety of vehicles), there was a glaring omission – the pickup truck. Ford truck customers were frustrated with the lack of such an emoji and had to make do with contrived and silly combinations to approximate a pickup truck.

Given the massive popularity of emojis and the outcry among truck lovers who had no icon to convey their passion, we took this deficit to heart. The brief, then, was to build a brand-new “vehicle” of sorts: the very first Pickup Truck Emoji – brought to you by Ford.

Our objective was to give the world the resource of a Pickup Truck Emoji: a hardworking icon to be used by hardworking people.

We launched the emoji by mimicking the process of an actual vehicle launch. We put this funky, two-dimensional icon through the complexities of design, the rigors of testing and had a ton of fun with all the familiar touchpoints of automotive marketing.

Five billion emojis are sent daily on Facebook Messenger. 700 million emojis are used daily in Facebook posts. And somehow, there was no emoji for the most popular vehicle in the world. It was an unforgivable shortcoming, and we decided it was in the best interest of Ford public relations to do what Ford does best – stand up, take charge and be first to innovate. Our mission was clear and simple: Help Ford be the brand to make the Pickup Truck Emoji available to the masses on all iOS and Android platforms.

The process began in January 2019, with a proposal to the Unicode Consortium, the governing body of emoji standards and approvals. Though our proposal was as solid as a Ford truck, we knew a decision by this notoriously picky group would likely take months. Still, we didn’t want to sit on our heels.

We’d already had our creative idea, and we couldn’t wait to see what an execution might look like. In the spring of 2019, we created our interpretation of a Pickup Truck Emoji and filmed a comprehensive introduction video. We released this “coming soon, hopefully” video on July 17, 2019 (World Emoji Day).

In May 2020, the Consortium officially approved the Pickup Truck Emoji, and we were fully approved to run our video and let people know it was really coming soon. And on November 5, 2020, it arrived on keyboards everywhere emojis are found.

There are few ways to measure the “metrics” of an emoji launch. It’s estimated that more than 5 billion emojis are used every day on Facebook and Facebook Messenger, so usage is impossible to track comprehensively.

Twitter did note that there was a huge spike in Pickup Truck Emoji usage immediately following the launch of this new icon. People love having it in their arsenal, as evidenced by an almost 2,000% rise in the emotional response category called “joy.” The most palpable measure? There was a huge wave of earned media celebrating the new emoji.

Given the massive amount of truck buyers on the planet and the massive popularity of emojis, the Pickup Truck Emoji will be an everlasting, go-to keyboard resource. In the end, our impact was greater than a fleeting pie chart or a clinical statistic: Hey, we brought the Pickup Truck Emoji to the world.