I possess a sticker that reads, “I don’t even have a sticker that can show my reaction to this.” Devarsh Thaker, aged 30, employs this as an illustration of the growing popularity of stickers in online conversations. Thaker serves as the head of marketing at FamPay, a teenage UPI payment app. The fintech company has designated two individuals to create stickers for engaging with its 90,000-member teenage community on Discord, a popular instant messaging social platform among Generation Z.

Thaker mentioned, “Our research indicates that Gen Z, our primary target audience, enjoys communicating through stickers because it enables them to express themselves without the need for extensive words.” He added, “We provide sticker packs to users as part of giveaway contests. Stickers then become a lure to prompt them to take actions like exploring our new product.”

Brands aiming for a youthful image often leverage stickers for marketing and communication endeavors. Stickers are static or animated cartoon visuals, akin to GIFs but with smaller file sizes, consuming minimal phone memory. They are saved in the stickers library within messaging apps, facilitating easy access during conversations. Unlike GIFs, which are typically rectangular, stickers come in various shapes.

Over the past eighteen months, stickers have evolved into a crucial marketing tool for advertisers seeking to integrate into daily conversations, especially as more individuals, particularly zoomers, employ them on messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Discord, and Telegram.

Brands pay specialists between ₹10 lakh and ₹50 lakh to design and promote branded stickers, catering to an audience accustomed to conversing through stickers. Ankit Prasad, the CEO of Bobble AI, a conversation media platform, emphasized, “Stickers have become a way to integrate brands into conversations in a non-intrusive manner.”

Harshil Karia, founder of Schbang, a digital agency, noted that brands aspiring to appear youthful often use stickers for marketing and communication. Traditional clients have even requested sticker packs for their sales professionals to use in internal chats.

Suyash Agarwal, an assistant creative producer, mentioned that brands like Zomato now use stickers instead of emojis in promotional campaigns, showcasing mock chat screenshots.

Sticker.ly, a leading sticker-making and discovery app from Korea’s Snow Inc, considers India among its top three markets. Sticker-making apps reflecting pop culture nuances in Indian languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, have garnered millions of installs on Google Play Store.

Despite being popularized by teens, stickers are gaining traction with older demographics. Thaker mentioned, “We used stickers while updating investors on WhatsApp. It caught their interest, and now they inform us that stickers are widely used by their family members as well.”

However, Karia highlighted that the discoverability of a branded sticker pack remains challenging as many are still experimenting. Stickers prove effective for specific brands and contexts where they aim to connect with the audience through humor, entertainment, self-deprecation, or by tapping into pop culture elements. Shagun Ohri, who runs a creative branding firm in Bengaluru, cautioned, “Brands must be cautious with their sticker campaigns, especially when targeting Gen Z, as they do not want to see logos in their WhatsApp chats. The only place Gen Z likes logos is on their sneakers.”