DeKALB — A $5,000 NIU emoji and sticker app launched by the Division of Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications has been downloaded 1,815 times since its launch May 1.

NIU’s marketing team paid Visixtwo, a company that works with institutions to power emoji campaigns and develop strategies to increase their digital presence, to help them design and launch the app, which has seen engagement 20 percent above average during the past 30 days compared to Visixtwo’s other clients, said Taylor Hayden, assistant director of digital content for the Office of Institutional Communications in an email.

After paying Visixtwo $5,000 in April for the creation of the app, NIU officially gained ownership of the app. The emojis and stickers are part of the app, which means any future updates to those creations will be at the discretion of the Division of Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications officials.

The app was paid for by the University Marketing paid media budget, according to an Aug. 28 Freedom of Information Act submitted by the Northern Star.

The creation and launch of the app had multiple goals, including creating a sense of community among incoming students, current students and alumni, Hayden said.

“We launched the app on May 1 of this year and that was to get the incoming class of 2021 or incoming transfer students excited and to participate in the National College Decision Day,” Hayden said. “We wanted to have something to get future Huskies excited and to show some school spirit and pride.”

Hayden said the graphic designers of NIU’s Marketing and Creative Services team designed the stickers in the app.

“We worked together as a division…a group of us came up with an initial list of ideas… we sort of just discussed it together,” Hayden said. “It was based on what I’ve seen students engage with on social media and based on expertise of our enrollment management staff and what would support the interest of prospective students.”

The division’s Digital Content Department has not done paid media advertising for the app but did create a video to promote the emojis, which was posted to NIU’s social media channels to invite current and prospective students to download the stickers, according to the FOIA. Officials have posted the video more than 20 times on the main NIU social channels since launching the application in May.

Freshman psychology major Hayley Scotti said she found out about the app through a post on her graduating class of 2021 Facebook group but was not interested in downloading it.

“I thought it was kind of cute, but at the same time I thought it was kind of useless…I just thought it was kind of childish almost,” Scotti said. “I don’t think it actually [brought] us into the community; it was more of just like a fun [app]…if you want to be a part of the community, it’s more about getting involved and having activities specifically for freshman and not necessarily an emoji app to bring us all together.”

Hayden said department officials plan on promoting the app throughout the fall semester by continuing to post on social media and encouraging students to use the emojis and stickers as part of their Red and Black Fridays campaign. Red and Black Fridays was created through efforts of multiple NIU departments to boost Huskie pride on campus, according to an Aug. 23 NIU Today article.

The NIU Emoji app and stickers are available to download for free on Apple and Android devices.