# Skier or surfer emoji in push notifications: best engagement

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Other (SaaS)
- Elements: Push notification, Emoji
- Date shared: 2015
- Test run by: [10app](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/10app/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/video-app-uses-behavioral-data-increase-engagement
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/10app-push-notification-emoji/

Starting a push notification with a downhill skier or surfer emoji gave 10app its best-performing message in this round, but no lift figure was shared. 10app, a video-editing app for GoPro owners, ran the test and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study. The team sent several message versions against a control at once.

## Result

**best engagement**

- Engagement: the emoji version performed best, according to 10app's co-founder. No percentage, sample size or confidence level was shared.
- Because there is no number, treat this as a directional signal rather than a measured lift.

## Control

Text-only push notifications asked users to share a video.

## Variant

The same notifications opened with a skier or surfer emoji.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Few push notifications used emojis at the time, so an emoji at the start helped the message stand out on a crowded lock screen.
- The skier and surfer matched the app's audience of action-camera users, so the emoji felt on brand rather than gimmicky.
- 10app had just added emojis inside videos on iOS, so the emoji also hinted at a real product feature.

## Caveats

No figures were shared, and the data dates from 2015. The tests ran on the Kahuna messaging platform.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we start our push notifications with an emoji that fits our audience, then more users will open them, because the message will stand out among plain-text alerts.
- Primary metric: Push open rate, or the in-app action the push asks for
- Guardrail: Push opt-out rate
- Guardrail: App uninstalls
- Guardrail: Engagement over the following weeks, to catch novelty fading
- Who should test it: Consumer apps with a casual, visual brand and an audience that uses emojis. B2B or finance apps may find emojis feel off-brand, and the effect can fade once every app uses them.

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Credit: 10app ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/10app-push-notification-emoji/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.