Case Study Bible Emoji: Turning a Personal Project Into a Viral Sensation

Background

The Bible Emoji isn’t a new emoji that you can send to your friends during church–it’s the first ever translation of the entire Bible into emojis. What might seem like a joke project actually has surprising depth to it. The Bible is the most sold book ever and has been translated into just about every recorded language. Emojis are unique in that they are language-agnostic, and can convey an idea to anyone, regardless of what language they speak. The creator hoped to take a book that can seem unapproachable to lay readers, and remove a lot of its density while breaking down language barriers.

How Upbeat Made a Difference

Our goal was to pitch the Bible Emoji to media not only as a humorous addition to the emoji revolution, but as a project with validity. After working closely with the creator on story development, we pitched to 64 carefully curated journalists. After getting picked up in The Memo and Buzzfeed, the story went viral, and was featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Gizmodo, Vice, NPR, Good Morning America, and over 100 other publications and shows.

Not only was the eBook sales a success. The Bible Emoji was invited to be preserved in the New York Public Library. The author has been approached by several literary agents and is working on an update and an Android version of the eBook.