Are you a Wordle fan? Even if you haven’t played this addictive, colorful word game, you’ve probably seen evidence of it on social feeds. While the game has become the most recent viral phenomenon, it’s not just former Scrabble fans or Sunday crossword lovers who are joining the craze — brands are, too.
Here’s a look at what Wordle is and how brands can get in on the puzzle pandemonium.
What’s Wordle?
Wordle is a word game created by Josh Wardle in which a player must guess a five-letter word in six tries. With each guess, the letters change to a colored tile. A gray tile means the letter is not in the word, a yellow tile indicates the letter is in the word but in the wrong place, and a green tile demonstrates the correct letter in the correct place.
If you get the right answer, you can share your word wisdom on Twitter. The results look like this:
Look familiar? Social feeds are blowing up with the gray, yellow, and green grids.
Adding to the game’s appeal is its scarcity. Players only get one puzzle a day. That’s it. And everyone gets the same puzzle. That’s the reason behind the colorful shareable grid. The row of green blocks shows you solved the puzzle, but doesn’t give up the answer.
The game also bucks other tactics that are commonly used to entice players to play. There’s no in-app purchases, no video ads that pop up, and no way to get your next puzzle fix until tomorrow.
How brands are leveraging the Wordle popularity
As with many viral tidal waves, brands find a way to ride the surf. Here’s a look at how brands are using the creative game to make a splash, and how you can, too:
Tie the colorful grid to your brand
Is there a way to connect the game’s unique grid to your brand? Lego has done just that. Here’s a post the brand shared on Twitter showing the blocks made of legos. The caption reads, “Can’t stop imagining #Wordle tiles as LEGO bricks.”
The Hilton hotel chain did something similar. Using an exterior picture of one of their hotels, they created this Wordle results lookalike.
You might need to be a bit creative, but is there a way your brand can do something similar? A food brand could use yellow, green, and gray foods to recreate the grid, or a beauty brand could build something similar out of cosmetics. Think of ways to use your products in a visual way that mimics the Wordle tiles.
Create a Wordle “word cloud”
Here’s an idea every brand can use. Turn the Wordle blocks into a word cloud of relevant terms related to your brand. Take a look at the example below from Upstox. The six tries are all five-letter words that relate to investing: stock, funds, trade, bulls, bears, start.
Think of a handful of five-letter words that relate to your product or service and use a graphic design tool like Canva to create a fun post like the one above.
Literary brands can reach a younger crowd
There are many libraries, book publishers, and writers that are using #Wordle to reach new fans. The Library of Congress recently tweeted a message that references Wordle and its relationship to crossword puzzles. The post shares an article about crossword puzzles having similar success more than 100 years ago.
If your brand has a literary focus, you might be able to do something similar. Reference the wonder of Wordle all while promoting a book or a piece of relevant content.
Education brands can teach students
Online education platforms can leverage the game to teach children about word patterns. One teacher did just that in her classroom. She used a puzzle to encourage students to not only think about what the final word could be, but which letters are most often used in the English language.
What could a Wordle puzzle teach students that utilize your educational brand? You could use it to spark interest in language arts or draw attention to a certain class that’s more like a game than a lesson.
Respond to influencer Wordles
One way to build engagement as a brand is to respond to customer or influencers’ posts about Wordle. You could take part in the conversations surrounding Wordle strategies that are happening online.
Wordle’s popularity has gone from 90 daily players in November 2021 to more than 2 million just two months later. Its popularity has influencers and brands intrigued by the game and brainstorming ways to capitalize on its viral nature. Will your brand jump on the Wordle wagon? Give one of the #Wordle ideas above a try and see how your audience responds.
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