The Smiley Company: How a Happiness Campaign Turned into a $268 Million Per Year Business

The Smiley Company co-creates a range with Lifestyle in India, targeted towards the department store’s consumers. This range offers colours, and choice of the messages relevant to local consumers, providing buyers with the best of both worlds...

- Surabhi Khosla

On Saturday 1 January 1972, journalist Franklin Loufrani wanted to spread a little happiness in a time when bad news seemed to prevail. On that New Year’s Day, French newspaper France Soir printed a smiley logo next to all positive news stories.

The idea became such a huge hit that people started buying the newspaper more, looking for the now iconic smiley, which would lead them to the ‘good news’. Before long, the promotion gained traction and an icon and brand was born.

Before the campaign started in October 1971, Loufrani registered his smiley face with the French trademark office. When Franklin’s son,

Nicolas Loufrani came on board 20 years ago, he looked at the logo – which he had been seeing his entire life – and realised that he wanted to bring in something different, something new.

“I started changing expressions, bringing in different emotions – which later became emoticons. I put them online and they began one of the biggest phenomenon in digital history – it’s a new form of communication now used by people all over the world every day,” Nicolas told IMAGES Retail Bureau on the sidelines of the India Fashion Forum 2018.

By the 1990s, Franklin and his son Nicolas Loufrani held trademarks for the symbol in around 70 countries and had licensed the smiley to brands including Levi Strauss & Co. In 1996, the Loufranis founded the Smiley Company in London built around the Smiley brand.