Software engineering company Intercom, one of a number of start-ups engaged in a battle for techie talent, is using emojis in its new advertising campaign, which is designed to attract Dublin-based engineers, developers and other emoji-fluent people to the company's payroll.

Intercom’s use of the upward-trending chart emoji, for example, is meant to signify its growth, while a heart-eyed emoji is meant to convey the idea to potential hires just how much they would love working there. A ship emoji is intended to reflect the shipping of Intercom software (and not, sadly, the idea of sailing away from work drudgery).

“Intercom is a customer communication platform so the advertising is kind of a meta-narrative,” says a spokesman.

The campaign is running around the commuter routes that lead into Dublin's "Silicon Docks" area where Facebook, Google and Airbnb, among others, are based. The ads began on Dart posters and at Grand Canal Dock station before spreading this week to the Luas.