From 😜 (faces) to 🐶(animals) to 🍉 (food) and many more, anything can be visually communicated through the world’s new take on hieroglyphics – Emojis. Thanks to such versatility, Emojis are more than a silly sticker to send to your friends…they’re taking over the world. Okay, that might have been a bit dramatic, but Emojis are definitely taking over something, that is, social marketing campaigns. But how did this happen?
ORIGIN
You must be thinking this new language in digital media is a recent invention. Well, contrast to popular belief Emojis have actually been around since 1999 (remember the MSN days?). We have Shigetaka Kurita, the father of Emoji, to thank for turning this 😊 into this *emoji happy face*. Over the years Kurita’s symbols have undergone several transformations to become the ones we know and love ❤️ today.
POPULARITY
Today’s emojis are much more complex than the first emojis. With over 800 of them, you now can use them replace almost any word or feeling. As a result, Emoji has become a socially accepted form of communication or as some like to call it: “internet slag”. And believe it or not, in 2013 the word Emoji was added to the Oxford English Dictionary’s list of tech terms.
Trivia – Can you guess which Emoji is most used? 😂
EMOJI MARKETING
In recent years, Emoji’s have been sneaking into to other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which has paved the way for emoji marketing.
According to emotional marketing platform, Emogi, Emojis are used by 90% of the online population 😵. But why? The report concluded that people use emoji because it makes it easier to accurately express what they’re thinking and thus, making it easier for others to understand them.
So, it is only natural that brands also start communicating in this new languange. As perfectly stated by The Guardian, “Brands are using emojis to communicate with their target audience, to infiltrate their mobile phones, to demonstrate that they are on top of the latest communications trends, and also to convey messages in elegantly simple ways”. Some of the most popular emoji social marketing campaigns:
- Domino’s Pizza – Domino’s definitely stepped up their emoji game with this campaign. You can order a pizza by simply tweeting or texting a pizza emoji to the company. GENIUS!
2. Budlight – One tweet + many emojis= major impact. Not as elaborate as other campaigns but very engaging, Budlight celebrated 4 of July by recreating the American flag with emojis.
3. Kim Kardashian’s Kimoji – The Kardashians are a touchy subject, love them or hate them, at its peak this custom emoji keyboard was making $1 million dollars per minute!
So the takeaway from this blog post … brands have to adapt to the times and understand their target audience. In 2016 that means using emojis. But in a carefully crafted to way, perfectly weaving emotion into a campaign. Although emoji is a powerful resource that makes communication a whole lot simpler, brands must use them wisely. Before incorporating emojis into your brand’s message: make sure you understand the language. Know what the emojis mean, as they take on different meanings (eggplant emojis) and make sure they are relevant to your brand.