Insights

Celebrating the rise of emoji marketing on World Emoji Day

Did you know six billion emojis are sent every day? We’re celebrating World Emoji Day by looking at the rise of emoji marketing.

Whether it’s body language, written word or sign language, the ways in which humans communicate with each other is vast and unique. But there’s one type of language that’s become more popular in recent years. Yes, it’s the emoji.

The expressive electronic images have been around in various iterations for longer than you’d think, gaining popularity in Japan in the early 2000’s. However they were propelled into the mainstream following Apple’s decision to add a standard emoji keyword to the iPhone. Since then, they’ve become a staple in social media, instant messaging conversations, and have even infiltrated classic literature and inspired an upcoming Hollywood Blockbuster.

Celebrating World Emoji Day

It’s only natural that we would have a day to celebrate the surging popularity of the emoji. This unique holiday, which is celebrated every July 17 (this is the date displayed on the iOS calendar emoji), was established in 2014 by Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge as a way to “promote the use of emojis and spread the enjoyment they bring to all of those around us”. Join us in celebrating World Emoji Day 2017 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #WorldEmojiDay.

Brands jumping on the emoji bandwagon

The rise of emojis in our everyday lives has also seen a surge in the brands that use them to connect with their audiences. The increased attention for emojis is always embraced around World Emoji Day, with many large corporations such as Pepsi, McDonalds, Disney, Victoria Secret, NASCAR, Sony and Google all taking the opportunity to leverage the popularity of emojis to engage with their fans as part of their social media strategy.

Top three world emoji day campaigns

  1. NASCAR created portraits of their drivers solely with emojis, with the end result looking like a new-age mosaic. You can create an emoji portrait of yourself using the Emojify app.
  2. Google adopted a more serious approach to last year’s World Emoji Day, with 300 emojis that represented working women, from tradie to scientist, which acknowledged the lack of diversity in many emojis
  3. While many brands released mini-movies, Twitter chose an infographic, listing the top-tweeted emojis by country. According to the stats, Japan is in love, Spain is strong, while Australia is happy with a thumbs-up.

The rise and success of emoji marketing

While some social media marketers might say that we’re in the middle of an emoji glut, the statistics on the ground suggest a different story. A recent poll by Appboy found that respondents are hooked on emojis, with 64% of them saying the either like or love emojis, compared to only 6% who dislike or hate them.

Of those same respondents, 87% said they use emojis in their everyday life via personal text or messaging. When asked how they view brands using emojis, the top responses were fun, relatable, normal and professional.

How can marketers make the most of emojis?

  • There’s no reason to go full speed ahead on emoji messaging in your digital marketing campaigns, as you run the risk of overloading your customers and essentially turning them off. Start slow by incorporating a few into your social media campaigns and gauge engagement over time.
  • While a large percentage loves emojis, there are still people out there who find it inappropriate. Strategic marketers need to take steps to ensure those people don’t receive emoji messaging through audience segmentation and multivariate testing.

Not sure if using emojis in your marketing is right for your business? Get in contact with the Brisbane digital marketing team at iFactory today to discuss a digital strategy that’s unique to your brand.

World Emoji Day

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