Do You Emoji?
Emojis- you either love them or you hate them. You either use the fiesta dancing girl every chance you get or you are still stuck in the early 2000’s and send :-(. Whether you are pro evil monkey face or against it there is no denying that emojis have become an integral part of the internet culture and an important way for people and brands to express themselves.
The marketing industry is calling this “The Emojification of Brand Advertising” where pictures speak a thousand words and the best way to connect with the highly sought after millennial niche is through fun graphic emojis. Brands are using emojis to communicate with Millennials and more recently Generation Z, a market that has grown up in the social, mobile and digital world.
Brands on Emojis
I have noticed the biggest using of emojis in company e-mail marketing campaigns. With more email clients accessing their email from their phones, emojis in the subject line is an easy and smart way to attract a reader’s attention. According to data from Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, 2% of B2C emails now contain emojis in the subject line, and email delivery vendor MailChimp says that 214,000 campaigns have been sent with emojis.
I have also noticed an increase of large emoji cut outs showing up at concerts and Halloween parties but more recently they have appeared on the side of Pepsi cans. Pepsi has now added emojis to the side of its cans in order to celebrate 40 years of the Pepsi Challenge and are hoping to sell you on a feeling, such as “grinning face with smiley eyes” emoji instead of the sugary beverage inside the can.
Emojis have become so popular with brands that a sub industry has been created that includes a plethora of platforms that create personalized branded emojis, stickers and GIFs for brands. Brands like Ikea, Coca-Cola, Burger King and even Snapchat have created their own custom emojis in order to resonate better with their audiences.
A professor at NYU’s school of journalism put the using of the emoji the best when he said, “Emojis are doing what the tone of voice did on the telephone and what gestures, tones and facial expressions did in interpersonal communication”.
Emoji Global Communication
Emojis have the potential to cross borders and break through language barriers. Thanks to smartphones, the entire keyboard of emojis have become a universal form of communication and gained acceptance worldwide. Brands now have the capability to communication with the world with a simple smiley face, and it has become crucial for marketers in the digital space to learn how to speak emoji.
