Let’s Celebrate World Emoji Day!

July 17, 2023

Today is World Emoji Day, and we are celebrating the fun Internet characters that have changed the way we all communicate.

Did you know? The average person doesn’t go a day without using an emoji in their digital communications. The reality is graphics have been used in communication for a long time, but in the early 1990s’ the use of numbers, signs, and punctuation marks to make hearts and smiley faces added fun and personality to chat-room conversations and text messages. Since then, emojis have been evolving and taking messaging spaces by storm!

A Brief History of Emojis

The father of emojis is Shigetaka Kurita, who used Japanese graphics novels, Zapf Dingbats typeface, illustrations, and pictograms to create and release the first collection of 176 emojis for mobile phones in 1999.
The word emoji literally means “picture” (e) with “character” (moji) in Japanese and sounds like it was derived from the English word emotion.
In 2011, Apple added an official emoji keyboard to IOS. Before then, users had to buy separate apps that they could copy and paste emoticons into their text. Android followed two years later, with Google working with the United Nations to establish a universal emoji language called Unicode.
Unicode sets the standard for web providers and tech-language users across the world.
In 2015 Unicode diversified its emoji system by providing the option to change skin tone and hair color, along with cultural and progressive options, including individuals with disabilities, cultural clothing, and more.

Emojis and Digital Marketing

Emojis can help your marketing strategy by personalizing your brand and adding a fun and relatable twist to your communication style. The characters act as modern-day digital body language, making your social media platforms and websites look more personal and approachable. In the world of virtual communications, consumers can associate certain emojis with your brand; the icons can aid your messaging in the digital space and help communicate across language barriers.

Social Media

Emojis break up long paragraphs of information and make the content fun and more exciting to read.
Posts are more eye-catching by using emojis instead of bullet points in a list.
Emojis are sometimes used instead of the word in social posts.

Email Marketing

Using emojis can increase engagement and open rates.
According to Experian, putting an emoji in the subject line of an email can increase the open rate by 56% compared to plain subject lines, making it stand out from the rest.

Paid Social Advertising

Putting emojis in direct links can increase engagement and attract more scrollers on the web. In fact, 44% of users are more likely to purchase products advertised using emojis.
Companies that have their own apps also use emojis in their push notifications that appear on devices. The bright pops of color from emojis boost open rates by 85%.
Similarly, companies that have SMS marketing systems to promote products and deals can use emojis to increase user engagement.

Marketing Tips When Using Emojis:
If you are considering incorporating emojis into your marketing strategy, keep in mind the following tips:

Don’t overuse emojis.
Make sure you know what the emoji you will be using means in today’s culture.
Find the key emojis that align with your brand identity.
Decide whether or not you should be using emojis at all.
Before choosing an emoji for your marketing campaigns, see how they look on different mobile devices. They appear different on different platforms or devices.

Sources
Interested in learning more about the evolution of emojis and their impact on marketing strategy? Click the links below for more details on the facts we shared as well as some fun reads.