What’s your favourite emoji? The flamenco dancer in the red dress maybe, or how about the one that’s crying laughing? Well, according to the 2015 Emoji Report, 92 per cent of online consumers use emojis, but a mere fraction of marketers and advertisers use them in their campaigns.
The Rise of the Emoji and Who Uses Them
In the last decade, the humble emoji has gone from obscurity to a part of everyday language. In fact, in 2015 the ‘tears of joy’ face (the one we mentioned above) was named Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year thanks to its vast usage.
Once stereotyped as being used by tweens and teens, a recent whitepaper from Plusnet has found that all demographics (from all age groups) commonly use them. The report states that 96.6 per cent of people aged 25 and 29 use emojis ‘frequently’ or ‘occasionally’. It has also found that 60 per cent of women use emojis often, compared to just 41 per cent of men.
Why Use Emojis?
• Emojis can humanise a brand and make a company appear more approachable.
• Emojis can say a lot where character counts are limited.
• Sometimes, a message or mood can get misread. Emojis can help clarify this.
• They’re internationally recognised and understood – emoji is a global language.
• They’ll make you stand out from the crowd.
How to Use Emojis in Your Social Media Marketing
So, the research has found that all ages and demographics use emojis, meaning you don’t have to worry about alienating certain customers by using them. And women in particular use them often, so emojis could be a great way of making female-focused marketing activities stand out. So, how could you use them in your marketing campaigns?
Domino’s pizza is a great example of how to use emojis as an integral part of your marketing campaign. A recent Domino’s campaign stated that by simply texting the pizza slice emoji customers could quickly order a repeat of their regular order.
@sarahintampa Welcome to Domino’s Tweet Ordering! Tweet #EASYORDER or 🍕 to @Dominos to start placing your Easy Order [12:57:16 EDT]
— Domino’s Pizza (@dominos) May 20, 2015
Not only did this speed up the order process and improve the user experience for customers, but the use of the ‘on brand’ emoji made sure its campaign was recognised as innovative and forward thinking.
Our Thoughts
Emojis are a great marketing tool that can make you stand out from the crowd, but they’re not for everyone (we wouldn’t recommend formal professional organisations like law firms to use them, for example).
What is your opinion of emojis? Tweet us @Figaro_Digital