The 5 Best Uses of Emoji in Marketing
Time to explore how the fastest growing language in the world - Emoji - is being used by brands with his top five examples including ASOS, Dominos and Taco Bell.
A new language has arrived and it is growing faster than hieroglyphics, which took centuries to develop (seriously, Professor Vyv Evans of Bangor University said so). Andy Murray celebrated his wedding day by telling the story of love in this language and most 18-25 year olds prefer to express their emotions through this language rather than English. It’s of course, Emoji.
Before you can use it, you need to understand it. It’s simple at first, each image represents a word or several words but there is no grammar, vocabulary, or structure. An Emoji of a chair next to a finger Emoji: what does it mean? “Sit down”, “I am sitting down”, “I got a new chair!”? This language can only be understood within the context it is sent. At the time of writing this, the most popular laughing Emoji has been used in 736 million Tweets (track the use of Emojis on Twitter, here
http://emojitracker.com/) Nearly 50% of all text used on Instagram is emoji, making it the most popular language on the social channel.
So, with an unstoppable rise of a language that has a global appeal, how can you incorporate it into your brand marketing? You can use Emoji to communicate in the language of your fans, show your innovation or even make purchasing your product simpler. But before you go and Emojify your brand, get some tips from the brands that are making the most of Emoji right now:
5) ASOS
ASOS runs two Twitter accounts, one for product news and one for customer service. Which means they can adopt consumer friendly content on their @ASOS account, which won’t have sentiment ruined by complaints. In turn, they speak to their followers in the language they want to see, Emoji! Occasional usage of Emoji allows ASOS to add a new tone to their messages which they couldn’t achieve with English.
4) Ru Paul’s Drag Race
Cult TV show Ru Paul’s Drag Race is widely discussed on social media through GIFs and images, to capitalize on this – the show created their own Emoji keyboard which can be incorporated with an iOS keyboard. It was released in the middle of a new show series, featuring images and quotes which hadn’t yet being released. As a result, fans used the brand's own product to communicate in a language they would have otherwise found elsewhere.
3) Taco Bell
Taco Bell capitalised on news that 37 new Emojis were to be released by asking the question “Why do pizza and hamburger lovers get an Emoji but taco lovers don’t?" They started a petition with #TacoEmoji, encouraging their fans to get behind them on this new food Emoji. Fans loved the campaign and it resulted in over 30,000 fans signing a change.org petition and tens of thousands of uses of #TacoEmoji to support the brand. (This food-themed Emoji never happened, however.)
2) WWF
On Endangered Species Day, charity WWF announced that 17 characters in the Emoji alphabet are actually endangered animals. In turn, their digital innovation manager gave social media fans a new and simple way to donate. The charity tracked every Tweet featuring one of these Emojis and for each one used, they donated 10p to their cause. Not only did it raise vital funds for their conservation funds – it also raised global awareness with a universal language.
1) Dominos
Since 2012, Dominos have credited social media for their sales growth and yet again they’re one step ahead – this time by announcing they are giving Twitter users the option to order product through Emoji. Consumers only need to Tweet a pizza slice Emoji to the chain's Twitter handle to make their order. Users won’t need to even include their order in the Tweet; this will be tackled by having your preferences pre-set up on a Dominos profile which is linked to your Twitter account!
Author bio:
Nathan Jones is a Digital Marketing professional working for the full service digital marketing agency The Big Group. If you enjoyed this blog, there are many others you can read on our website.