Do brands need to be fluent in emoji?

How did we ever express ourselves before the emoji? Beloved by a social, mobile and digitally connected millennial generation, it’s been described as ‘the fastest growing language in the UK’ and compared to hieroglyphics by a legitimate professor, and even warranted World Emoji Day celebrations last week. But is there value in marketers learning to speak the cute (and sometimes baffling) language of emoji?

A pictogram is worth a thousand words

As the average human’s attention span drops to below that of a goldfish, the appeal of emojis lies in their ability to communicate emotions and thoughts instantly. Like Andy Murray, 72% of 18 to 25-year-olds said they found it easier to communicate their feelings in emojis than in real words – giving brands a real opportunity to engage the younger generation of consumers who breathe digital and are notoriously hard to impress.

Here are a few of the best examples of digitally savvy brands getting down with the kids and embracing the emoji to great effect.

IKEA

Flat-pack furniture starts fights; it’s one of the sad truths of modern life. Fortunately, IKEA has found a simple way to ensure ‘universal love and understanding in your home’. The friendly Swedish giant has unleashed its own set of emojis designed to improve communication at home. So whether it’s the need for a new Billy bookcase that you’re arguing over, or just whether or not to have Swedish meatballs for tea, there’s now an emoji for that.

It’s just the kind of practical yet kooky brilliance you’d expect from IKEA, as it shares an on-brand in-joke with not only cohabiting couples but anyone who has ever navigated one of its showrooms or hugged one of those heart pillows. It’s a great example of a brand showing how well it knows its audience.

Burger King

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily

To celebrate the return of the apparently hugely popular Chicken Fries, Burger King released its own set of emojis built around the product. Inspired by Chicken Fries ‘fanatics’ on social media, the expressive little beaky boxes are a clever way for BK to make sure it’s instantly part of every conversation their fans have. How’s that for front of mind?

WWF

As part of its #EndangeredEmoji campaign, the conservation charity is inviting followers to think twice about the cute little creatures they’re scrolling past to get to the smiling poop. By tweeting any of 17 animal emojis representing real endangered species, followers can donate money to help save them from extinction in just a few taps.

Simple, quick and cute, it’s perfect for on-the-go do-gooders, and its visibility across timelines provides instant reach and social proof to encourage friends and followers to join in.

McDonald’s

Source: @GuinnessKebab on Twitter

No, it’s not another Andy Murray tweet. McDonald’s has taken the emoji offline with a series of billboards that depict the therapeutic effect of tucking into your second favourite fast food after BK Chicken Fries.

Although not everyone is lovin’ it, it’s a great example of the simplistic power of emojis. The messaging is simple, but it’s all in the delivery – this could be a genuine extract from any young commuter’s text conversation with their flatmate. It’s probably a branded version of the exact tweet they’re composing in their mind while stuck in traffic on the way home.

Domino’s

In the US, you can order Domino’s by tweeting a pizza emoji. We’ll stop there.

How to speak emoji

Like it or not, the expressive language of emoji has cemented itself in common parlance. If you can’t get sign-off on an emoji billboard or a tweet-to-eat campaign, however, there are still many ways to incorporate the nation’s favourite pictographs into your marketing.

1. Use emojis in your email subject lines

Open rates suffering? Emojis can help. According to MailChimp, the big-eyed happy emoji and the smiley heart are winners when it comes to subject lines. And the more, the merrier – 31% of email campaigns with emojis used more than one of them – though we’d advise stopping at about two or three that are relevant to the subject line.

Obviously it’s not for everyone and will depend on your audience. The trick to getting this delicate art right is to run many an A/B test to see how well the symbols work with segments of your database. Strategise and start small – if you can crack the formula, you’ll be on to a winner.

2. Introduce emojis to your Twitter feed

If EmojiTracker teaches us anything, it’s that Twitter loves emojis. Where relevant, consider embracing them as part of your social tone of voice. They’re much less irritating than exclamation marks, and they’ll instantly make your updates more human and relatable, encouraging more engagement from your followers.

Don’t adopt the entire emoji keyboard straight away, though – perhaps pick a few of the basics to begin with and see how they go down. Do some social listening and see which symbols your followers are using to give you a good idea of what your audience likes.

3. Step up your Instagram emoji game

Emojis now account for almost half of the comments and captions on Instagram, so it’s no surprise that in April, Instagram announced the ability to use emojis in hashtags (with one notable exception…).

So, think about introducing emoji hashtagging into your captions to widen your reach. This infographic shows Instagram’s most popular emojis, which might be helpful when working out which symbols to choose. Remember, stick to what’s relevant and don’t overdo it – your captions shouldn’t look spammy – and monitor your success.

Having reached the point where young people are even thinking in emoji, we can be fairly certain that these hieroglyphics are here to stay. Bite-sized visuals are key to communication in the modern digital world, andconsumer engagement levels are directly related to the way brands use visuals like emojis to get their messages across. Not only are emojis a great way of making content stand out and come alive, they also encourage engagement by supporting your tone of voice to make your brand accessible and approachable. The best part? You’ll become fluent in another language. Great for the CV.