Emojis for your brand: a form of language for the digital era.

As a preface to this blog post, I should say that I like letters. A lot. Probably Definitely more than any rationally functioning human should.

Yet when communicating in a digital space, I often ignore this enthusiasm for typography in favour of using these strange little pictograms that lack the intricacies and craftsmanship that goes into designing letters.

I’m not alone.

Emojis are a genuine form of language for the digital era and are an ubiquitous part of the internet.

Here are 3 reasons why you should use emojis for your brand’s communications:

1. Everybody uses them (nearly)
   A recent study by emotional marketing platform Emoji suggests that 92% of the online population use emojis in digital communication. “Today, the world’s 2 billion smartphone users send over six billion emoticons in text messages alone, every single day.  It is no exaggeration to say that emoji represents the fastest growing communication tool in history”. To exclude emojis from digital interaction is to disregard a universal language.
   
2. They create connections that aren’t possible with words
   A study conducted in 2014 by Dr. Owen Churches of the school of psychology at Flinders University in Australia, showed that people react to emojis the same way as we would to a real human face. This is a remarkable and significant finding in terms of marketing. When we consider that 55% of communication is based on body language, it is clear that emojis now have a place in the way brands can interact with the public.
3. They contribute to the visual identity of a brand
   It is the ambition of most brands today to express themselves in a unique manner – Emojis are a great place to start. Whether it’s incorporating existing emojis into your language and marketing, or creating a bespoke set for a particular campaign, big brands are starting to realise the potential of this rapidly growing industry.

Skeptics condemn them as another internet fad that will soon be forgotten. Others argue that they add something to the written word that has always been missing. I put my money on emojis being around for the foreseeable future – especially when you see them used in ways as elegant as the example provided in the image above.

Talk to us about using emojis for your brand and communications.