Speaking in Emojis

We send over 6 billion emojis every day. That’s almost one emoji per human on this planet.

It’s undeniable that emojis are more than just a trend. With 3.2 billion internet users worldwide and 92 per cent of them regularly using emojis, it’s clear that emojis are here to stay.

In 2015 Oxford Dictionaries shocked the world by announcing that a 'emoji', rather than being just a word, was ‘Word of the Year’. The emoji commonly known as ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ was chosen as it was deemed the most used globally, making up 20% of all emojis used in the UK that year and 17% of those in the US.

Emojis are everywhere, and the advertising space is no exception. More and more emojis are popping up in advertising. Just a few months ago Just Eat’s latest online ‘Real Review’ films by Karmarama featured emojis in a clever way.

Some other advertising that features emojis in a creative way include:

Chevrolet

Chevrolet Case Study

Emoji-licious with Pepsi

McDonald's

Cabel ONE

Web Wise

Motorola

Movistar

Studies have shown that emojis provoke a positive response and higher engagement. For example, Quintly states that use of emojis can lead to 47.7% more interactions on Instagram.

Emoji use can say a lot about a person. According to a report from 2015 by Swiftkey, 44.8% of emojis used are happy faces and 14.3% are sad faces.

It can also say a lot about a country. The same report noted the following trends:

· The French are four times more likely to use the heart emoji than any other.

· The Canadians top the charts for the use of the ‘smiling poop emoji’.

· Australians are more likely to use alcohol and drug themed emojis.

· The UK over indexes for use of the wine emoji and uses the ‘winking face’ twice that of the average.

· The Spanish use the crying emoji face more

· Malaysians use the thumbs up emoji more

· The Portuguese like using the clapping emoji more

· Brazilians use religious themed emojis more and are the leader by far in the cat emoji.

We recently signed on to represent the JoyPixels emoji catalogue, making over 2,800 emojis available for use in the advertising and marketing space.

I think it’s safe to say that emojis are here to stay as consumers continue to embrace them on social media, consumer products, movies and advertising.

David Born is owner and director of Born Licensing, a firm that specialises in the licensing of characters, clips, film, TV, animation, icons, emojis, toys & games and publishing for advertising campaigns. Born Licensing also represents the JoyPixels emoji catalogue exclusively across Europe.