When tennis star Andy Murray tweeted a series of emojis to tell the story of his wedding day, we woke up to the fact that a new language was emerging into the mainstream. Emojis are now well and truly part of everyday messaging and social media activity.

While some have compared the trend to “caveman” communication or just a novelty, others have embraced the emoji for its modern, time-saving and creative possibilities. Here’s a look at how emoji has become “the fastest growing language in the UK” and some of the weird and wonderful ways we use it.

We’ve claimed ownership and it’s fast evolving

Infact we care about emojis so much that there’s already been a number of controversies and advancements in this new language. Most notable are the racial issues concerning skin colour. Originally there was only one skin colour available, but demand lead to a greater variety, increasing from one to six variations as more people wanted to express themselves through the icons.

Clever campaigns

Brands such as Domino’s and MTV have already started using the emoji to engage with customers, which is a very intelligent response to the changes in the ways we are communicating. Domino’s ran an emoji campaign on social media in the lead up to announcing that it will soon be possible to order pizza via Twitter.

Advancing and adapting our communication

While emojis are largely thought to be used for light-hearted purposes, research shows we’re increasingly using emojis to convey things words cannot.
A survey by TalkTalk Mobile found that 72% of 18 to 25-year-olds said they found it easier to put their feelings across in emoji icons than in text. BRIS, a Swedish non-profit organisation, released an app which they named ‘Abused Emojis’, designed to help young people communicate their experiences with abuse and other trauma. This is another very intuitive response to the rise in digital communication and our fondness for using emojis.

The Emoji-Passcode

In June, we saw that emojis may have found a truly progressive place in technology, or rather, security. Thanks to Intelligent Environments, a British financial services technology firm, the emoji may be able to provide us with safer passwords to protect our bank accounts. What at first appeared to be pure novelty is actually pretty clever. We are told that the Emoji Passcode is harder to crack and easier to remember. There are 3.75 million combinations of four emojis, compared to just 10,000 possible four digit combinations.

World Emoji Day is a thing!

On July 17, emoji users worldwide celebrated World Emoji Day. Users took to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to show their love for emojis with the hashtag #WorldEmojiDay. Why 17th July? On 17th July 2002, Apple first announced the iCal, its calendar app, for its Macintosh line of computers. (The date also corresponds to the date shown on the calendar emoji found on Apple devices).

And it’s a marketing and advertising success

Brands love it. Ford Italia created three wonderfully creative images out of emojis and posted them to Twitter with the #WorldEmojiDay hashtag reminding drivers not to “emoji and drive”.

Finally, you can even buy footwear with emojis on them!

Somehow emojis have even influenced fashion. If you’ve ever wanted to wear the emojis you use instead of simply seeing them on a screen, then you’ll be glad to know that online boutique Moda Operandi has officially begun to offer loafers embroidered with emojis.

Called “M’oticons”, the line is a collaboration between luxury lifestyle brand Del Toro and designer label Edie Parker. The line features pairs of shoes embroidered with the lipstick and high heel emoji (#highmaintenance), dancing and crown emoji (#dancingqueens), the queen and bee emoji (#queenbee), and the smiling poo emoji … whatever that one really means.

So what can we learn about how to use emojis as a marketing and tool? When it comes to communication it’s important to stay current and be imaginative. The beauty of emojis is that they allow even the biggest of brands to communicate with people in a way that is familiar and relatable, and even the most serious of messages can be told through these simple images.

Also, one of the most progressive and useful qualities about the emoji language is that it can be understood by anyone, regardless of their mother-tongue, meaning it can transcend boundaries and is universally understood. This makes it a creative marketing tool that is highly adaptable and flexible. The popularity that emojis are enjoying at the moment means this is the time to use them.

If you want to discuss the ways digital communication can work best for you, please feel free to contact us to discuss our digital marketing and social media strategies. You can call us on 01926 832395, write to hello@redmarlin.co.uk, or tweet @RedMarlinPR.