Emoji Marketing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The world’s best marketing campaigns all hinge on one key component: Creating an emotional response within the target audience. Emotions are the basis of how we communicate and understand, or in other words, how we all connect. In a fast-moving digital world, we want to say more with less, while still conveying authenticity. Enter the emoji.

As a marketer, you already have some understanding of the language of emojis. You see and use them every day, but do you realize just how disruptive they are? Emoji adoption and usage is growing extremely rapidly — 92 percent of the online population uses emojis. When it comes to getting your message across in a short, simple way, these little ideograms can be extremely effective.

Master the emoji basics

You can currently find more than 1,800 emoji characters on supported platforms; even using the basic ones can make a more lasting impression on your brand’s audience. Startups and media juggernauts alike are keeping with the trend. Facebook recently launched their own take on emojis, expanding the “like” feature into six Facebook Reactions.

When emojis go wrong

Improper emoji usage can have a negative effect on your business, especially when the emojis used are inappropriate, irrelevant, or inauthentic. Here’s an example of what not to do.

If your audience can’t immediately pick up (#truckpun) what you’re throwing down, you’re doing it wrong.

If at first, you don’t succeed, emoji, emoji again

Even after that misguided attempt to connect with the millennial audience, Chevy launched an emoji-centered campaign for the Cruze. They doubled down with a series of commercials asking a test audience to express opinions of the new model, but there was a catch: They were only allowed to answer in emojis. This attempt still feels a little forced, but you can actually understand what they’re going for. Maybe with their next crack at it, they can come up with something like the 2015 campaign by Taco Bell.

Emojis done right

While not everybody loves fast food, everybody does love tacos. Taco Bell knew that they could capitalize on a taco emoji in a big way, so they spearheaded a vigorous petition to the Unicode Consortium. When the update featuring the in-demand emoji finally hit, the Taco Bell marketing team was ready for it. Utilizing their own hashtag, #TacoEmojiEngine, their campaign went viral and is considered one of the all-time greatest emoji marketing success stories.

If most of your audience is using emojis, you should be using them too. Marketing efforts that include accurate and authentic emojis can be an excellent way for your customers to relate and connect with your brand.

Related resources:

• Twitter Now Lets Advertisers Target Ads by Emoji
• Emojis for Dummies: the Essential Translation Guide
• Humanizing Your Brand: How to Drive Sales on Social Media