World Emoji Day 2016 took place on Sunday, July 17, proving that these digital symbols have earned their place along side celebrations such as National Ice Cream Day and International Fun at Work Day.
In its second consecutive year, World Emoji Day was welcomed by creative participation from global brands. For example, money-sharing app Venmo conducted an analysis of how its users leverage emojis to communicate the purpose of their transactions on its public feed. The app found that 30% of Venmo transactions contain only emojis, and the top three emojis used are the pizza, beer and flying money symbols.
Another brand that celebrated the day was Cheapflights. The flight search and deals website announced users can now input emojis instead of text into the site’s search engine. Cheapflights and Venmo weren’t alone, though. On World Emoji Day, Pepsi introduced a Betty Boop emoji on its branded keyboard, and Australia’s official Twitter account shared a fun video highlighting the country’s most popular emojis.
If an entire day dedicated to the use and existence of these wildly popular “picture characters” isn’t enough to prove the value they could have for marketers, these five stats will paint a picture that reveals emojis are here to stay:
1. Marketers Use Emojis at an Increasing Rate
According to data from Appboy, month-over-month growth of emoji use in 2016 has exceeded 20%. Additionally, Appboy’s most recent data shows active campaigns containing emojis have increased by 609% since this time last year.
2. Consumers Respond Positively to Emojis in Marketing
Appboy also found that [tweetable]51% of people have a positive impression of brands using emojis[/tweetable] in marketing. Consumers describe those brands as fun or relatable.
3. Emojis are Integral to Consumer Language
Emojis aren’t simply embellishments. These symbols play a vital role in how consumers communicate today. According to Emogi, 92% of the online population now uses emojis.
4. Emoji Use Spans All Ages
Emojis aren’t just for kids. Additional research from Appboy reveals 84% of consumers aged 18 to 24 receive at least one message per day containing an emoji. Among online users between 24 and 44, 73% receive at least one message per day containing an emoji and 54% of people over the age of 45 receive emojis in their inboxes at least once each day.
5. Emojis Impact Digital Media Performance
According to Emogi, emojis in digital ads drive more engagement and attention. In fact, emoji-enabled ads earn click-through rates 20 times the industry average.
Emojis do much more than just help marketers better communicate with their consumers. As online users respond to brands and their messages across digital channels using these characters, marketers are presented with a new source of data that tells them how their customers actually feel.
In celebration of World Emoji Day, Signal created its own infographic on the topic. Check it out to learn more about the role of emojis in marketing.
Originally published July 20, 2016