Adding

value to brands…

with emoji

Professor Vyv Evans

www.vyvevans.net
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Tennis ace, Andy Murray, ties the knot
• Andy Murray married his girlfriend, Kim
Sears, on April 11th 2015
• And, as is common, with today’s celebs, he
sent his followers a wedding day message

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 But what got tongues wagging (and made headlines in the
process)….
• His message took the form of a tweet made up entirely of
emojis:

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 Today emojis are everywhere

• The NY Subway has

introduced a system, using
emoji , to advise passengers
of the status of particular
subway lines:

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 A British magazine responded…
• By producing an emojified London Tube map

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Facebook has now also got in on the act…

Decisions, decisions, with the new reaction emojis!

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Even an institution as august as the BBC has become involved

• Every Friday, BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat webpage

tells the news in emojis:

1. Four climbers find what they think is a Dodo chick egg. But it’s not.
The bird has been extinct for 450 years
2. One in four people don’t know the Dodo is extinct, a poll finds.
3. Four children win a science competition to genetically recreate the Dodo.

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 And even literary classics aren’t immune
• Alice In Wonderland, a book of 27,500 words, has been
“translated” into emoji

Around
25,000 emojis
have been
used to create
the
Wonderland
lattice
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From the beginning of the ‘Wonderland’ lattice…

The visual designer responsible uses an emoji writing technique

he dubs ‘crypto-pictography’

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HOW WIDESPREAD IS EMOJI AS A SYSTEM OF
COMMUNICATION?

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 Emoji
• ‘Picture character’—from the Japanese
• Glyphs embedded as discrete characters in digital
keyboards
• Available globally on smart phones and mobile
computing devices since 2011
• Today, c. 1300 emojis

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 A point of comparison: English

The Global Language
• 335 million native speakers
• 505 million speakers who use it as a second language
• Primary/official language in 101 countries, from Canada to
Cameroon, and from Malta to Malawi
• Today, English is the global Lingua Franca in almost all areas of
international communication: from commerce, to diplomacy,
from aviation to academic publishing

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But emoji dwarfs even the reach of English
• 2 billion smartphone users, nearly ¼ of world’s
population
• 41.5 billion SMS messages are sent everyday
• 6 billion emojis sent daily by SMS and social media apps
– E.g., 114 billion emojis posted via Twitter since April 2014

• In the UK:
– 42.4 million smartphone users
– 80% of UK adults regularly send emoji; higher for under 25s

• Being a visual form of representation, emojis are

universally and, often, instantly recognisable
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EMOJI AND BRANDS

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 What’s the appeal of Emoji?
• Offers a great way for brands—on a global scale—to become
part of the everyday conversations of people
• They especially speak to younger users—the under 25
demographic is the most avid user group, and most likely to
recognise emojis
• Allows brands ready and direct access to a new advertising
venue—the digital medium

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Now for some terminology: emojis vs. stickers
• Emojis are the Unicode Consortium approved glyphs, that
appear as standard in digital keyboards on mobile computing
devices (smartphones/tablets)
• Stickers are bespoke emojis that users/companies create
• Brands looking to create brand-specific emojis, aka stickers,
have to make their own apps or partner with messaging apps
(e.g., WhatsApp, FB Messenger, etc.) to have their branded
emojis available
• Finland—branded stickers that can be downloaded from
iTunes or PlayStore
• Taco Bell lobbied Unicode to add a taco emoji to its inventory.
The brand circulated a Change.org petition that secured
30,000 signatures. The taco emoji was approved in 2015

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Some strategies for building brand awareness using emojis

• Link specific emojis to a brand, e.g., Taco Bell

• Use emojis as part of ordering system e.g.,
Domino’s pizza
• Set up bespoke emojis, e.g., Ikea, Coca Cola, O2
• Intervene in public discussion on emoji use,
e.g., TalkTalk
• Devise emoji ‘translations’ of English to make
communication easier, e.g., Barclays Bank
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O2 BUSINESS

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 PR angle
• New study shows: six in ten British workers have noticed the way they
communicate in the workplace has become less formal
• Four in ten Brits now use emojis in work-related communication
• Despite this trend, few work-related emojis exist to help professionals
communicate
• O2 has created 25 bespoke emojis, available from iTunes and
PlayStore
• Accompanied by Top Ten tips for effective business talk – using emojis

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 O2’s bespoke business emojis
Phrase: It’s on my
4G Fired Invoice Running Late radar

Phrase: Low Hanging Phrase: Deep Dive

Bonus Digital Promotion Fruit
Connectivity

Phrase: Work /Life Work from Home Phrase: Disruptive

Balance Phrase: Close of Phrase: Quick Win
Play

Phrase: Lets touch Phrase: Think Phrase: Brainstorm/ Conference call/

base outside the box Hot Desk thought shower Spider Phone

Deadline Out of Office Face to Face

Meeting Hired Ben Dowd

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 Top ten tips: DOs
1. Do use emojis to nuance the meaning of your message—a wink shows that you are not
being serious, or a confused face can build empathy; emojis add tone of voice, making
your communicative intention clearer.
2. Do use emojis to avoid sounding like an angry jerk—electronic communication in the
workplace can sometimes make the best of us sound like we’re plain hopping mad—a
judicious smiley face can dress down an unwittingly face-threatening message.
3. Do use emojis to ensure your emails have personality. Nothing says “brain storm” or
“thought shower” quite like the new O2 ‘brain and light bulbs’ emoji.
4. Do check you know what an emoji means before sending—this can spare potential
embarrassment later on.
5. Do use emojis to celebrate special occasions in the workplace. Nothing wins friends and
influence like a team player: use celebratory emojis to highlight company successes, and
the promotions of colleagues.

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 Top Ten Tips: DON’Ts
6. Don’t rush into an “emoji relationship”—avoid emojis in a first time
communication or with a colleague you don’t know very well. Emojis are most
effective in maintaining rather than establishing electronic rapport.
7. Don’t overuse emojis—less is more; using emojis sparingly in business
communication prevents you coming across as manic.
8. Don’t use emojis to replace words—you’ll look unprofessional. Use them at the
end of a sentence, or message, to nuance and complement your meaning.
9. Don’t persist with emojis if your addressee fails to respond in kind—be sensitive
to the ways in which others choose to communicate with you in professional
contexts.
10. Don’t use emojis in multi-party electronic exchanges, nor in more formal
electronic contexts—emojis are best deployed judiciously, in one-to-one email and
instant messaging business contexts, to maintain rapport.
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TALK TALK MOBILE

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 PR Angle
• New research shows: emoji is the fastest growing new
‘language’
• 72% of 18 – 25 year olds find it easier to use emoji than words
to express feelings in electronic communication
• Over 40s lack confidence when using this new visual ‘language’
• Most popular - and confusing - emoji revealed
• Emoji guide launched to help the confused

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Emojis About Town UK’s Top Ten Emoji

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BARCLAYS BANK

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 PR Angle
• New research shows: 40 per cent of Britons find talking about money
more awkward than discussing relationships or bumping into an ex-
partner
• More than 30 per cent would rather be out of pocket than ask for
money owed to them:
– ⅕ of Brits have lost in excess of £100 in the past year due to this
• Nearly half (49%) of young people said that emojis can make a
conversation less awkward
• Barclays teamed up with linguistics expert to create a bespoke set of
emoji chains to help bashful Brits talk about money
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A set of emoji chains to help bashful Brits talk about money, with




I can’t afford it, sorry


That’s too expensive!


I’m broke


You owe me money


You’ve added that up wrong/
you’ve miscalculated that


I don’t want to split the bill
evenly, I didn’t eat or drink


Can I borrow some money
please?

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TAKE HOME MESSAGE

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 Be creative!
• A brand doesn’t need to be embedded in the digital sector, or
have a specific emoji, to take advantage of emojis as a
marketing tool
• As any product and brand is consumed by people—and as
language is the tissue that connects us all—there are a
multitude of ways to create a PR angle, that views emoji as
providing a new and brand-specific way of communicating
• Think: how can I leverage digital communication, to create a
space for a conversation about my brand
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Further reading on digital
communication at:
www.vyvevans.net

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