Why You Should use Emojis in Your Next PR Campaign

You can’t have failed to notice that the world has gone emoji mad over the past few years. Over five billion of the digital icons are sent every day on Messenger, which is an awful lot of see-no-evil monkeys and aubergines. They’re also emblazoned on clothes, jewellery, stationery and bedclothes.

Emojis are no longer just a quirky feature of Messenger. Today, they’re firmly entrenched in popular culture.

If that wasn’t enough, last Tuesday, brands around the world celebrated World Emoji Day. The likes of Apple and Disney recognised the occasion by posting emoji filled tweets and announcing the release of new emojis of their own.

The Royal Opera House even got in on the act, which was surprising as it’s hard to think of a less likely collaboration than between emojis and opera. But the musical institution ran a competition throughout the day, where people were given the opportunity to win tickets to the opera and ballet by correctly guessing the stories written in emojis on their Twitter page.

This was a quick and easy way to promote the Opera House in an upbeat and fun manner. And the campaign proved popular outside of the UK, because emojis are universally understood.

Sony Pictures and Poop Daddy

However, Sony Pictures Animation takes the prize for its World Emoji Day celebrations. To mark the day and promote the upcoming release of ‘The Emoji Movie’, the studio invited fans to dress up as emojis and attend events held simultaneously in London, Dubai, Moscow, Dublin and Sao Paulo.

UK participants gathered on the green of St Thomas’ Hospital in Westminster where they formed a large emoji face beneath the iconic backdrop of the Houses of Parliament. The gathering included young patients and staff from Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and Vyvyan Evans, the UK’s leading Emoji expert and author of ‘The Emoji Code’.

There were also ten official Emoji Movie characters, including Gene, Hi-5, Poop Daddy, Pizza and Heart on hand, to meet and greet passers-by.

An incredible 531 fans donned yellow emoji costumes around the world, resulting in a Guinness World Record and lots of great press coverage.

Why you should factor emojis into your PR campaigns

Whether you love or loathe them, emojis are here to stay. And they’ve become a staple in PR in recent years, so much so that American car brand Chevy released a press release in nothing but emojis.

If you’re new to the world of emojis, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. The fact is, emoji is the fastest growing language in the world. Audiences connect to them as they humanise the digital world. The expressive faces let people communicate their feelings better than they can with words. Some research even suggests that emoticons trigger the same reactions in people that real expressions can.

However, it’s vital to remember who your target audience is and what their digital preferences are. Make sure they can receive emojis by doing a test and tracking how successful it is before launching a huge campaign.

What emojis can do for you

In today’s fast-paced digital environment, users quickly scroll through feeds and look past advertisements. Emojis can provide an eye-catching call-to-action which makes scrollers stop and look at the message.

Larry Kim, founder of online advertising agency WordStream, ran an experiment where he compared a tweet with emojis and one without. The tweet with emojis saw a 25% increase in engagement, proving they can make all the difference for some brands.

Emojis let brands show off their creative side, which is something the PR world can take advantage of.