Emojis are an integral part of our daily life especially across all the texting we do. They are short, crisp, sweet and not to forget, full of emotions. I feel the emojis we use describe ones’ emotional state of mind.
This world Emoji Day we reached out to some brand custodians who craft brand communications and use emojis not only for their Whatsapp messages, but also for driving engaging conversations for brands with their target audiences.
Fun Fact: Do you know why is the 17th of July celebrated as the World Emoji Day? Well, that’s because the Calender Emoji has the date 17th July on it.
Happy World Emoji Day 2020!
Communication through emojis in modern times
Truvya Babani, AVP – Social Media, Monk Media Network said,“From a brand communication front, emojis have helped brands on social media reach out and engage with audiences in a more energetic and enthusiastic manner. I also feel that emojis help humanise brands by allowing them to communicate through a range of human emotions that are displayed via emojis. This aspect brings a certain level of comfort to people in their interaction with brands.”
Shreyans Khanna, Chief Creative Consultant Chimp&z Inc.feels that Emojis have proved to add a layer of humanity to texts that otherwise seemed too perfunctory. Khanna said, “Texts earlier found it difficult to convey tone but with the help of emojis, we started to break that barrier, the evolution of emojis over the years has only refined this process.”
Pratik Hatankar, Head – Innovations & New Initiatives, Tonic Worldwide spoke about how the days are gone one are the days of long letters and postcards. Hatankar said, “The millennials today are all about Emojis! As one of the most significant and convenient mediums of communication, emojis have successfully managed to replace emotions in the social media lingo. With today’s generation going high on hashtags and social media lingo, emojis have emerged as an alternative vocabulary.”
Santosh Patil, Senior Manager, TheSmallBigIdea said, “Emojis are the new mode of expression, in this digital age they help in breaking down the language barrier and help in faster conversation, they add emotional impact to otherwise non-emotive texts.”
Amol Roy, Founder TheShutterCast, a digital agency said, “The necessity of physical presence as well as the importance to emphasize our communication with our body language and facial expressions, is understood by all and emojis are the today’s generation’s response to the reality that we cannot always be physically present anywhere in the world. While we move towards living in a digital world, emojis provide a wide array of options to use from and convey our messages more effectively.”
Kartik Johari, Vice President, Nobel Hygiene said, “A picture speaks a thousand words” – Consequently, an emoji speaks at least a 100, in our modern painting of language, our words form the lines and the emojis form the color, they represent our virtually missing body-language clues, to help make us more human. The exaggeration is subliminally applied; after all who regularly cries while laughing? (factoid: the “face with tears of joy” emoji is the most used emoji of all)”
Continuing Johari said, “Similarly to body language; they function as short-codes representing entire spectrums of activities with minimal effort, they are now a necessary part of the language, helping us punctuate the coldness of virtual communication with vivacity and emotions.”
Aaron Gomes, Associate Creative Director of BC Web Wise Pvt. Ltd. said, “Words are powerful, but can often be misinterpreted, not every sentiment and intention of a brand can be clearly stated, in the right light, using just words, that’s where emojis step in. In an age and time where it has becomea prerequisite for brands to become more humane, emojis help address a whole set of emotions ranging from concern to happiness and even anger.”
Continuing Gomes said, “All, in a lighthearted manner, they have the potential to make your brand more relatable. To make your brand sound like a friend you’d appreciate a recommendation from and to ensure your brand is always top of mind.”
Rajni Daswani, Director at SoCheers believes emojis add a layer of personal communication. Daswani said, “It helps in building a more personal layer on top without really seeing someone face to face. As a young digital agency, our team members communicate in emojis, animojis& GIFs and are able to cultivate better relationships with clients since we are able to express ourselves better.”
Do emojis engage?
Truvya Babani of Monk Media Network said that Less is more! An EMOJI is worth a thousand words, Babani said, “Visual cues are definitely more appealing than having to read the same through words, especially on social media where people are always on the move. Quick, eye-ball grabbing techniques are better and that’s where emojis come in.
“They are also helpful in supplementing your words with the required emotions and as I said earlier, vital in humanizing brands,” said Truvya Babani.
Shreyans Khanna of Chimp&z Inc. feels the idea is to add value to the conversation. He said, “Many brands often get puzzled to collaborate with tent-pole events like Emoji Day, by failing to create a connection between the brand and the event, a great example for this would be what we did to celebrate Emoji Day with Religare Health Insurance. The idea was to build a connection between the product-offering by the brand, and emojis, a global phenomenon.”
“With the evolution of emojis, we’ve witnessed a drastic progression in the designs as well. Additionally, we aimed to have a contextual connection with the on-going world situation. Owing to the above points, we tapped into the setting of World Emoji Day, while also building a strong connect with the product and the relevance of time. This translated into a powerful message that encapsulated the essence of the brand.” said Shreyans Khanna.
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Santosh Patil of TheSmallBigIdea said, “Digital audience prefers using visuals compared to text format, emojis add personality to the texts and helps brands connect with its audience. Movies like BadhaaiHo and Junglee used the baby and the elephant emojis with its title during the promotion.”
He said “On digital where communication is on the go, it makes pushing the message across easier while consuming less time, Domino’s and McDonald’s have used the Pizza and Burger emojis effectively in their communication. Bollywood Entertainment brands have used it effectively to engage with their audience by gamifying emoticons.”
Emojis are employed to express one’s persona in their ads, email campaigns, or on social media, feels Amol Roy of TheShutterCast. He said “As a matter of fact, almost half of all captions and comments on social consist of an emoji, and use of an emoji on Twitter can result in significantly higher engagement. A widely used emoji can bring a smile to your audience and make them better connected to your brand. Emojis play a significant role in building a personal connection and bring engagement, which ensures that you can keep you, readers, on their toes all the time.”
Nobel Hygiene’s Kartik Johari said, “Due to their pictorial nature and seemingly never-ending permutations, emojis are now an essential part of brand communications. Let’s face it, most people hate to read. As a brand, why would you not want to reduce the cognitive burden of all your content? Use emojis to make your content and copy easier to process and more colorful to boot.”
Aaron Gomes of BC Web Wise feels emojis have turned the way brands communicate upside down. He said, “Platforms like Instagram have already made them a core part of the interactions they have to offer; and they are slowly making their way into every brand’s subject lines, post copies &creatives.”
Rajni Daswani of SoCheers said, “We moved from long blogs to 280 characters to now conversing through emojis – that’s what reduced attention spans have brought us to. However, emojis are fun, they allow to make conversations a little deeper, can be made casual or serious as per the required tone and there’s almost an emoji to express every feeling.”
Emojis enhance texting on a personal level
Truvya Babani of Monk Media Network said, “On a personal front, emojis have bridged the gap between face-to-face conversations and text-based interactions. Much used to be lost in translation with the lack of emojis, and misinterpretation of tone was a big concern. Emoticons helped somewhat, but emojis really made text conversations really, really dynamic.”
Aaron Gomes of BC Web Wise said, “On a personal front, I am sure we can all agree that when some things are better left unsaid, a simple emoji can say it best.”
Rajni Daswani of SoCheers said, “On a personal level, my love for emojis started with Blackberry Messenger and has just built up since. It helps to put words for me, when I don’t have many or how I’m feeling much easier than I would be able to express in words sometimes.”
Advising marketers Truvya Babani of Monk Media Network said, “Be vary of being tone-deaf, use emojis to ensure the right emotions and feelings are conveyed, personally and for brand communication on social media. Let’s ensure our digital communication is on-point.”
Analyzing every brand’s next move Aaron Gomes of BC Web Wise said, “Each and every one of us use emojis in our day-to-day life, thus building unique and special associations to some of them. Identifying and leveraging these associations to strike up a conversation, is every brand& next move.”
