Insights:Are Emojis the Universal Language?

We all have our go-to emoji. The one you toss on a text, post or email to ensure the person seeing it understands your meaning. The written language has always posed a challenge in conveying tone. A wisecrack or jokey comment can be misread and come across as an insult or mockery. But when you add a little yellow “laughing face with tears of joy” 😂 you can be pretty sure the recipient will get the intended tone of your missive.

Speaking of “laughing face with tears of joy,” which is the official name of that particular image, it is the most often used emoji on Facebook. That’s saying something when you consider that over 5 billion emojis are used daily on Facebook. No wonder that little guy is so happy.

Emojis have become a de facto universal language because virtually anyone, regardless of which language they speak, can understand the intent behind most of them. There’s presently 3,353 emojis available for use, including the 217 new ones released for 2021.

In addition to adding a little clarity and pizzazz to our texts, emojis also provide an indication of how society is evolving. For example, of the 217 new emojis introduced this year, 200 hundred are variations of the “couples” emoji showing mixed skin tone options.

Since marketing is just another form of communication, it’s important to understand how and in what way people today are communicating with each other.

Emojis are another valid tool for marketers to consider when reaching out to their target market.

For example, we recently created a marketing campaign by taking emojis into the real world to make dental visits less intimidating. You can check out the fun campaign here.

That’s all for now, so keep smiling 😀, or laughing face with tears of joy 😂, or thumbs up 👍, or peace sign ✌️, or puppy dog 🐶 or whatever your favorite emoji is.