Who said that an image is not worth a thousand words?On this Wednesday, July 17, is celebrated World Emoji Day. The story of these friendly symbols began in Japan in the late 1990s, when designer Shigetaka Kurita created the first 176 icons for a mobile internet service from the operator NTT DoCoMo. These simple ideograms quickly became popular, winning the world with the spread of mobile technology. Today, emojis are a universal language, present in virtually all digital communication platforms. After all, who resists the charm of a smiling little face or a passionate heart?
According to a survey by Discovery, most Brazilians (82%) prefer to express their emotions on the internet using emojis. But it is not only ordinary people who use the famous symbols, brands are also eyeing this preference, using it as a strategy to arouse consumer attention. According to a study by Adobe, 60% of global emojis users will likely open an email or push notification that contains these icons, while 42% of these people are more likely to buy products that use them. CleverTap, a digital marketing platform specializing in user retention and engagement, has produced a report with the most used emojis globally: the CleverTap Art of Emoji.
The report found that notifications containing emojis generate a surprisingly 12% higher click-through rate compared to those that do not use the symbols. According to the study in Latin America, the favorites are: 👋📲🛒🔴🔺💸😂💡👇🧊🍇🥳📱🐰🤪🆕👑🎧😉🥰🏆😏👉🏃. As shown in the image below:
In addition to the icons with the best performance among South Americans, that is, those that generate the highest click rate, the study also analyzed which are the most used and those that should be avoided by brands.
“Emojis are like magic spices in the pantry of any marketer.When used correctly, these little symbols can bring any message to life.But just like in gastronomy and personal life, throwing them anywhere can confuse those who receive” explains Marcell Rose, General Manager and Vice President of Sales in Latin America at Clevertap. “Companies should play with various emojis, find out which ones work best for their target audience and use them only when they make sense in context. Otherwise, they lose their power. Remember that communication should be modern, recognizable and, above all, culturally sensitive when using such a powerful” tool
Below, data from other regions of the world:
Moreover, the report shows that regardless of region, it e-commerce brands incorporate only 20% of the best-performing emojis into their messages; while in some regions, up to 30% of the most-used emojis underperform.
Speaking about the future of emojis in customer engagement, Rosa adds: “With advances in MarTech, brands will be able to hyper-personalize this experience by discovering which emojis work best for each user. Eventually, these symbols will be dynamically adjusted based on sentiment and context of conversation, increasing the emotional depth of communication. Additionally, more comprehensive integrations with AR/VR (such as Apple Animojis) will allow customers to express themselves more vividly in immersive environments. This can redefine how customers interact with products and services, improving their overall shopping experiences.
Methodology
To build the survey, Clevertap analyzed 10 billion data points across 40 million push notifications sent by e-commerce platforms around the world, with the goal of understanding customer preferences, the impact of emojis, and how marketers are utilizing them.
