Who said a picture is worth a thousand words? This Wednesday, July 17th, is celebrated as World Emoji Day. The history of these friendly symbols began in Japan at the end of the 1990s, when designer Shigetaka Kurita created the first 176 icons for a mobile internet service by the operator NTT DoCoMo. These simple ideograms quickly became popular, spreading around the world with the dissemination of mobile technology. Today, emojis are a universal language, present in virtually all digital communication platforms. After all, who can resist the charm of a smiling face or a loving heart?
According to a Discovery survey, most Brazilians (82%) prefer to express their emotions on the internet using emojis. But it's not just ordinary people who use the famous symbols; brands are also paying attention to this preference, using it as a strategy to attract the consumer's attention. According to an Adobe study, 60% of global emoji users are likely to open an email or push notification containing these icons, while 42% of these people are more likely to purchase products that use them. Thinking about it, theCleverTap, a digital marketing platform specializing in user retention and engagement, produced areport with the most used emojis globally: theCleverTap Art of Emoji.
The report found thatnotifications containing emojis generate a staggering 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-through rate, the study also analyzed which are the most used and those that should be avoided by brands.
“Emojis are like magic spices in any marketer’s pantry. When used correctly, these little symbols can bring any message to life. But, just like in food and in personal life, throwing them around can confuse the recipient,” he explains.Marcell RosaGeneral Manager and Vice President of Sales in Latin America at Clevertap. Companies should play with various emojis, discover which ones work best for their target audience, and use them only when they make sense in the 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:
Furthermore, the report shows that regardless of region,e-commerce brands incorporate only 20% of the best-performing emojis into their messaging; while in some regions, up to 30% of the most used emojis perform poorly.
Speaking about the future of emojis in customer engagement, Rosa adds: “With advances in MarTech, brands will be able to hyper-personalize this experience, discovering which emojis resonate best with each user. Eventually, these symbols will be dynamically adjusted based on sentiment and context of the conversation, increasing the emotional depth of communication. Additionally, deeper integrations with AR/VR (like Apple’s Animojis) will allow customers to express themselves more vividly in immersive environments. This could redefine how customers interact with products and services, improving their overall shopping experience.”
Methodology
To build the research, Clevertap analyzed 10 billion data points across 40 million push notifications sent by e-commerce platforms around the world to understand customer preferences, the impact of emojis and how marketers are using them.
