Although Nicolas Loufrani is not the Unicode emojis owner, he has undoubtedly played a significant role in the creation and evolution of this exciting visual language, as detailed in his 2017 interview with Vice. His father, Franklin Loufrani, is credited as the Smiley face owner and creator, having conceived the simple yellow Smiley logo as part of a feel-good campaign for a French newspaper in the 1970s. Nicolas Loufrani took this simple concept and built on it, developing a universally recognised visual language of graphic emoticons in 1997 that turned into emojis a decade later. A simple change of name from an English word to a Japanese one, influenced by the launch of yellow round keyboard icons by Apple for its iPhone in Japan.
Over the years, the popularity of emojis has risen significantly, with these popular visual representations of emotions captivating the imaginations of marketers seeking to convey their brand message in a more human way. Today, emojis form an integral part of human communication on digital mediums, enabling people to convey emotion in otherwise sterile text. Emojis offer an effective means of adding colour and excitement to digital interactions, making them ever-more appealing to psychology-savvy marketers seeking to engage with customers on an emotional level.
Data from HubSpot reveals that integrating emojis in brand messaging can be incredibly effective for marketers seeking to connect with new customers, with 25.4% of tweets featuring emojis garnering enhanced engagement and 57% of Facebook posts incorporating them receiving more likes. According to EmojiPedia, as of January 2025 the Unicode standard included 3,019 emojis in total, with almost a billion emojis sent daily via Facebook. Meanwhile, a report published by the Emojics blog suggests that emojis boost Instagram engagement by as much as 48%.
Emojis have become an increasingly common component in daily communications, particularly in limited wordcount territories like X, where they offer a powerful means of conveying more information with less words. Emojis are a visually engaging and human-friendly language capable of being utilised through all media platforms, articulating human emotion, nuances and a lightness of touch that it is impossible to achieve with words alone.
Emojis change the tone of conversations. As the Emojics blog highlights, when people look at emojis, research shows that their brain behaves in the same was as when they look at a human face, increasing user engagement much more than text or any other content type. Nevertheless, adept communicators use emojis sparingly, recognising that simply throwing them around to increase user engagement or demonstrate awareness of communication trends can actually have a detrimental effect.
From the marketer’s perspective, research is the key to effective integration of emojis, including gaining a thorough grasp of how their target audience uses emojis to better understand where they can be used to best effect. Social intelligence tools can be leveraged to identify which emojis the marketer’s target audience is using online. Marketers also need to consider which emojis fit best with the brand persona, contemplating all the possible meanings of emojis to ensure there is no potential for misinterpretation of the marketing message.
In addition to weighing up whether the emoji is the right fit for their brand and if it is likely to resonate with their audience, marketers also need to consider whether the emoji is appropriate for their chosen marketing channel. Certain emojis are a better fit for certain social media platforms. Take for example LinkedIn, a platform designed to encourage professionals to connect with each other. Against this backdrop, the more formal emoticons tend to be more appropriate, for example those expressing interest, generating curiosity or simply applauding.
Emojis offer an effective means of humanising digital communications, helping marketers to appeal to audiences on an emotional level. Nevertheless, they must be used sparingly to avoid diluting the marketing message, with the right emojis employed for the right audience, brand and marketing platform.
