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Posted on by Aisling Lewis

The Rise and Rise of the Emoji

Every ???? has it’s day, and 17th July is now officially World Emoji Day which calls for smiley faces all round. The really good news however, is that the emoji is fast on the move to becoming a more functional tool within the online arena.

For example, back in 2015 the American hotel chain Aloft introduced a system whereby guests could order room service purely through the use of the emoji. The ‘Text It, Get it” system allows guests to order hangover cures (water, tablet, banana emojis), snacks (cookie, lollipop, sweet emojis), or surprises (gift box) to their rooms in seconds.

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While some may dispute this lack of language as lazy or perhaps detrimental to the workplace, Aloft are confident in this simplifying approach to bring the hotelier closer to their customer believing that ‘guests can now talk to us like they talk to each other.” Whichever side of the fence you are, the point remains that Emoji’s have potential to become more than just decorative and could in fact become a valuable, dynamic asset within the market.

More recently, the emoji was able to provide a clear insight into the Euro 2016 competition. Since the start of the tournament back on June 10th, approximately 10 million emojis were sent relating to the games. Smartphone manufacture HTC saw this as a perfect opportunity to hone in on some market research and put together the HTC Emoji Awards. The results were on point. Will Grigg was the player most associated with the fire emoji

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The results were on point. Will Grigg was the player most associated with the fire emoji ???? after his name was affectionately adopted into a rendition of Ibiza anthem ‘Freed From Desire’, Cristiano Ronaldo walked, or rather limped, away with the sunglasses smiley as coolest player ????, Paul Pogba’s talents on the pitch won him the most shocking emoji and true to French form Antoine Griezmannpoor won the look of love and the heart eye smiley ???? with his much needed goals and celebratory dances. Meanwhile Joe Hart was the only player awarded two emjois, the See No Evil monkey ???? as well as the big pile of excrement ???? suggesting that 10 million people thought Hart to be the best worst player of the tournament. Bravo!

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The next emoji endeavour is set to be the biggest yet, with the announcement of emoji keyword targeting for Twitter advertisements. In a similar respect to the hashtag, advertisers will soon be able to target and engage with users who have shown interest in a tweet that includes a certain emoji. Not only is this another great way to reach people with similar interests and passions, perhaps more importantly, it has the potential to be a truly ingenious way to access people based on their ‘expressed sentiment’ or emotional mentality.

We just can’t help thinking what happens if you spend enough time engaging with money bag emoji…????????

By Aisling Lewis

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