As brands con­tin­ue to evolve their com­mu­ni­ca­tion strate­gies, they have increas­ing­ly attempt­ed to insert them­selves into exist­ing con­sumer con­ver­sa­tions with actu­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools like emo­jis. In fact, in the last year, more than a dozen brands have incor­po­rat­ed emo­jis into their mar­ket­ing efforts, which they say help them relate to their audi­ences in more of a fun, no pres­sure way.

The vol­ume of emo­ji mar­ket­ing is increas­ing, which experts say is mere­ly the next step in the growth and devel­op­ment of a new dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing tool.

Here’s a look at how emo­ji mar­ket­ing is evolv­ing, why brands are embrac­ing them, what brands need to con­sid­er, and what dan­gers and ROI emo­jis present.

The Evolution of Emoji Marketing

Michael Bren­ner, head of strat­e­gy at con­tent mar­ket­ing plat­form News­cred, said quite sim­ply that more mar­keters are using emo­jis because more con­sumers are using emo­jis.

“I think it is a nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion for any con­tent type. As soon as any com­mu­ni­ca­tion vehi­cle becomes pop­u­lar, brands will start test­ing whether it can be used to dri­ve engage­ment for their own tar­get audi­ence,” Bren­ner said. “Are they being suc­cess­ful? I think it may be too soon to tell, but the growth in exam­ples we are see­ing cer­tain­ly points to emo­jis as a viable way for brands to test whether they can reach their con­sumers.”

James Fox, CEO of mar­ket­ing agency Red Peak, too, said emo­jis are tied to a nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion in the way con­sumers com­mu­ni­cate.

“Through­out time, smart brands have always tuned in to cul­tur­al shifts and com­mu­ni­ca­tion pat­terns in order to reach their audi­ence in a rel­e­vant way. From long-form copy in print ads to ban­ner ads online, now to image-based com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and every­thing in between, brands are con­stant­ly shift­ing to stay cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant,” Fox said.

What’s more, he said the trend is toward authen­tic­i­ty, which means “it’s only nat­ur­al that brands would try to com­mu­ni­cate in a way that mim­ics how real peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate. If you want to be rel­e­vant, you sim­ply can­not leave emo­jis out of that equa­tion today.”

Fox notes the logis­tics of actu­al brand­ed emo­jis, such as those from Ikea and Men­tos, are “still not as smooth as they could be,” but, he said, “I think it’s only a mat­ter of time before it becomes main­stream.”

In oth­er words, Fox said emo­jis are a pow­er­ful form of pro­mo­tion because they empow­er self-expres­sion and allow brands to “enter con­sumer-to-con­sumer con­ver­sa­tions in an utter­ly unob­tru­sive, organ­ic way.”

Fur­ther, Fox said that once the logis­tics of brand­ed emo­jis are a lit­tle smoother, “it will be a no-brain­er for any brands attempt­ing to reach younger audi­ences in their own lan­guage.”

Why Brands Like Emojis

Bren­ner agrees that emo­jis are part of a broad­er shift in the way brands are attempt­ing to con­nect with con­sumers with­out inter­rupt­ing them in their dai­ly lives. And, in order to do that, brands are seek­ing to cre­ate con­tent con­sumers want to engage with, like emo­jis.

“It’s easy to cre­ate arti­cles and blog posts, but what I think brands are real­iz­ing is that espe­cial­ly younger con­sumers are way more attract­ed to short­er form visu­al con­tent they can share with friends,” he added.

In addi­tion, Kevin Tum­lin­son, host of the Word­slinger Pod­cast, said emo­jis also help brands add an emo­tion­al lay­er to their mar­ket­ing efforts and help brands human­ize them­selves.

“[Emo­jis are] ubiq­ui­tous, and eas­i­ly rec­og­nized. They tran­scend lan­guage and cul­tur­al bar­ri­ers – a smile is a smile no mat­ter where you are in the world. So if a brand wants to evoke an emo­tion in their audi­ence, emo­jis are a fast and effi­cient way to do it,” Tum­lin­son said. “It also puts a face to the busi­ness, which is invalu­able. Humans relate to char­ac­ters, not logos. We want to know there’s some­one on the oth­er side of the screen who might actu­al­ly care about what we think and who we are.”

What Brands Should Consider

How­ev­er, in order to suc­cess­ful­ly incor­po­rate emo­jis, brands must also offer some kind of val­ue.

Accord­ing to Bren­ner, the Fourth of July tweet from Bud Light was “like sort of too much about Bud­weis­er and not so much about fans.”

How­ev­er, he said PETA, with its Cru­el­ty Beyond Words video, was “try­ing to tap into the emo­tion of their tar­get audi­ence and it wasn’t real­ly all about them, it was more about the cause.”

In oth­er words, Bren­ner said brands shouldn’t make them­selves the point of the emo­ji sto­ry and points to Taco Bell’s peti­tion for a taco emo­ji as a good exam­ple. Taco Bell is not the only brand that sells tacos, so its quest for a taco emo­ji demon­strates that the brand under­stands it’s more about the broad­er love of tacos than anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty for pro­mo­tion, he not­ed.

What Dangers Emojis Present

While there is oppor­tu­ni­ty for brands with emo­jis, there is also dan­ger.

Accord­ing to Tum­lin­son, incor­po­rat­ing emo­jis “can come off as kind of ‘cutesy,’” which may not nec­es­sar­i­ly be a good fit for every brand’s mes­sag­ing.

“This isn’t the kind of thing you should just try for the heck of it,” he said. “Work out how it fits with your over­all brand and define why you want to do it before you start.”

In addi­tion, Tum­lin­son notes there’s a chance an emo­ji could become dat­ed or even come to rep­re­sent some­thing mar­keters would­n’t want asso­ci­at­ed with their brands.

“It’s best to use a cus­tom emo­ji built by a pro­fes­sion­al design­er who knows your brand, and to imple­ment it in such a way that it can be removed with­out caus­ing a lot of headaches,” Tum­lin­son said.

Ben Gold­man, co-founder of con­tent mar­ket­ing agency Agency 2625, also points to the poten­tial for con­sumers to use brand emo­jis as a joke instead of as a tool, as well as the risk of the emo­ji itself becom­ing unin­ten­tion­al­ly offen­sive.

Fox agrees there is poten­tial for mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

“I’d say there are the usu­al risks of mak­ing sure you know what you’re say­ing – that you’re using emo­jis to mean the same things that your audi­ence does,” he said.

What’s the ROI?

And, what’s more, there’s not even a guar­an­tee that brands will real­ize an ROI. But, experts say, the poten­tial rewards out­weigh this risk in many cas­es.

“If it’s done right, and used as part of the ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tion you should be hav­ing with your audi­ence, it can do a lot to build good rela­tion­ships and to cre­ate bet­ter brand recog­ni­tion,” Tum­lin­son said. “Just as in lan­guage, an icon such as an emo­ji can become short­hand for your brand. Do it right, make it orig­i­nal, and make it part of a val­ue-add in your con­ver­sa­tion, and it can actu­al­ly increase your brand reach.

“The key is to back it up with actu­al human inter­ac­tion,” he added. “Emo­jis are meant to con­vey emo­tion, and only peo­ple can show that. So be peo­ple, not just brands.”

Fox agrees emo­jis can help build loy­al­ty, not­ing an emo­ji cam­paign from Oreo in Chi­na last year result­ed in 99 mil­lion user-gen­er­at­ed emo­jis cre­at­ed in 11 weeks.

“Each of those emo­jis rep­re­sents an inter­ac­tion with the brand that the con­sumer might not oth­er­wise have,” he said.

Why brands like emo­jis, what brands should con­sid­er, and what dan­gers and ROI emo­jis present.