Emojis have been around for a while. As described by the Oxford Dictionaries, an emoji is “a small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc..” For example, “in electronic communication: an emoji livens up your text messages with tiny smiley faces.” Origin: “Origin —1990s: Japanese, from e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, character’.” There is even an emoji encyclopedia.

Click the emoji to see this post from Mashable:”10 Emoji Meanings That Might Surprise You.”

Now, a growing number of firms are using emojis in their marketing efforts. As  Robert D. Hof reports for the NY Times:

“’There’s a lot of brand demand for emojis,’” said Ross Hoffman, senior director of global brand strategy at Twitter, which recently started offering custom emojis for companies to use in advertising. That is because some 92 percent of the online population now uses emojis, according to a study by Emogi, a startup that uses them to let people indicate how they feel about particular ads. Swyft Media, which creates alternate phone keyboards featuring multiple emojis, says people send six billion of them a day.”

“Brands like emojis for several other reasons. For one, they reach ad-averse millennials, sailing past ad-blocking software. They are visual, which makes them a natural fit for popular messaging apps such as Snapchat and Instagram and also appeals to international audiences. And because they are meant to be shared, the brand images are distributed widely, free.” 

Here are emojis for Taco Bell. Click the image to access a Taco Bell Web page dedicated to emojis!! 🙂