How Big Brands Did World Emoji Day

By Grace Reader Jul 20, 2016
ADRIAN DENNIS | Getty Images

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July is always a great month for celebrations. Beyond the classic Fourth of July, there are the less official holidays we love just as much: National Simplicity Day, National Ice Cream Day and, of course, last Sunday’s National Emoji Day.

The day is the brainchild of Jeremy Burge, the founder of site Emojipedia, who created the holiday in 2014. The day has grown into an online happening, with #WorldEmojiDay generating nearly 320,000 tweets in the week of the event and big brands vying for ways to stand apart.

Sony: A human emoji audition

EmojiMovie: Express yourself hits theaters summer 2017. Naturally, Sony Animation couldn’t be outdone on National Emoji Day while producing an emoji movie. The team posted a video of TJ Miller, who is cast in the movie, replicating emojis with his face.

Miller will be the “meh” emoji in the film, but this Twitter video is well beyond “meh.”

Disney: Emoji Zootopia

Disney took to the emoji-filled holiday by recreating its recent movie, Zootopia, using emojis. Zootopia was released March of this year, which stars of a police bunny and a no-good fox who work together to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the town of Zootopia.

Disney also released several other characters in emoji-form, posting them to its Twitter page.

Twitter: Emoji stats

In a day of mini-movies, Twitter chose statistics and an infographic listing the top emoji used in each country around the world. It’s not wow-worthy, but it is revealing (apparently North America is weary, Spain feels strong).

Mets: Emoti-fan

We may have missed World Emoji Day, but this fan sure didn’t. The Mets took to Twitter with this photo of a very dedicated fan wearing a happy face emoji mask.

Google: Support for the ladies

Google took a more serious approach to World Emoji Day, with almost 300 emojis that represented working women, acknowledging the diversity sometimes lacking in emojis.

SNL: Classic character emojis

Like Google, Saturday Night Live also created its own emojis, just ones to celebrate classic SNL characters. Users could download an app from the link in the tweet — and then download those emojis for themselves. (Just not in Canada. Comments on the tweet suggest that the app is unavailable in Canada. Sorry, Canadians.)

McDonalds: Orders up a Big Mac

McDonalds UK didn’t offer up just one emoji — it used a host of them to draw the lettuce, patty, sesame seeds and bun on its classic Big Mac.

July is always a great month for celebrations. Beyond the classic Fourth of July, there are the less official holidays we love just as much: National Simplicity Day, National Ice Cream Day and, of course, last Sunday’s National Emoji Day.

The day is the brainchild of Jeremy Burge, the founder of site Emojipedia, who created the holiday in 2014. The day has grown into an online happening, with #WorldEmojiDay generating nearly 320,000 tweets in the week of the event and big brands vying for ways to stand apart.

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Grace Reader is a former editorial intern at Entrepreneur.com and a current freelance contributor. She is a third year journalism and media communication major at Colorado State University. Grace is the PR and marketing manager at Colorado State University's Off-Campus Life, and a sports anchor at CTV Channel 11.

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