10 Asian brands celebrating World Emoji Day 2018 :D

July 17 was World Emoji Day. It's also the date shown on the 'calendar' emoji because, according to the New York Times, this was the date designated to celebrate emojis by the Australian emoji historian Jeremy Burge, who also founded the reference site emojipedia.org. (Fun fact: World Emoji Day falls three days after Burge's birthday on July 14). 

The team behind World Emoji Day encouraged fans to 'light up Twitter' by writing Tweets with their favourite 50 emojis and replying to anyone who messaged them — their child's school, their bank, their grandmother — using emoji-only responses. 

Apple got involved on July 16 by choosing to announce a range of new emojis coming later in the year, such as new hair options (bald, red, gray) for the people emojis, more expressive smileys and additional food and animal emojis including a kangaroo, a lobster, a mango and — in good news for Chinese users — a mooncake emoji. In a quirky touch, Apple also made its executive leadership team their own emojis to replace their profile photos. 

Here are a few other interesting emoji facts: 

• There are currently 2,823 emojis in the Unicode Standard. Nearly 2,300 of these are used every day. 
• The site emojitracker.com tracks real time emoji use on Twitter. The 'face with tears of joy' emoji is easily the most popular at the moment, with over 2 billion uses. This is also the top emoji used on Facebook. 
• Emojipedia found that people were using the 'heart' emoji on Facebook twice as often in 2018 as in 2017. 
• New Year's Eve typically sees more emojis sent than on any other day. 
• The highest known sale price for an emoji domain was US$13,600, paid for ☁.com. 

How brands celebrated World Emoji Day on social media

1. Jetstar Airways
Keeping things simple, the Melbourne-based airline went for the classic 'what's your favourite' question but created an eye-catching graphic out of the aeroplane emoji as well.   

Today is #WorldEmojiDay! ✈️☺️

No prizes for guessing our favourite emoji. What’s yours? pic.twitter.com/7y072mFZmD

— Jetstar Airways (@JetstarAirways) July 16, 2018

2. Goldilocks PH
This Filipino baking chain overlaid emoji faces on top of a bouncing cake. Job done. 

Show your ������, it’s #WorldEmojiDay! Time to ������ with a slice of ��! Tara na sa Goldilocks! ��������‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/ifKj5f7KV0

— Goldilocks PH (@GoldilocksPH) July 17, 2018

3. ANZ Australia
There's nothing like World Emoji Day to make a bank feel good about promoting another '-moji' thing. This post on Twitter announcing ANZ's forthcoming 'Spendmoji' product had received 49 likes at time of publication. However, one commenter responded with a cutting suggestion for a new emoji for ANZ: a smiley face in a burglar's beanie and mask, clutching a bag of cash. *Insert flushed face emoji here*. 

We’re �� #WorldEmojiDay with a sneak peek of something �� we’re working on to help you stay on �� of your ��. Say hi to Spendmoji - coming soon to the ANZ App. Keep an �� out for updates on our social channels pic.twitter.com/WqMJsE6BaA

— ANZ Australia (@ANZ_AU) July 16, 2018

4. Security Bank Philippines
Another bank jumping on board with a factual, some might say blindingly obvious, but sweet post.    

Did you know: July 17th is displayed on the calendar emoji, making it the official World Emoji Day ��

We use emojis every day. Through texting, posting, and commenting to show how we feel virtually!

Join the celebration by commenting your favourite emoji!����#WorldEmojiDay pic.twitter.com/JCasoLvEoV

— Security Bank (@SecurityBankPH) July 17, 2018

5. ACC New Zealand
New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation invented a little guessing game for followers. 

Happy world emoji day! Can you guess our message? ����️��⛷️�������������� #WorldEmojiDay

— ACC New Zealand (@ACCNZ) July 16, 2018

6. WaghBakri India

This Indian tea brand also went for the guessing game. The answer is more obvious when you know that 'wagh' is Gujarati for 'tiger' and 'bakri' means 'goat', the idea being that all kinds of differences can be resolved over a cup of tea. 

7. Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand has form with emojis: it launched a competition to get people to describe their dream destination using emojis earlier this year. 

Happy #WorldEmojiDay! Keen to play? Tweet us your favourite holiday destination in emojis, and see if we can guess it �� pic.twitter.com/Sc7Dl3aQbB

— Air New Zealand✈️ (@FlyAirNZ) July 16, 2018

8. Collective Solutions Philippines
The Filipino branch of business process outsourcing firm Collective Solutions is celebrating World Emoji Day by matching employees' facial expressions with emojis. 

9. National Gallery of Victoria
Not so much a campaign as an enticement to come to an exhibition, but this trip through emoji history has been notching up the views on Facebook. 

10. Titan Watches India
India's leading watch producer ran this emoji time-themed competition, which took our crack codebreaking squad at Campaign Asia-Pacific approximately 0.8 seconds to solve. Ready, set, go!

It's #WorldEmojiDay today!
We have something exciting lined up for you. #ContestAlert
Guess this famous 'phrase' through emojis and stand a chance to win some cool surprises. #emojiday #contesttime pic.twitter.com/NFulJOFJPR

— Titan Watches India (@titanwatches) July 17, 2018

Not from Asia but we liked it: 

E3D Online, which sells 3D printer parts, decided to spend World Emoji day by giving emojis a physical life beyond their digital selves. Finally, we can get that 3D aubergine we've always wanted. 

All orders placed on the 17th July will include an emoji printed here at E3D HQ, celebrate #worldemojiday with us! We will be giving away some goodies ���������� pic.twitter.com/yb87Bc3sIP

— E3D Online #E3D (@E3DOnline) July 13, 2018