Fresh Thoughts: Say Hello To The Blueberry Emoji
I’m excited to share another major win for blueberries breaking our way for 2020 …
Blueberries are getting an emoji!
That’s right! The blueberry emoji is coming!
Soon, billions of people will have a new way to enjoy and share their love for blueberries.
For some of you, like me, you’re thinking, “Finally! What took so long?!” Right?!
When I started my new position here at NABC and USHBC, the first thing I noticed was there wasn’t a blueberry emoji. Strawberries had one, bananas had one … even mangoes, but not blueberries. So it was one of the first questions I asked walking in the door, “Where is our blueberry emoji?”
Others of you are thinking, “So what? Why is this a big deal?” Or maybe even, “Emoji, where do I find those?”
I get it.
It took me a long time to accept using emoji as part of communicating with family, friends and co-workers, but it’s become second nature for me. These are quick, expressive shortcuts to communicate with our smartphones.
So this news from Unicode (the international body responsible for approving emoji) is a very big deal, and it couldn’t be better timed as the momentum for 2020 as the Year of the Blueberry continues to grow.
You can now imagine people everywhere expressing their love for blueberries with this emoji. Consumers will use blueberry emoji in their shopping lists. They’ll pop it in tweets and captions about their favorite recipes. They’ll answer questions with it, describing what they’re craving, what they want to put on their cereal or what the toddler is actually willing to eat this week. They’ll have fun. They’ll be silly. And they’ll love blueberries all the more.
How did this happen?
It’s a long story and a long process, but suffice it to say our program’s fingerprints are all over the request to Unicode to add the blueberry emoji. The applicants referenced our little blue dynamos campaign directly, and they used content from the USHBC website and Facebook timeline.
That means your investments helped make the case for blueberries – and likely contributed to the ultimate selection.
This is an important point to note, because nobody can just tell Unicode to add an emoji. You can’t pay them to add it. You can’t commission it done. It’s a process, with criteria, rules, requirements (learn more here).
So, it’s really hard to put a figure on just how significant this news is for our industry.
I’d say: priceless.
The new emoji will be officially released later in 2020, so stay tuned for more information from us on how to find, use and celebrate its debut.
As I shared a few weeks ago, it’s the “Year of the Blueberry,” and we should be sharing and celebrating news like this with our friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, customers, retailers, etc.
Promoting the release of the blueberry emoji is just one more opportunity for all of us to work together to wave the flag for blueberries in an exciting and modern way.
My Best,
Kasey
