Grower-funded campaign fuels mango emoji release

GET YOUR smartphones ready as the worldwide authority for emojis, Unicode, has today announced the release of its very first mango emoji.

The new addition was encouraged by the social media campaign #mangoemojiplease, funded by Aussie mango growers through Hort Innovation during the 2016/7 season.

Unicode has approved some interesting food emojis in the past, including broccoli, a fortune cookie, cut of meat and roasted sweet potato, and the Australian industry decided a mango emoji would complement the line-up perfectly.

Hort Innovation Acting Marketing Lead, Elisa King said: “It’s very exciting for Australian mangoes and particularly for growers”.

“There are about 6 billion emojis sent on a daily basis and with so many fruit emojis, it is about time one of Australia's favourite fruit has its own one.”

Ms King said she knew a mango emoji would appeal to consumers from the get-go.

"I was very confident we would have a groundswell of fans begging for one across Australia, and potentially across the world, with our Asian and US export plans as well," she said.

The social media campaign launched in September 2016 to align with the 2016/17 mango season and has since seen more than 800 posts using the campaign hashtag.

At the end of the season, based on that support, a proposal was made to the international Unicode Consortium (the worldwide authority for emojis) to introduce the mango emoji in their next official update.

Australia has made a mark in this emoji update with mangoes not the only Aussie icon that has been added to the list. The infamous kangaroo has been turned into an emoji too.

Other new emojis are from a range of categories and include a llama, a bagel, a skateboard and toilet paper.

In addition to introducing redheads and grey hair, Unicode has also expanded its range of hairstyles adding a bald option and curly-haired option into the mix.

A total of 157 new emojis (77 unique as some have multiple skin tones) have been released in this update.

The mango emoji will be released later this year.