GIF Business: Everything you need to know about marketing that moves.

Let’s talk about GIFs.

You’ve definitely seen them around; quick, looping videos everyone is using instead of typing these days. You may even be using them yourself. But are you really using the GIF format, and GIFs themselves, to their full advantage? When you see them as replies to your posts, or in a comments section online, do you see marketing opportunity scrawled above it in flashing neon lights? You should. Why? Read onward to find out!

GIFs have a lot to offer brands. They give the impression that the brand leveraging them is cool, modern, and fresh. They have the engagement of a short form video, but are more cost-effective and retain attention better. They’re able to communicate emotionally with the viewer and appeal to every audience across the board.

In short, they work.

For a brand that wants to take the plunge and really become experts in using them, familiarizing yourself with the different kinds of GIFs, as well as their strengths and purposes, is critical.

ANATOMY OF A GIF

The 5 main categories of GIFs are:

1. Candid Clip
This one is pretty straightforward; it’s part of a video that has been trimmed down to GIF length. It’s best to have one main emotion that the GIF expresses for clarity and play length — people don’t want to watch something long, and they need to be able to derive meaning from it quickly or they’ll lose interest.

2. Cinemagraph
These are still images with a single moving part to up interest; many luxe brands prefer to use cinemagraphs, but they have a wide range of applicable use.

3. Graphic Edit
These are artistic blending of moving images and still and moving images. Clever and discreet, they’re a great way to up social media strategy or email marketing.

4. Custom Creation
These are original illustrations and animations! The sky is the limit with this format, since it can take multiple forms and is tailor-made to your brand, thus able to function in any marketing capacity.

5. Stop Motion
Similar to Cinemagraphs, these GIFs are created by assembling individual pictures that, when played in a sequence, exhibit movement. They don’t have a continuous flow, but instead choppy cuts in between them that emphasizes what is changing. These are great for email marketing or social media.

GIFS IN CONTEXT

There are two main ways for a company to use these different types of GIFs. The first is using GIFS as a means of brand growth; that is, creating visuals intended for others to use and promote your brand with.

The most effective strategies include:

1. Reaction GIFs — The platonic ideal of a GIF can be, and also the most viral-prone. Simply pop your brand’s GIF into your verified GIPHY channel and boom! Millions of people are using your content. The key is to make simple, expressive and appealing images people will want to use. This transcends consumer-base and turns every social media user into a brand ambassador in an organic way that doesn’t feel like an advertisement, similar to native advertising but even better.
2. Instruction Videos — How-to use of products to inspire sales, and encourage people to share the GIFs with others.
3. Infographics — Snappy informational pieces can up their engagement and shareability by having moving accents! It doesn’t have to be complex to be effective.
4. Stickers — A custom-made sticker pack is a great way to promote company culture! Plus, adding them to GIPHY allows their use on other platforms like Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram as decorative images and reaction GIFs, which promotes its use among company and non-company community members alike.

The second way is using GIFs to augment brand personality, refining your brand’s presentation and reflecting it back through type of GIF, implementation, and stylistic rendering of the GIF.

The best examples of this are:

1. Use on your website — This could be a wide variety of things: a GIF version of your logo, an illustrative banner for your website, or moving iconography! All of these add fun, engaging elements for the user and up the UI experience. It’s important not to inundate the user, of course, so all of these should be carefully curated to avoid looking too busy or nonsensical.
2. Email marketing — GIFs work especially well in email marketing that highlights new products or events. It will place the desired content in the forefront in a visually engaging way, without seeming overbearing. Plus, it’s extremely cost-effective.
3. Infographics — These are best utilized for distribution in social media and used in presentations.
4. Social media marketing — Create fun GIFs to post across your social media promoting events and products.
5. Advertisement Series — Adverts that are shorter than a full-fledged video but longer than hold attention easier, but can still convey far more than a still image.

WHERE CAN YOU (AND OTHERS) FIND THEM?

GIFS populate everywhere on the internet; most social media platforms and even inside your messaging app keyboard!

How do they get onto those platforms? What’s the secret?

GIPHY

If your company is looking to utilize them through social media, GIPHY is a great platform, kind of the Google of GIFs. Simply type in an associative word, either the emotion or action you’re looking for (e.g. “shrug, whimsical, eyeroll”) or a more specific query (“mother’s day, super bowl, shopping”) and pick the GIF that best matches the tone and aesthetic you’re looking for from the thousands of results that pop up. You can share them to a variety of social media right from the GIPHY page; you can also access GIPHY natively from a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It’s pretty convenient.

This works well on another level as well; if your brand is looking to put out content, GIPHY can be just as effective. If your brand has a verified GIPHY channel, then users will see that channel when they go to look up images; it adds to the company’s brand culture.

DESIGN AGENCY

Although having branded GIFS that consumers can use across social media is undeniably great, having GIFs that are exclusive to your brand in a particular context is also useful; in addition to having content that others use, you can create content for your brand that others engage with on a more emotional level. There are a variety of design agencies and studios (including BTM!) that are able to create GIFs that are tailored directly to fit your brand and its specific needs.

Additionally, moving through an agency has the benefit of utilizing professional publishing and knowledge in order to ensure that you’re getting maximum reach at the highest possible quality.

Got any more questions about GIFs? Have a vision you would like to make a moving reality? Contact us at info@baretreemedia.com and we’ll talk you through it.