How often do you use GIFs and memes compared to long text messages while chatting with your friends?
Do you remember a brand by the visual forms of media it uses?
GIFs in marketing is the new form of influencer marketing. Every marketer wants to improve their campaigns to make them more eye-catching and engaging. They are turning to GIFs in the process. While there are many reasons for this, the foremost is that GIFs are a quick way to add attention-grabbing animations to your emails, landing pages, blog posts and ads.
Gen Z and millennials have adopted GIFs as their second language. And not just GIFs, the entire Conversation Media (memes, emojis and stickers) has become a vital part of online conversations. It won't be wrong to say; we live in a world obsessed with GIFs. So, if you are not using GIFs in your branded content, you could be missing out on an essential marketing tactic.
Benefits of GIFs for brands
Beyond inspiring laughter in a matter of seconds, GIFs also have the following benefits for brands.
1. Infuse life into brand communications
GIFs can liven up static communications between brands and consumers. Customers find them attractive. A Tenor survey suggests that two-thirds of millennials feel GIFs did a better job conveying emotions than text. GIFs help brands engage with their target audience in a way static images and text can't.
2. Appealing and effective
People only remember 20% of the text they read without visuals. This shows why we never forget GIFs used by brands. For instance, Netflix has been using animated GIFs regularly in its email communication or marketing.
A study by Style Campaign demonstrated that animated video previews could lift the click-through rates of email campaigns by 26%. This is huge, considering conversions through email campaigns is an arduous task.
3. Mobile-friendly
Millennials have a short attention span. You lose them the moment they need to wait for an ad or website page to load. The size of GIFs is significantly smaller as compared to videos. Integrating them into any platform is straightforward, and users can enjoy them without slowing the website speed.
4. Tell a compelling story
Consumers who connect to your brand's story will stay. Brands have figured out the most exciting way to tell their story through visuals.
5. Hook users and can be shared across platforms
Visual content like GIFs appeals directly to users' emotions. They feel like sharing them instantly. Alex Chung, founder and CEO of Giphy one said: "A picture may be worth a thousand words, but as the average GIF contains sixty frames, then they're capable of conveying 60,000 words – the same as the average novel." How cool is that?
Brands Revolutionising GIF marketing
In general, brands that post memes, GIFs, etc., perform well.
Coke is one brand that has consistently nailed on social media and particularly on Tumblr with its visual content. It goes above and beyond most other brands on Tumblr in the animated GIF department. It also posts funny memes and gives its users something to share further. Have a look at some of its GIFs.
Starbucks is yet another brand that has been consistently using GIFs in marketing. It created 21 GIFs about its blended beverage as a part of the campaign targeting the youth. It was a hit among its audience.
Not just FMCG brands, even NASA uses GIFs to educate its audience on new findings. Releasing a study saying dark matter is made of black holes formed in the 1st second of the universe's existence, it posted this GIF.
The one thing common in all these brands is that they made modifications in their branding efforts to appeal to the new generation.
How and where to use GIFs?
Using GIFs should accomplish two things: It should make customers feel the emotions you are trying to convey and make them act.
Brands can use GIFs in:
- Emails
- Social Media
- Website content
- Blog posts
- Outdoor advertising
Are you convinced to use GIFs in your brand marketing? Bobble AI is a Conversation Media platform that lets marketers leverage the power of GIFs. Users can share these customized GIFs across platforms.
Future of GIF-powered marketing
GIFs work on the premise that humans feel naturally attracted to movement. So, GIFs are here to stay and will continue to be a rising trend encouraging more social media networks to support the format.
GIFs are now officially on the list of visuals you can weave into your marketing strategy and content. Let us know how GIF marketing works for you.
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